Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was charged with a seventh murder. Valerie Mack vanished back in 2000, and Heuermann was named a suspect in her death in June after prosecutors said a document referencing the site where her body was found was found on his personal computer. Now they say more evidence has linked him to the crime. NBC New York Greg Cergol reports.
What to Know
- Rex Heuermann, 61, was first arrested in July 2023 in the deaths of three of the four women whose remains were found in burlap sacks along a remote stretch of Gilgo Beach's Ocean Parkway in 2010; the fourth murder was added in a superseding indictment in January 2024
- The architect from NYC pleaded not guilty in their cases; other sets of remains were found amid that investigation. In June, he was charged with murdering one of those women -- Jessica Taylor -- and a previously unknown victim, Sandra Costilla, whose case dates back to 1993
- Now he's accused of killing Valerie Mack. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him; a planning document for his alleged kills was seized at his home during a recent search, according to the bail application
The New York City architect arrested last year in connection with a string of cold case bodies found on Long Island's Gilgo Beach has been charged with another woman's murder, bringing the body count against him thus far to seven, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Rex Heuermann is accused of murdering Valerie Mack, an escort who vanished in 2000 and in whose death he had been considered a suspect, the district attorney said. Prosecutors say DNA evidence secured the forensic link, that analysis of a hair found with Mack’s remains, has been linked to Heuermann’s wife and daughter.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the new charge Tuesday. He has pleaded not guilty to the other murder charges against him as well, telling the judge "I am not guilty of any of these crimes." A judge remanded him without bail after the hearing.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Michael Brown, the lawyer for Heuermann, described his client as frustrated by allegations that he’s the Gilgo Beach serial killer. The attorney also vowed to challenge the validity of the DNA findings.
"What they also don’t tell you is that there’s numerous other hairs that are found on each of these victims and they don’t tell you whose DNA that goes back to," said Brown after the court appearance Tuesday. "There’s something a little weird about these allegations in the sense that every time they have a body they claim there’s one hair."
Mack, 24, had been working as an escort in Philadelphia and was last seen by her family in New Jersey the year she disappeared. Mack's parents were in the courthouse Tuesday, but did not wish to comment.
Local
According to prosecutors, Heuermann’s so-called “planning document,” recovered from a personal computer during a search over the summer, references the dumping site where parts of Mack's body were first found, on Mill Road in Manorville.
That document was created in 2000, the year Mack went missing and was killed, according to prosecutors' bail application. They also allege Heuermann mutilated Mack's right leg, the same leg that bore a tattoo with her son's name, to thwart efforts to identify her.
Read the superseding indictment
In addition, prosecutors say their searches of Heuermann’s home yielded varied magazine and newspaper clippings of the Long Island serial killer, allegedly serving as “souvenirs or mementos” of his alleged crimes
Authorities have also been looking into the death of Karen Vergata, whose remains were first discovered in 1996 and finally identified in 2022 after a new DNA analysis. There was no immediate update Tuesday on her case.
Heuermann, 61, was first arrested in July 2023 in the deaths of three of the so-called "Gilgo Four," whose remains were found in burlap sacks along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway in 2010. He was later charged with the fourth.
The bodies of Maureen Brainard-Barnes Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman were discovered during a search for a missing escort, Shannan Gilbert, who later was found dead in a marsh. Her case was ruled an accidental drowning, though attorneys for her family maintained the autopsy was inconclusive.
Read the bail application
Investigators say Gilbert's case is not tied to the others. Additional sets of remains turned up in that search for Gilbert, too. Authorities are still trying to identify some of them, including remains belonging to an "Asian Doe."
In June, authorities charged Heuermann with two additional murders, those of Jessica Taylor, whose hands and forearm were found along Ocean Parkway years after her torso turned up in the Manorville woods; and Sandra Costilla, who allegedly died a violent death by his hands in November 1993.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Heuermann has been held without bail since his initial arrest. If convicted, he faces multiple sentences of life without parole.
