Gilgo Beach Serial Murder Timeline: Rex Heuermann Charged with 7th Murder

What’s new

Rex Heuermann was charged in court on Tuesday with the murder of a seventh woman.

Heuermann is now accused of killing Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old escort who was last seen in 2000 and whose partial remains were found on eastern Long Island in November of that year.

Newsweek has emailed Heuermann’s attorney and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for comment.

Why it matters

Heuermann, 60, was initially charged in the deaths of the “Gilgo Four” Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. The bodies of the four victims were found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2010.

Heuermann was charged with additional murders in June of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla.

What you should know

Costilla, 28, was killed in November 1993. Her body was found later that month in a wooded area in North Sea, New York. DNA from hair found on her body matched Heuermann. She is his earliest known alleged victim.

Mack’s partial remains were found in November 2000 in a wooded area of ​​Manorville, New York. She was last seen by family members in New Jersey in the spring or summer of that year. The rest of her remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2011. She was only identified in 2020.

Taylor was last seen at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City in July 2023. Her remains were found five days later in Manorville.

Brainard-Barnes was last seen in 2007, Barthelemy in 2009, and Waterman and Costello in 2010. A police dog located Barthelemy’s remains while searching for missing woman Shannan Gilbert in December 2010. Police discovered the other three bodies while searching for more evidence.

Heuermann was first arrested in July 2023 in Manhattan. Officials began considering him a suspect in 2022 after a dark green Chevrolet Avalanche registered in his name was linked to one of the murders by a witness.

His cell phone records were allegedly linked to three of the Gilgo Four’s victims. Officers collected DNA evidence from a pizza crust he had thrown away and matched it to a hair found on the burlap in which one of the victims was wrapped.

Heuermann pleaded not guilty to all charges.

His last court appearance was on October 16. During the trial, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney called on the Justice Department to release frozen funds to cover prosecution costs.

What happens next

Heuermann is being held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead, New York. A trial date has not yet been set.

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