Accused Gilgo Beach Killer Rex Heuermann Expected to Take Plea Deal in Seven Murders

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are negotiating a plea deal under which accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to plead guilty in Suffolk County, New York, on April 8 to multiple murders tied to at least seven women killed between 1993 and 2010, according to reports citing unnamed sources. Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect from Massapequa Park, was arrested in 2023 and initially charged in the 2010 killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach during a search for missing woman Shannan Gilbert. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office later added counts involving the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, then the 2003 killing of Jessica Taylor, the 1993 slaying of Sandra Costilla, and finally the murder of 24-year-old Valerie Mack, as investigators linked multiple dumping grounds on Long Island. The defense unsuccessfully tried to suppress what’s described as damning DNA evidence before signaling a change-of-plea, and prosecutors say the crimes involved torture, mutilation and dismemberment of petite women less than half Heuermann’s size. If the deal goes through, Heuermann faces up to life in prison without parole, a resolution that would close one of the country’s most notorious unsolved serial-killing cases and is already fueling online debate about whether a plea bargain is appropriate in such a high-profile string of homicides.