Rex Heuermann Pleads Guilty to Gilgo Beach Murders, Confesses to Killing 8 Women

Rex Heuermann, the man accused of killing at least seven women and dumping their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, has pleaded guilty — admitting in court that he is responsible for a total of eight murders and bringing an end to a decade-long investigation.

Heuermann, 62, changed his plea to guilty on Wednesday, April 8, confessing to killing the seven women he had been charged with and admitting to an eighth murder, for which he was never charged.

The Long Island architect had previously pleaded not guilty in the case.

His guilty plea was the result of a plea deal reached Wednesday. As part of the agreement, prosecutors will not pursue an additional murder charge for the eighth victim, identified as Karen Vergata of Manhattan, who was killed in 1996.

Asked by the judge on Wednesday if he believed it was in his best interest to plead guilty and avoid going to trial, he replied, “Yes,” NBC News reported.

News reports covered the notable gasps heard in court as Heuermann made his guilty plea. He confessed to three counts of first-degree murder and four of intentional murder, the Associated Press reported, bringing an end to a case that the public has been desperate for answers in for years.

Heuermann strangled his victims — many of whom were sex workers — over 17 years, the Associated Press reported, and buried their bodies in remote locations, though many were known to be found along a beach highway across the bay from where he lived.

The investigation dates back to 2010, when police found multiple sets of human remains while searching for a missing Long Island woman.

Remains of six of his victims — Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Megan Waterman — were found near Gilgo Beach. The remains of Sandra Costilla, another victim, were found 60 miles away in the Hamptons, according to AP. Vergata’s body was found on Fire Island.

The case has gripped the nation, with a documentary series and the 2022 Netflix film Lost Girls casting a spotlight on the unknown serial killer.

Although he went unknown for years, Heuermann was identified as a suspect in 2022, six weeks after a new police commissioner formed the Gilgo Beach task force, zeroing in on the several women who’d gone missing. A vehicle registration database connected him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing around the time one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

He is expected to be sentenced sometime in June.