The Gilgo Beach / Long Island Serial Killer Case

In December 2010, while searching for missing sex worker Shannan Gilbert, police discovered the remains of four women — Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello — dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach, New York. They became known as the "Gilgo Four." The discovery led to a wider search that eventually turned up the remains of several more victims along the same stretch of coastline, spanning disappearances dating back to the early 1990s. The case went unsolved for well over a decade and became one of the most written-about unresolved serial killer investigations in the US.

In 2022, a reconstituted task force revisited old evidence and used a vehicle registration database to connect a truck a witness had reported seeing around Amber Costello's 2010 disappearance to Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect who lived on Long Island. Investigators surveilled Heuermann and collected a discarded pizza crust for DNA, which was matched to genetic material recovered from the victims. He was arrested on 13 July 2023 and initially charged in three of the Gilgo Four murders.

Prosecutors continued adding charges over the following two years as evidence tied Heuermann to additional victims, including Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack. On 8 April 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder, and acknowledged responsibility for an eighth killing, that of Karen Vergata. He was sentenced on 17 June 2026 to multiple consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, avoiding the trial that had been scheduled for September 2026.