Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murder of a seventh victim. The new superseding indictment was released in Suffolk County court on Tuesday, December 17.
Heuermann, 60, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Valerie Mack. The victim’s partial remains were found on Long Island in New York in November 2000. Shaking his head no, Heuermann said in court on Tuesday, according to CNN, “Your honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges.”
Mack, a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother, used to work as an escort when she disappeared. “The Mack family is emblematic of the other families in this case, who have steadfast stood by their loved ones and zealously guarded their memories,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a news conference following the court appearance.
Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, said his client was surprised by the latest charge and is “adamant that he did not do these crimes.” The next hearing has been scheduled for January 15.
A group of hunters with a dog found parts of Mack’s remains in a wooded area of Manorville. The hunters subsequently called 911. Human hair found on Mack’s left wrist went on to lead prosecutors to the DNA profiles of Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup, and daughter Victoria Heuermann. According to two forensic laboratories, hairs recovered on six of the seven alleged victims are “forensically tied” to Heuermann or members of his immediate family, or other people he lived with, a legal filing has said.
{{/usCountry}}A group of hunters with a dog found parts of Mack’s remains in a wooded area of Manorville. The hunters subsequently called 911. Human hair found on Mack’s left wrist went on to lead prosecutors to the DNA profiles of Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup, and daughter Victoria Heuermann. According to two forensic laboratories, hairs recovered on six of the seven alleged victims are “forensically tied” to Heuermann or members of his immediate family, or other people he lived with, a legal filing has said.
{{/usCountry}}Mack’s head, hands, and right foot remained missing for about 11 years after the initial investigation in Manorville in 2000. Her skull, hands, and right foot were found east of Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County in April 2011. These remains were found less than 1.5 miles east of where the remains of Heuermann’s alleged victim Jessica Taylor.
Who were Rex Heuermann’s victims?
Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 and charged with murder in the killings of four women who became known as the Gilgo Four – Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Their bodies were found bound with belts or tape and wrapped in burlap along a stretch of Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach in 2010. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the charges related to all the four murders.
The Gilgo Four:
Melissa Barthelemy –Barthelemy, 24, was last seen live in New York City, prosecutors said. Her bodywas found on December 11, 2010, and she was the first of the Gilgo Beach victims to be discovered. She was an escort, and had gone missing from the Bronx before her murder.
Megan Waterman – According to police,Waterman, a victim of sex trafficking, was 22 years old when she disappeared. She was believed to have been taken to New York by her then-boyfriend in June 2010. Surveillance video showed her in the lobby of a hotel on Long Island, and officials believe she was murdered soon after that.
Amber Costello – Costello, 27, was living on Long Island when she disappeared. Suffolk County police said she was struggling with heroin addiction and worked as an escort to help support her habit. She was last seen on September 2, 2010, leaving her home to meet a client. Her remains were discovered on December 13, 2010, near Gilgo Beach.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes –Brainard-Barnes, 25, was believed to be a sex worker when she disappeared. She was last seen on July 9, 2007. Before going missing, she called a friend in Connecticut, where she lived, to say that she had an “out call,” Suffolk County police said.Her remains were found on Long Island's Gilgo Beach in 2010.
Other victims:
In June 2024, two additional second-degree murder charges were added for the deaths of Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor.28-year-old Costilla's body was discovered by two hunters in a wooded area in North Sea, Southampton, on November 21, 1993. Costilla, whom police called a "drifter,” was left partially clothed and had been strangled to death. Cops did not say if she was a sex worker, but stated that her lifestyle "substantially similar." Meanwhile, 20-year-old Taylor was a sex worker near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Taylor’s nude body was found by a woman walking her dog in July 2003 in the wooded area of Manorville, where Heuermann's Massapequa Park home is located.
Heuermann' workedin Midtown for several years at his own company, RH Architecture. He was caught by plainclothes cops as he strolled down a Midtown sidewalk on the night of July 13.