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Takeaways from the Gilgo Beach case as Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to 7 murders and admits to an 8th

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island man who carried out a series of murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings pleaded guilty to murder charges this week, bringing finality to the long-unsolved case more than 30 years after the first killing.

Rex Heuermann, an architect who led a secret life as a serial killer, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of intentional murder in the killings of seven women between 1993 and 2010.

Heuermann, 62, appeared unemotional and did not look back at the packed gallery of victims’ relatives as he entered the pleas and also admitted to killing an eighth woman.

He will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Here are some key takeaways from the case:

Heuermann admits to an 8th killing

The discovery of numerous sets of human remains along Long Island’s South Shore beginning in late 2010 set off a search for a potential serial killer that drew global interest. Families of the victims grew doubtful that their killer would ever be caught as the investigation dragged on for more than a decade.

Heuermann was arrested in 2023 after a DNA match.

He admitted Wednesday that he strangled eight female victims and dismembered some of them before dumping their bodies along remote stretches of New York coastline. Many of his victims were sex workers.

Heuermann admitted that he killed Karen Vergata in 1996, although he hasn’t been charged in her death.

Remains of six victims — Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Megan Waterman — were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. The remains of another, Sandra Costilla, were found more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away in the Hamptons. Vergata’s remains were found on Fire Island, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) west, in 1996, and then near Gilgo Beach in 2011.

DNA lifted from discarded pizza crust

Detectives identified Heuermann as a suspect in 2022 using a vehicle registration database to connect him to a pickup truck that a witness had reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

Police pulled cellphone data that showed Heuermann was in contact with some victims just before they disappeared, investigators said. His internet search history also showed a keen interest in the Gilgo Beach killings.

A surveillance team tailed him in Manhattan, where he worked, and watched as he discarded a box of partially eaten pizza crusts into a sidewalk garbage can. They rushed to grab the box and sent it to the crime lab, which matched the DNA from a hair found on burlap used to restrain one of the victims.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney described Wednesday how investigators worked to keep the probe quiet so as not to let Heuermann know they were onto him. “We wanted the one person who mattered, the murderer, to think it’s business as usual,” Tierney said.

As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate fully with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.

Victims’ families express relief

Several family members of the victims were present in court Wednesday, and some wept as Heuermann detailed the murders.

Among them was Taylor’s mother, Elizabeth Baczkiel. Her 20-year-old daughter was living in Manhattan when she went missing in 2003. Taylor’s remains were discovered later that year, 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Gilgo Beach in Manorville.

“I am glad that this is over as far as him pleading guilty,” Baczkiel said. “It took a big chunk of stress off of me and my family.”

Melissa Cann, the sister of victim Brainard-Barnes, said she was grateful to finally get justice for her sister, whose body was found in 2010.

“This has been a long journey of hope — hope that one day we would stand here and say her name with justice beside it,” Cann said at a news conference after the hearing. “Today, that long, painful journey brings us to this moment.”

Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter were also in court as he entered the guilty pleas. Ellerup said her thoughts were with the victims’ families and she asked for privacy for her own family. Ellerup and her daughter, Victoria, had no knowledge of or involvement in the killings, said their lawyer, Robert Macedonio.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Salt Lake City.

Grandfather recovering from surgery after bison attack at Yellowstone sent him flying

By WTOP Staff
(CNN) — What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times and to never approach the animals. “If the bison follows you, spray bear spray as you are moving away, and seek cover behind nearby trees or cars,” the agency said.Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how far visitors should stay away from bison. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from them.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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