What we're covering:
• Rex Heuermann, the Long Island serial killer who fatally strangled eight women, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole today.
• Victims’ families gave emotional statements in Suffolk County Court in New York, tearfully offering tributes to their loved ones and describing the brutal impact of their loss. Heuermann himself briefly addressed the court, marking the end of a case that dates as far back as 1993 and has haunted Long Islanders for years.
• In 2010, the remains of four women were found on an isolated stretch off Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, earning them the nickname the “Gilgo Four.” In April, Heuermann confessed he killed those women and four others, discarding their remains.
Rex Heuermann sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole
Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after admitting to the killings of eight women over a 17-year period.
The judge delivered the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole on counts 1-3, and four other counts are 25 years to life, all to run consecutive. This is as prosecutors requested.
“Alright get him out of here,” the judge said, as Heuermann was handcuffed and escorted out of the room.
"You're a coward!" judge tells Heuermann
“Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these innocent women?” Justice Timothy Mazzei asked Heuermann after the impact statements.
Heuermann nodded yes.
“Alright, get him out of here,” the judge said.
Prosecution recommends Heuermann receive maximum sentence under the law
The prosecution is requesting that Rex Heuermann receive three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on counts 1 through 3 of the indictment, followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years to life, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.
Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to the murders of seven women and admitted to an eighth killing.
The prosecution is also requesting that Heuermann receive the maximum sentence allowed by law, Tierney said, arguing that Heuermann earned it based on the impact on victims and their families.
“Eight young women were brutally and needlessly murdered by the hands of this defendant,” the district attorney said, praising the victims’ family members who had just spoken in court.
Victim impact statements have concluded
The families of seven of Rex Heuermann’s victims have finished giving their impact statements to the court.
“That was spectacularly impactful and I want to thank the victims … for their words in the courtroom and for their support of us,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said after the conclusion of the emotional statements.
Families take solace knowing a serial killer “can never harm anyone else,” sister says
While many relatives spoke directly to Rex Heuermann in court ahead of his sentencing, the sisters of victims Amber Costello and Sandra Costilla offered statements that were read aloud by prosecutor Ray Tierney.
“Although my sister was a sinner, she was forgiven,” Costello’s sister Kimberly Overstreet wrote.
Costilla’s sister Ruth Ramos said she took comfort knowing Heuermann will be locked up for the rest of his life.
“While justice cannot bring (the victims) back, it ensures they are no longer forgotten and brings our families peace knowing the person responsible for our irreversible pain can never harm anyone else,” Ramos said.
Megan Waterman's daughter describes emotional toll of growing up without mother
Liliana Waterman has spent 16 Mother’s Days without her mother, Megan Waterman, she told a packed courtroom at the sentencing hearing of her mother’s killer.
Liliana said she was only 3 years old when her mother was officially reported missing in Maine on June 8. Family members said at the time that it was unusual for Megan Waterman not to check on her daughter.
Waterman’s body was found less than a year later. As a child, Liliana wondered: “I knew she was trying to live a better life for me. Was this somehow my fault?”
Liliana grew up without stability, moving frequently and unable to escape the tragedy of what happened to her mother. “I am constantly confronted by reminders of the worst thing that’s ever happened to me” through the news, podcasts and social media, she said.
“The damage he caused extends far beyond the day he committed this crime,” she said. “Today’s proceedings do not erase what happened, and nothing ever will. But today brings accountability.”
"You can look at me while I'm talking," victim's sister snaps at Heuermann
Melissa Barthelemy was 24 years old when she was last seen on July 12, 2009. Had she not been killed by Rex Heuermann, she would be 41, her sister, Amanda Funderburg, told the court Wednesday at the serial killer’s sentencing hearing.
As she described her sister as “a fighter for love, for family, for a better life,” Funderburg stopped and addressed Heuermann directly.
“You can look at me while I’m talking,” she said.
Heuermann, who had largely not been making eye contact with the speakers, looked over briefly before turning his head straight ahead again.
Funderburg said she now suffers from anxiety, depression and PTSD following her sister’s death. She is afraid of meeting new people, she said, and would stare at her phone waiting for a call from Heuermann.
A series of “taunting” calls — in which a male caller admitted to killing and sexually assaulting Barthelemy — were made from Barthelemy’s phone to her family members in the summer of 2009 from the vicinity of Heuermann’s midtown Manhattan office, according to the bail application.
“I hope you suffer to the fullest extent,” Funderburg said, adding that the media called Heuermann an “ogre,” and “that’s truly what you are.”
