The Gilgo Beach Murders: The Case Against Rex Heuermann

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was the first of the Gilgo Four to disappear — July 2007. Three days later, her phone was used in Suffolk County along the Long Island Expressway. Prosecutors allege Rex Heuermann checked her voicemail after she was gone. Burner phone data from the phone that contacted Maureen traced back to "the box" — a tight cluster of cell towers surrounding Heuermann's Massapequa Park home. Every burner phone connected to the Gilgo Four pinged from that same area.

Episode 4 of "The Seven." Maureen was 25, a mother of two, facing eviction, about to lose custody. She took the train from Connecticut to work as an escort in Midtown Manhattan because the money was the only thing standing between her and losing her children. At 11:43 p.m. on July 9, she called a friend and said she was going to meet a client. Nobody heard from her again for more than three years — until her remains were found in December 2010, wrapped in burlap on Ocean Parkway, alongside the other Gilgo Four victims.

DNA on a leather belt used to bind her remains matched Heuermann's wife's profile. The belt also bore the initials "WH" — matching Heuermann's grandfather, William Heuermann. The cellphone evidence, the DNA, the family's fight for justice, and Maureen's full story — all covered here.

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She built her life around him. He allegedly built something else entirely. Rex Heuermann is charged with the murders of seven women along Long Island's Gilgo Beach corridor — killings that reportedly spanned from 1993 to 2010. He is expected to enter a guilty plea, according to multiple reports. If accepted, he faces life without parole.

But for the people who lived inside that house, the legal outcome is only the beginning. Asa Ellerup shared nearly three decades with Heuermann. She has said she would have known if something was wrong. Prosecutors allege he was methodical — allegedly timing the crimes for when his family was away, maintaining violent content and detailed checklists on his devices. Her own hair was reportedly found on victims. And yet she has maintained he isn't capable of what he's accused of. Their daughter Victoria has publicly said the opposite — that she believes her father most likely committed the killings.

That split is where this conversation lives. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins me to unpack how a person's entire psychological identity can be anchored to someone who, according to prosecutors, was hiding a monstrous second life. How does the brain protect itself from a truth it cannot survive? How are partners allegedly selected for their vulnerability? What does it look like when the wall finally breaks? If you've been following this case and asking yourself how someone doesn't know — this is the episode that answers that question. The answer is more unsettling than most people are ready for.

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They were bracing for a trial. The mothers, the sisters, the children of the women Rex Heuermann is charged with killing — they were preparing to sit in that courtroom and hear every piece of evidence laid out publicly. To watch the prosecution present the DNA, the cellphone records, the alleged murder blueprint recovered from his computer. To see a jury decide.

Now, reportedly, that's gone.

Heuermann is expected to plead guilty to seven murders after nearly three years of maintaining his innocence. His defense challenged the DNA twice. They fought to separate the cases. They filed a 178-page motion for every form of legal relief available. Every challenge was denied. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta examines what those systematic denials mean for the attorney-client conversation that leads to a plea, and what this moment costs the families who wanted — and arguably deserved — a full public accounting.

Melissa Barthelemy. Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Amber Lynn Costello. Sandra Costilla. Valerie Mack. Jessica Taylor. Megan Waterman. They disappeared between 1993 and 2010. A guilty plea gives their families an admission. It also takes away the trial. Motta breaks down whether that exchange is justice — or just an ending.

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The planning document changed this case. Prosecutors say a digital file recovered from Rex Heuermann's basement laptop contained all-caps checklists for committing murder — organized by phase, with notes on sleep, evidence cleanup, alibi preparation, and what prosecutors believe are references to violence against victims. Jessica Taylor's case is where that document hits hardest, because the forensic evidence from her body allegedly aligns with what was written in it.

Episode 3 of "The Seven." Jessica was 20, working in Midtown Manhattan near Port Authority — the same neighborhood as Heuermann's office. Her torso was found in Manorville in 2003. Her head and hands were found alongside the Gilgo Four in 2011. A hair on a surgical drape under her body matched Heuermann's DNA. The tool marks on her bones matched those on Valerie Mack. The garbage bags at both scenes matched in color, seal, and construction.

This episode connects the forensic dots between the Manorville and Gilgo Beach dump sites — and lays out what prosecutors describe as a method that was practiced, documented, and refined over years. Jessica's life, the evidence, and the full prosecution case — all covered here.

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Prosecutors say Rex Heuermann kept newspaper clippings about his alleged victims — including a 2003 New York Post article about Valerie Mack's remains. They describe these as "souvenirs" and "mementos." They also say the planning document from his laptop included instructions to "remove head and hands" — matching exactly what was done to Valerie's body. And a female hair found on her remains matched the DNA profiles of Heuermann's wife and daughter, who was a toddler at the time of Valerie's death.

Episode 2 of "The Seven." Valerie Mack spent twenty years as Jane Doe Number Six. Nobody reported her missing. She was 24, a mother, adopted, working as an escort in Philadelphia. Her dismembered torso was found in Manorville in 2000. More remains surfaced along Ocean Parkway in 2011. Genetic genealogy identified her in 2020. Heuermann was charged with her murder in late 2024.

The DNA, the souvenirs, the matching dismemberment patterns between Valerie and Jessica Taylor, the forensic anthropology connecting tool marks on both victims' bones, and who Valerie was before all of this — the foster care, the adoption, the son she left behind, the family that waited decades for answers. All of it covered here.

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They were somebody's daughter. Somebody's sister. Somebody's mother. And according to prosecutors, they were chosen because the man who allegedly took them believed nobody would come looking.

Rex Heuermann, 62, is expected to plead guilty at an April 8th court appearance to charges connected to the murders of seven women — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack. If the judge accepts the plea, he reportedly faces life without parole. No trial. No testimony. No cross-examination.

