DNA has linked accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to two more cold case murders on Long Island, Suffolk County prosecutors said Thursday.
Investigators have matched hairs recovered from the remains of victims Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla to Heuermann, who is already charged in the deaths of four women.
Taylor, a sex worker, died between July 21 and July 26 of 2003, prosecutors said in an indictment unsealed Thursday. Costilla was murdered between Nov. 19 and 20, 1993.
Heuermann, 60, has already pleaded not guilty in the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found near each other along a stretch of Ocean Parkway known as Gilgo Beach between late fall 2010 and early spring 2011.
A person walking their dog in Manorville found Taylor’s remains on July 26, 2003. Her body, which was decapitated with her arms severed below her elbows, remained unidentified for eight years until her head and arms were found in another location, cops said. A tattoo on the body was also mutilated, the indictment read.
Taylor’s head and arms were found along Ocean Parkway in 2011 — just east of Gilgo Beach where the remains of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello were found, prosecutors said.
In April, a male hair that police found under Taylor’s body back in 2003 was genetically linked to Heuermann, prosecutors say.
Costilla’s remains were found in a wooded area in Southampton by a pair of hunters. Hairs recovered from Costilla’s body were also genetically linked to Heuermann, prosecutors said.
The new indictments come within weeks of a search by Gilgo Beach Task Force investigators in an area of Manorville where the partial remains of two victims — Taylor and Valerie Mack — were found more than two decades ago.
Just two weeks ago, investigators were back at Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home executing a new search warrant connected to the case. Police were seen removing a large rectangular object covered in blue cloth and loading it onto the back of a truck parked in the driveway.
In 2010 and 2011, the bodies of 11 people were found on and near Gilgo Beach. Heuermann has not, until now, been linked to any of the other seven victims
Cops said it was a Long Island pimp — and pizza crust DNA — that steered investigators toward Heuermann, a husband and father who had been living quietly in the Nassau County town of Massapequa Park and commuting to Manhattan, where he worked as an architect.
The pimp described the suspect’s vehicle to authorities, giving them details about a green Chevrolet Avalanche during a spring 2022 meeting with investigators.
Cops also retrieved DNA from a pizza crust found in a Manhattan trash can near Heuermann’s work office and matched it with a hair found on Waterman’s body.
Heuermann has been in custody since his arrest last July and no trial date has been set.
