Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann charged in killing of seventh woman
Sabrina Souza, CNN | 12/17/2024, 11:36 a.m.
Rex Heuermann, center, charged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings on Long Island, appears for a hearing in July at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, New York.
Mandatory Credit: James Carbone/Newsday/AP/File via CNN Newsource
Rex Heuermann, the suspect in the Gilgo beach killings, was charged with the murder of a seventh victim in a new superseding indictment released on Tuesday in Suffolk County court.
Heuermann was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Valerie Mack, whose partial remains were found in eastern Long Island in November 2000.
“Your honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges,” Heuermann said in court Tuesday, shaking his head no.
Mack was a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother and worked as an escort at the time of her appearance.
Parts of Mack’s remains were first found in a wooded area of Manorville by a group of hunters, who called 911 and reported the findings.
In May 2020, prosecutors used a DNA sample from Mack’s remains and worked with local law enforcement, a genetic genealogist from the FBI, and the Suffolk County crime laboratory to determine the remains belonged to Mack, according to the district attorney’s bail application.
Human hair found on Mack’s left wrist led prosecutors to the DNA profiles of Heuermann’s wife and daughter, Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann.
During the initial investigation in Manorville in 2000, Mack’s head, hands, and right foot were not found at the scene and remained missing for approximately 11 more years.
In April 2011, Mack’s skull, hands, and right foot were discovered east of Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County, less than 1.5 miles east of where the remains of Jessica Taylor – who Heuermann is also accused of killing – were found, according to court documents.
Heuermann was initially arrested in July 2023 and charged with murder in the killings of four women whose bodies were discovered bound with belts or tape and wrapped in burlap along a stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010.
Those victims – Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes – became known as the “Gilgo Four.” Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the charges related to all four.
Two additional second-degree murder charges were added in June 2024 for the deaths of Taylor and Sandra Costilla. Taylor was killed in 2003, and Costilla in 1993. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.
The women were among at least 11 sets of remains discovered near the waterfront in Long Island’s Suffolk County since 2010.
