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The man charged with killing seven women and scattering their remains throughout Long Island, New York pleaded guilty on Wednesday, marking the end of a decades-long case that instilled fears of a serial killer lurking within the region.
Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect, was accused of brutally murdering seven women, many of whom were sex workers, and dismembering their remains over the course of 17 years.
He appeared in Suffolk County Court at 11 a.m., where he admitted to the killings dating back to 1993.
Heuermann was arrested outside his midtown Manhattan office in July 2023 and has maintained his innocence for nearly three years. A trial had been set for September.
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Alleged Gilgo killer Rex Heuermann appears in front of Judge Tim Mazzei alongside his attorney Michael J. Brown at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.
“It’s a difficult day,” Robert Macedonio, an attorney for Heuermann’s ex-wife Asa Ellerup, said Wednesday before the court hearing, according to the Associated Press.
“No one can envision ever in their life standing here in a courthouse on a line surrounded by media having their ex-husband accused of seven, potentially eight homicides,” Macedonio continued. “It’s unimaginable. There’s no way to prepare for it.”
The Gilgo Beach investigation was thrown into the spotlight in 2010 after police discovered numerous sets of human remains along an isolated beach highway on Long Island, while searching for 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert.
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The remains of Sandra Costilla, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Valerie Mack, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Karen Vergata were found scattered throughout Long Island, New York. (Fox News Digital)
Investigators relied heavily on DNA analysis to identify the remains of several victims found scattered throughout Long Island.
Remains of six women – Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack – were recovered along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach.
The remains of a seventh victim, Sandra Costilla, were found more than 60 miles away in the Hamptons.
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Police remove items from the home of Rex Heuermann in Massapequa Park, NY, Thursday, July 20, 2023. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
An eighth woman, Karen Vergata, was discovered nearly 20 miles west on Fire Island in 1996, and later near Gilgo Beach in 2011.
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Heuermann has not been charged with Vergata’s killing.
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In 2022, Heuermann, who was living in nearby Massapequa Park, was identified as a suspect after the newly-formed Gilgo Beach task force used a vehicle registration database to connect him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one victim disappeared in 2010.
Rex Heuermann is led into Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Complex in Riverhead, NY on Friday, July 14, 2023. (Matt Agudo/Splash for Fox News Digital)
Detectives quickly began looking into Heuermann’s life, with prosecutors alleging he used burner phones to arrange meetings with the victims before abducting them.
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Retested DNA found on the victim’s remains also pointed to Heuermann, with cell phone data indicating he had been in contact with a few of the women shortly before they disappeared.
Internet search history also revealed Heuermann’s interest in graphic torture pornography and news surrounding the Gilgo Beach killings – including the renewed investigation efforts.
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Investigators ultimately obtained Heuermann’s DNA after he threw a box of partially eaten pizza crusts into a sidewalk trash can outside his office in midtown Manhattan. The DNA found on the box was then linked to a male hair recovered from burlap used to restrain one of the victims.
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Following his arrest in 2023, detectives spent nearly two weeks scouring the backyard of Heuermann’s family home. There, they found a basement vault holding 279 weapons, along with a computer containing what prosecutors described as a “blueprint” for the alleged killings.
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Last year, Suffolk County Judge Timothy Mazzei dealt a blow to Heuermann’s defense by ruling evidence gathered from newly-released DNA technology would be admissible at trial, with prosecutors claiming the evidence directly connects Heuermann to the murders.
Fox News Digital’s Tessa Hoyos and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.