New York City architect Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to the murder of seven women and admitted to killing an eighth nearly three years after being arrested as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer.
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Heuermann, 62, had previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charges but switched his plea Wednesday during a stunning hearing at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, Long Island, The New York Times reported.
The founder of Manhattan-based architecture firm RH Consultants & Associates, Heuermann lived in Massapequa Park, a town just north of Gilgo Beach, where 11 sets of human remains were discovered between 2010 and 2011. The four initial bodies found belonged to sex workers who had disappeared and were known as the “Gilgo Beach Four.”
Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Costello, 27, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Jessica Taylor, 20, Sandra Costilla, 28, and Valerie Mack, 24, NBC News reported. He also admitted to causing the death of Karen Vergata and disposing of her remains but wasn't charged with her murder as a condition of the plea deal.
When asked how he killed some of the victims, Heuermann responded, “strangulation,” The Times reported.
“There came a point in this defense where Rex said I want to plead guilty,” Heuermann's attorney, Michael Brown, said after the 20-minute hearing, according to The Times.
The women disappeared or their remains were found over the course of nearly two decades, and the discoveries have rocked the community on Long Island's South Shore, the victims' families said after the trial, according to The New York Times.
Authorities have not identified suspects for the four other sets of remains, including a toddler, that were found on Gilgo Beach and haven't been tied to Heuermann.
After years of fruitless searching for suspects following the bodies' discovery, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney reopened the case in 2022 and quickly zeroed in on a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to Heuermann that was flagged in a previous tip tied to Costello's disappearance, NBC News reported.
After an investigation tied together cell phone data that pinpointed burner phone calls emanating from Heuermann's neighborhood, where he lived with his now ex-wife and two children, with DNA from a discarded pizza crust left in a Midtown Manhattan parking garage, the architect was arrested and initially charged with three of the Gilgo Beach Four murders.
Heuermann's work as an architect and compliance and permitting consultant included the redesign of the Target at 600 Broadway in SoHo and the Foot Locker at 30 E. 170th St. in the Bronx, Bisnow previously reported.
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