"He was not a fearsome predator, but rather a cowardly opportunist,” victim's aunt says
Elizabeth Meserve, the aunt of victim Megan Waterman, used her impact statement to advocate for strengthened protections for victims and their loved ones and highlight “immeasurable hardships” the family suffered as a result of Waterman’s murder.
“He not only took Megan’s hopes and dreams, he also shattered our family,” Meserve said in court ahead of Rex Heuermann’s sentencing.
Today, Meserve said, “reflects years of perseverance and hard work from many people.” She added she believed the case could have been closed earlier had certain former Suffolk County officials acted differently.
“Begone cowardly demon.”
Victim’s son was a baby when his mom was killed. She “never got to see who I have become”
Dyllan Haggett was only 1 year old when Heuermann murdered his mother, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. He said he doesn’t even remember her, and his earliest memories were filled with sadness.
“I never had her when I needed her,” Haggett said. “She never got to see who I have become.”
Brainard-Barnes’ daughter, Nicolette, was a young girl when her mother was killed.
Since then, her life has turned into a cycle of therapy, medication, extreme paranoia and PTSD.
“I will never be someone who can relax because I had such fear at such a young age,” she said.
The families of some victims have said they believe their cases were not taken seriously in the past because the women were sex workers.
But “like every sex worker, my mom was an entire human being,” Nicolette said.
“(Heuermann) took a mother, a daughter, an aunt, a friend, someone who was deeply loved and cannot be replaced. She loved, she struggled, she mattered. And she deserved the chance to keep living.”
Heuermann is reactionless as victims' families speak
As the family members of his victims speak in court one by one, Rex Heuermann sits at the defense table without reaction, remaining still, one hand over the other.
While the prosecuting and defense attorneys are all turned in their chairs facing the speaker and listening, Heuermann has been looking straight ahead or facing down, away from the speakers, throughout.
“You hunted her and I hunted you,” Jessica Taylor’s cousin tells Heuermann
Noting that Jessica Taylor would have celebrated her 43rd birthday Wednesday, her cousins vowed to stand strong for the woman they said “was pure sunshine” and a “spunky, smart, beautiful friend.”
“We were weekend warriors. 80s and 90s kids. Nintendo, movie nights, learning the tootsie roll, drinking soda milk, watching Tales from the Crypt,” Taylor’s cousin Jasmine Robinson recalled.
Robinson and Violet Swager then turned their attention to Heuermann, expressing disgust for their loved one’s killer.
“Heuermann, you fill me with so much repugnance it’s suffocating, but I can’t let you overtake me and I will stand strong for my cousin,” Robinson said.
“I’m so grateful for this day of justice and I know she is too. … Happy birthday, Jess,” Swager said.
Victim’s sister says she suffered “unbearable pain” and survivor’s guilt for over a decade
Maureen Brainard-Barnes “was not just murdered,” her sister Melissa “Missy” Cann said. She was the victim of “calculated, unimaginable evil.”
“That pain is unbearable,” Cann said, sobbing, in court ahead of Rex Heuermann’s sentencing. “I have lived with survivor’s guilt for over a decade … asking myself: ‘What if I had done something differently? Where would she be today?’”
But Cann said she now understands who’s at fault for her anguish.
“It has taken me years to know the truth. My actions did not cause my sister’s death. The guilt is not mine to carry, and it never was,” she said. “The burden belongs to Rex, and Rex alone.”
“You took away every chance she ever had,” victim’s mother says
The adoptive mother of one of Heuermann’s victims, Valerie Mack, had sharp words for Heuermann in court Wednesday – but also told him he failed to “touch her soul.”
“You can never give back what you took from her and her son. You took away a lifetime for him of his mother’s love,” JoAnn Mack said during victim impact statements ahead of Heuermann’s sentencing.
“What you have done to our family is beyond what words can express,” she added.
But “no matter what sense of power or control you felt over Valerie’s body, you were never able to touch her soul,” the mother said. “Unless you get yourself right before God, Valerie is the one who is free today, and you are not.”
Valerie Mack's sister says Heuermann doesn't "have the humanity to feel remorse"
Danielle Mack said the spirit of her sister lives on with her family as she directly addressed Valerie Mack’s killer, Rex Heuermann, in court Wednesday.
“Despite her struggles, Valerie Mack had a fire inside of her that lit up the world around her,” she said. “The fires they lit roar inside each and every one of us.”
The sister took aim at Heuermann, saying he does not “have the humanity to feel remorse.”
Heuermann remained seated, looking down with his hands crossed in his lap and rarely making eye contact with the speaker.
The district attorney then read a statement on behalf of Valerie Mack’s son, Benjamin “Aaron” Torres, that said: “Such a degree of evil and selfishness you have acted out has no possible excuse.”
