{"id":2299,"date":"2026-06-18T22:32:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2026-06-18T22:32:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:32:35","slug":"rex-heuermann-is-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-new-yorks-gilgo-beach-serial-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2299","title":{"rendered":"Rex Heuermann is sentenced to life in prison for New York\u2019s Gilgo Beach serial killings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<section>\n<p>RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 After decades waiting for justice, relatives of women murdered by New York\u2019s\u00a0Gilgo Beach serial killer\u00a0laid into him Wednesday before he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his admitted crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2297\">Nonprofits sue Phoenix over ordinance limiting food, medical services in parks<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA million years isn\u2019t enough,\u201d Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, said. \u201cNothing will ever make this right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rex Heuermann\u00a0clasped his hands on the defense table in an eastern Long Island courtroom, looking straight ahead and lightly tapping his fingers. The Long Island architect, who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting he killed eight women,\u00a0was arrested in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou fill me with so much repugnance, I can\u2019t stand it,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Funderburg, victim Melissa Barthelemy\u2019s sister, urged Heuermann to look at her as she spoke.<\/p>\n<p>He glanced in her direction, but his eyes were slightly downcast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope you suffer,\u201d said Funderburg, who recounted getting a taunting phone call from him days after Barthelemy disappeared, when Funderburg was 15 years old.<\/p>\n<p>The sentencing\u00a0caps an extraordinary investigation\u00a0that solved one of New York\u2019s most perplexing mysteries \u2014 one that began as a series of seemingly unconnected and largely unmarked disappearances of young women, but became the focus of true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began discovering the victims\u2019 skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a coastal parkway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJustice has been done, but it can\u2019t replace what has been taken,\u201d said JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack. \u201cShe had dreams, and you took them all away from her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heuermann, who has remained largely silent through multiple court appearances since his arrest, also had a chance to speak Wednesday. His ex-wife and two grown children weren\u2019t at the sentencing, having said through their lawyers that they\u2019d stay away out of respect for the victim\u2019s families.<\/p>\n<p>Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.<\/p>\n<p>Heuermann also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, though he was never charged in her death. He said he strangled his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Brainard-Barnes\u2019 two children, who were 7 and 1 when she disappeared, underscored Wednesday how her absence shaped their lives and how she never got to know the adults they grew up to be. Her sister, Melissa Cann, said she lived with \u201csurvivor\u2019s guilt\u201d for decades, wondering whether she could have done something more to protect Brainard-Barnes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a weight I carried everywhere,\u201d Cann said, sobbing deeply. But, she said, that guilt is \u201cnot mine to carry. It is for Rex and Rex alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2295\">Josephine Fire burning in southern Arizona<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Liliana Waterman was 3 when her mother, Megan Waterman, vanished. The daughter said she didn\u2019t fully understand what had happened until she was about 9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn an instant, my world was shattered,\u201d she said. \u201cWas she in pain? Was she scared?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and most of their remains were found on a parkway not far from Long Island\u2019s Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p>Costilla\u2019s remains were found in 1993, more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away in the Hamptons, while Vergata\u2019s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Gilgo Beach.<\/p>\n<p>The case\u00a0spilled into view in 2010, when investigators started to find remains along Ocean Parkway while looking into the disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, whose death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.<\/p>\n<p>The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, they matched\u00a0DNA from a pizza crust\u00a0Heuermann discarded in a Manhattan trash can to genetic material extracted from\u00a0highly degraded hair fragments\u00a0found on the women\u2019s remains.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators amassed other evidence, including cellphone and tracking data showing Heuermann arranged meetings with some victims shortly before their disappearances. After Heuermann\u2019s arrest, prosecutors recovered what they described as\u00a0a \u201cblueprint\u201d for the killings\u00a0from his computer files.<\/p>\n<p>As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI\u2019s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.<\/p>\n<p>Heuermann has spent the\u00a0past three years\u00a0alone in a segregated cell at the Suffolk County jail, reading crime novels, occasionally being visited by his lawyers or family, and striking up a brief correspondence with the\u00a0infamous \u201cHappy Face Killer,\u201d according to Sheriff Errol Toulon.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2293\">Woman found dead in wash near Silverlake Road identified<\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Follow Philip Marcelo at\u00a0https:\/\/x.com\/philmarcelo.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Long Island architect who lived a secret life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer has been sentenced to to life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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