Serial killer pleads guilty to eight murders in case that haunted Long Island, New York

A decades-long saga came to an end in a Suffolk County courtroom on Wednesday, as a six-foot-four man dressed in a black suit and blue tie stood across from a judge and confessed to the gruesome details of murdering eight women.

Rex Heuermann appeared expressionless as he confirmed to Judge Timothy Mazzei that he had strangled and bound them each in the same manner before dropping their remains along Long Island's remote beaches.

He answered mostly "Yes" to each of the judge's questions about his crimes, not looking back at the courtroom packed with victims' family members, some of whom stifled cries.

The families of the women had waited for over a decade, as it took years for investigators to solve the murders that had haunted many Long Islanders.

"A lot of people would talk about it - it was not taboo," Sandra Symon, a high school classmate of Heuermann told the BBC. "Everybody had a theory."

Those theories ended in 2023, when police arrested Heuermann, a married father-of-two living in Massapequa Park, a quiet Long Island suburb, in a run-down house where he spent his childhood.

The 62-year-old architect was arrested by Suffolk County police who swarmed his Midtown Manhattan office after tying him to the murders with DNA from a pizza box.

Heuermann was first charged in the murders of seven women, but on Wednesday he pleaded guilty to an additional killing in 1996. Though many of his victims were missing for years, the case came to light in 2010 when investigators found four sets of remains within a quarter mile of each other on Gilgo Beach.

After initially pleading not-guilty, Heuermann ultimately pleaded to the murders of: Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Jessica Taylor, 20, Valerie Mack, 24, Sandra Costilla, 28 and Karen Vergata, 34.

Heuermann's victims are all believed to be sex workers at the time of their death, some of them contacted by him through their advertisements on Craigslist.

In court on Wednesday, Heuermann provided few new details about the killings, simply confirming to the judge that he lured them with the promise of money, then murdered and dismembered them before leaving their remains on the beach. He spoke few other words besides "strangulation" when asked how he killed them, and "guilty" when asked to enter his new pleas.

"There wasn't a jot of remorse in that man's face," John Ray, an attorney for the victims' families said after the hearing. "He was as cold as ice."

He received several life sentences, which will be formally handed down on 17 June.

During the brief hearing, his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, watched from the back of the room expressionless and dressed in black, alongside her and Heuermann's daughter who held tissues in her hand.

Outside court, Ellerup said her thoughts were with the victims' families, calling their loss "immeasurable".

In the small Long Island village of Massapequa Park, home to 18,000, American flags line streets bordering dozens of well-maintained residences, some with boats sitting in the driveway.

But to many in the neighbourhood, one house always stood out: The dilapidated red-shuttered house with green-lined windows is just a block away from Joe, who moved into the neighbourhood with his then-wife in 1995.

"It doesn't fit in the neighbourhood, but what are you going to do?" said Joe, who declined to share his last name for privacy reasons. "You don't think anything of it."

Once a neighbourhood eyesore, Heuermann's childhood home now draws the media and true crime obsessives. It was swarmed once again by reporters the evening before Heuermann's scheduled plea hearing, as his ex-wife Ellerup and their children spoke to reporters alongside their attorney, responding to a wrongful death lawsuit a victim's relative filed against them.

After Heuermann was jailed, his wife and two children stayed in the house, even grilling on the front porch despite gawkers on the front lawn.

But with Heuermann's plea hearing approaching, the rest of the town was eager to move on. Residents told the BBC that aside from the occasional newsline, they no longer think about the serial killer who once lived amongst them.

"It's not headlines anymore," Joe said. "American society has a short memory for things."

"I know who my neighbours are here, but you don't know anyone, to be honest with you."

Though Heuermann's guilty plea on Wednesday brought some measure of relief to the women's family and friends, many say it should have come years ago.

Police investigated the deaths for over a decade, and had been sitting on a tip that - once acted upon - led to the killer within weeks.

Family members of the victims have alleged police did not put in effort because the women who were murdered were sex workers, citing officers' frequent emphasis that the women were "prostitutes". Some Long Island residents agreed, saying they were horrified by how long it took to get justice.

"They're not less than because they did what they had to do," said Ellen Munoz, a resident of a neighbouring town who attended Heuermann's hearing.

The Suffolk County Police Department did not involve federal investigators in the probe at first, and leaders of the investigation faced separate scandals. Former Police Chief James Burke, who oversaw the case, was arrested in 2015 and later convicted on charges including obstruction of justice. That case also brought down Thomas Spota, Suffolk district attorney from 2002 to 2017, who also led the Gilgo Beach investigation.

In 2022, with new leadership, Suffolk County Police created a task force to investigate the murders - bringing in federal and local law enforcement - which led them to Heuermann in six weeks.

The police acted on a suspect description given to police in 2010 by the roommate of one victim, Amber Costello, after she had a run-in with a client. The roommate, Dave Schaller described the client - a large man who he said looked like "an ogre" and drove a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, a unique vehicle.

That tip later helped investigators track down Heuermann. From there, they looked at burner phones used to contact victims; cell phone tower data; and hair found on victims' bodies matched to the leftover pizza he discarded. In his basement, police say they found more evidence, including guides he wrote on how to carry out the killings on his computer.

Despite Heuermann's admission of the homicides, many questions remain for the families of the victims and the public.

The four women's bodies were found as authorities searched for the remains of another woman - Shannan Gilbert - who called police late one night in May 2010 screaming that "they" were trying to kill her.

Eileen Coletti Edwards was at court on Wednesday on behalf of her father, who let Gilbert into his Oak Beach home after she knocked on his door on the night she disappeared. He tried to call police but Gilbert ran.

"He was holding out hope that she had escaped and was hiding," said Coletti Edwards, whose father died before Heuermann's arrest.

Police have said they do not believe Heuermann killed Gilbert and that her death was likely an accident from drowning or other dangerous conditions in the marsh where she was found.

Benjamin Torres, son of Valerie Mack, has filed a wrongful death suit against Heuermann and his family, hoping to collect the funds the family is making from the documentary they're involved with.

Ray, Torres's lawyer, noted that Ellerup called her husband her "hero", after he was arrested, even as they divorced. Police maintained that they do not believe his family was involved.

On Tuesday, outside their Massapequa Park house, Ellerup's attorney reiterated that they had no involvement.

Some residents wonder if Long Island's land holds still more secrets.

In the summer, Symon is among the boaters who head out every Sunday to Hemlock Cove, a popular anchor spot near where Heuermann discarded the remains of his victims.

Sometimes people joke about pulling out binoculars to see if more bodies are lurking in the nearby marsh. Symon thinks all the time about the women they found there.

"How could you not think of them?" she said. "What a terrible, scary thing that happened."