“You will reap what you have sown. No one is exempt from that universal truth,” the statement said.
Seven victims' families set to address court at Heuermann sentencing
People who had assembled outside the courthouse ahead of the sentencing for Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann were allowed to enter the building, with the main courtroom quickly filling up and other attendees filing into an overflow room.
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office has released a list of those who will address the court during the hearing. The speakers include the families of seven of Heuermann’s victims: Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Sandra Costilla.
Two sons of Karen Vergata, the eighth woman Heuermann confessed to killing, are in attendance but not reading a statement.
Some of the victim impact statements will be read by the district attorney’s office.
Rex Heuermann enters courtroom
Rex Heuermann was escorted into a New York courtroom Wednesday for his sentencing hearing.
He wore a black suit with a blue shirt and a light-colored tie, with his hands cuffed behind his back. The handcuffs were removed before he sat down.
Court is now in session
Suffolk County Judge Timothy Mazzei is reading the rules for media coverage, including guidelines for videography and photography.
Other bodies have not been connected to Rex Heuermann's killing spree
In law enforcement’s search for Shannan Gilbert, they ultimately uncovered the remains of nearly a dozen people, mostly young female sex workers, along a stretch of Ocean Parkway on Long Island.
Rex Heuermann is due to be sentenced today after pleading guilty to murdering seven women. He also admitted to killing an eighth.
At least four other people — including Gilbert — whose remains were found along the parkway have not been connected to Heuermann’s killing spree.
Here’s what we know about them:
- Shannan Gilbert: In the early morning hours of May 1, 2010, Gilbert, a sex worker who advertised on Craisglist, was driven to a home in Oak Beach to meet a client, according to Suffolk County police. In the house, Gilbert called 911 and repeatedly said, “There is somebody after me,” according to audio released in 2022. Her skeletonized remains were found in December 2011 in a nearby marsh, partially entangled in overgrown shrubbery, the Suffolk County Office of the Medical Examiner wrote.
- Tanya Jackson and Tatiana Dykes: The killings of a woman, Jackson, and her 2-year-old child, Dykes, whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway, have been connected to a suspect living in Florida. The two remained unidentified for more than a decade, and they were not included in the charges against Heuermann. In April 2025, with the help of genetic genealogy, Nassau County officials and the FBI announced their identities.
- “Asian Doe”: The skeletal remains of a person referred to as “Asian Doe” were found off Ocean Parkway in April 2011 and remain unidentified. The victim was an Asian biological male who was found wearing women’s clothing, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in 2024. Investigators believe the victim died in 2006 or earlier from blunt force trauma, Tierney said
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the number of killings to which Heuermann pleaded guilty.
Demonstrators outside Heuermann sentencing: “Sex workers are not a social ill”
A group of women, all community members who are sex workers, gathered outside the Arthur M. Cromarty Court Complex on Long Island ahead of the sentencing of Rex Heuermann, the Long Island serial killer.
Heuermann secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed sex workers for years, according to prosecutors.
The women, dressed in red and holding red umbrellas and protest signs, are seeking to raise awareness about how the media portrays sex workers, Natalie Gilda, one of the demonstrators, told CNN.
“STOP mythologizing men who kill sex workers,” one sign read. Another stated, “Sex workers are not a social ill, violent men are.”
How a mother became an unintended hero in getting justice for the Gilgo Beach murders
The path to identifying Rex Heuermann as the Gilgo Beach serial killer began with Shannan Gilbert.
Gilbert, a 23-year-old sex worker, had gone missing in May 2010 after a visit to a client in Oak Beach, a Long Island, New York, community near Gilgo Beach. Spurred by her mother, police began to search for her – and ultimately uncovered the remains of nearly a dozen people, mostly young female sex workers, along a stretch of Ocean Parkway.
Yet when Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and confessed to an eighth killing earlier this month, Gilbert was not among the victims. Authorities believe the death of Gilbert may have been accidental and not related to the other killings.
Still, Shannan Gilbert’s mother, Mari Gilbert, became an unintended hero in the case. In the final years of her life, Mari Gilbert pressured police to take her daughter’s disappearance seriously. She fought tirelessly to ensure that Shannan and the other victims would not be forgotten.
“Mari understood that one way of finding at least a shred of meaning in the loss of her daughter was that her disappearance led to the discovery of those four women several months later, and that without Shannan there would be no case, there would be no search for the killer,” said Robert Kolker, the author of the 2013 book “Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery,” which closely examined the case.
“She understood that very well, and I believe she found some redemption in that idea: that Shannan’s loss helped others learn the truth.”
