He terrorized Long Island for more than 15 years, horrifically taking the lives of eight women, and now he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The case against Massapequa Park architect Rex A. Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach killer, is a testament to dogged police work and the relentless determination of one man, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney, to bring justice to the victims and their families.
Faced with the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, the 62-year-old ogre-like killer admitted to his evil acts and was condemned to life behind bars by state Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei. There will be no possibility of parole.
“I know that you’re sorry that you got caught. I assume that you’re sorry for what you’ve done to your wife and children,” Mazzei told the killer in a courtroom packed with the friends and families of the victims. “Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these poor, innocent women, eight women that you strangled to death, at least eight that we know of? Are you at least a little bit sorry for that?”
“Yes.”
“You know what? You’ve been described as a very big man, but you’re a disgusting and despicable small man, if you’re a man at all. And you’re a coward!”
Heuermann replied: “There are no words I can say. I am responsible for what was said in this room today. The words I would say have no meaning, and I’m going to leave it there at this time.”
Since taking office in 2022, Tierney made solving the Gilgo murders a top priority. Along with a traumatized public, he wanted to know who was responsible for the bodies found in the thick underbrush along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. He created a special task force to crack the case, inviting in the FBI and other investigative agencies shunned by past administrations.
In the end, the case hinged on an old clue: the boyfriend of a victim remembered her leaving with a man in a Chevy Avalanche, a unique-looking pickup truck for its day. A database search narrowed it down, and DNA pulled from a piece of pizza the suspect discarded outside his Manhattan office matched traces of evidence meticulously gathered so long ago. Modern methods traced his burner phones, and chilling details were extracted from computers he thought had been erased. Faced with the facts, Heuermann confessed.
Heuermann’s crimes seemed torn from the pages of a horror novel — young women strangled to death, their remains scattered across Long Island. Yet it was his conduct after the murders that drew particular attention in the courtroom.
Among the most emotional moments came when Amanda Funderburg, sister of victim Melissa Barthelemy, confronted Heuermann directly. As a 15-year-old, Funderburg said she received a series of taunting phone calls from Heuermann using her sister’s cellphone. During those calls, he told her he had raped and killed Melissa and was allowing her body to “rot.”
Addressing the killer at sentencing, Funderburg demanded his attention.
“You can look at me when I’m talking; it’s been 17 years since we last spoke,” she told him.
The daughter of another victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, also confronted Heuermann. Nicolette was seven years old when her mother vanished.
“Rex Heuermann stole decades from a woman who should still be here making memories with her family,” she told the court. “Her death did not create a single moment of grief. It created a lifetime of pain.”
Looking directly at Heuermann, she added, “You make me sick, and I don’t forgive you!”
In a published interview with Newsday following the sentence, Tierney stated: “We shouldn’t remember him. We should remember the victims. For me personally, I hope everyone forgets him.”
In a Riverhead courtroom, eight women inextricably linked in Long Island history were revered and remembered: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Karen Vergata, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla and Valerie Mack.