For the families who've waited years — some of them more than a decade — this was supposed to be the moment where they finally sat in a courtroom and watched the system hold someone accountable in front of the public. A guilty plea takes that from them. It may bring finality. But it doesn't bring the full accounting many of them have been waiting for.

And it doesn't bring answers for everyone. Heuermann is charged in connection with seven deaths. Additional remains were found near Gilgo Beach. Those families are still waiting.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer examines what this moment means — for the families who get a resolution, for those who don't, and for the investigation that took so long to get here.

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Sandra Costilla changes everything about the Gilgo Beach case. If you thought the killings started in 2007, prosecutors say you're off by 14 years. Sandra was found in the woods of Southampton in November 1993 — not on Gilgo Beach, not along Ocean Parkway, but 60 miles east, in a location nobody connected to the pattern until prosecutors applied advanced DNA technology to hairs found on her body. The results, according to the indictment: a 99.96 percent match to Rex Heuermann.

Episode 1 of "The Seven" — one episode per victim, starting with the earliest alleged case and building chronologically through to Amber Costello.

Sandra's case is the thinnest in publicly known evidence — the defense called it a single hair on a shirt — but it may be the most significant in terms of what it reveals. If Heuermann was allegedly killing in 1993, he was doing it before the marriage, before the children, before the suburban life prosecutors say gave him cover. And the seven-year gap between Sandra and the next known victim, Valerie Mack in 2000, raises questions prosecutors haven't publicly answered. The evidence, the defense challenge, the judge's ruling, and what Sandra's case means for understanding the full alleged scope — all covered here.

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Melissa Barthelemy was 24. Megan Waterman was 22. Amber Costello was 27. Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25. Jessica Taylor was 20. Sandra Costilla was 28. Valerie Mack was 24. Their remains were found scattered along isolated stretches of Long Island — some near Gilgo Beach, some in Manorville, some in remote wooded areas. For over a decade, no one was charged. Their families waited. And waited. And now, reportedly, the man accused of taking all of them is expected to stand in a Suffolk County courtroom and say the word "guilty."

This week's look back at the most compelling developments in the Gilgo Beach case centers on what this expected plea means for the people who've carried this weight the longest. Rex Heuermann is reportedly set to change his plea on April 8. The deal is still being finalized. A judge must accept it. But if it holds, there will be no trial. No testimony. No cross-examination. The families who have waited since the first remains were discovered will hear the plea — and that may be the closest thing to a courtroom reckoning they get.

His daughter has said publicly she believes he most likely did it. Files recovered from his computer allegedly contained checklists — a systematic approach to limiting noise, cleaning bodies, destroying evidence. His defense challenged the DNA evidence twice and lost. The motion to try the cases separately was denied. Life without parole was the only outcome either way. But a plea means the story ends on his terms — not theirs.

And then there are the others. Andrew Dykes' arrest in the murder of Tanya Jackson — the woman known as "Peaches" — proved that Ocean Parkway was used by more than one killer. Four additional victims found along that corridor remain uncharged. Their families don't get a courtroom. They don't get a plea. They get silence.

Someone needs to answer for all of them.

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Rex Heuermann is reportedly expected to plead guilty to the alleged murders of seven women. After nearly three years of maintaining his innocence, the accused Gilgo Beach Killer and Long Island Serial Killer is apparently done fighting — and the reasons why tell you everything about how this LISK case was built.

Defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis joins me for the complete breakdown of the Rex Heuermann case. We trace the prosecution's strategy from the 2022 cold case reopening through every charge, every denied motion, and every pretrial ruling that narrowed the Gilgo Beach Killer defense's options until a plea reportedly became the only path left.

We examine the evidence in detail — the deleted Word document allegedly recovered from Heuermann's hard drive with sections on supplies, targets, disposal sites, and "Mindhunter" references. The DNA matched through whole genome sequencing, admitted in New York for the first time. The pizza crust surveillance. Faddis explains why the LISK defense challenged the DNA but not the document — and which piece of evidence he believes broke the accused Long Island Serial Killer's resolve.

And we address what the Gilgo Beach Killer plea doesn't resolve. The remaining victims. Shannan Gilbert. The Bittrolff reversal on Sandra Costilla. The behavioral evidence — the planning, the timing, the alleged compartmentalized existence. Whether law enforcement keeps investigating. Whether the alternative suspect argument has any legal life. And whether a plea without a trial can ever be called justice.

This is the definitive Rex Heuermann conversation. Every angle. Every question. No filter.

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Rex Heuermann is expected to plead guilty to the alleged murders of seven women. But the Gilgo Beach Killer investigation uncovered eleven sets of remains — and the accused Long Island Serial Killer is not believed to be responsible for all of them. Shannan Gilbert's case remains uncharged. The Sandra Costilla murder was once attributed to convicted killer John Bittrolff before prosecutors reversed course and charged Heuermann.

Defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis joins me to examine what a Gilgo Beach Killer guilty plea doesn't resolve. We walk through the remaining LISK victims and whether law enforcement continues investigating once the primary defendant is resolved. We examine the Bittrolff reversal in detail — what it means when the prosecution's own prior theory contradicts their current charges — and whether that argument has any legal life in a potential appeal.

Faddis addresses the behavioral evidence — the alleged timing of killings when Heuermann's family was away, the planning document references, the internet search history — and what the totality of that evidence suggests about how the accused Long Island Serial Killer allegedly compartmentalized his existence. We talk about the systemic failures that allowed someone to allegedly target marginalized women for nearly two decades. And we close with the question at the center of the Gilgo Beach Killer case: is a plea without a trial justice — or is it just an ending?

For anyone who has followed the Rex Heuermann case from the beginning, this is the conversation about what happens after the plea.

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