{"id":15714,"date":"2026-06-17T15:02:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15714"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:02:04","slug":"victims-relatives-condemn-new-yorks-gilgo-beach-serial-killer-at-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15714","title":{"rendered":"Victims\u2019 relatives condemn New York\u2019s Gilgo Beach serial killer at sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By PHILIP MARCELO<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 as he faced sentencing for his admitted crimes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou fill me with so much repugnance, I can\u2019t stand it,\u201d Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, told killer\u00a0Rex Heuermann.<\/p>\n

Hands clasped and resting on the defense table in an eastern Long Island courtroom,\u00a0Rex Heuermann\u00a0looked straight ahead and lightly tapped his fingers. The Long Island architect, who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting he killed eight women, faces the likelihood of a life sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cA million years isn\u2019t enough,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cNothing will ever make this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\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

Heuermann, who has remained largely silent through multiple court appearances since his 2023 arrest, will also have a chance to speak Wednesday, but it\u2019s not immediately clear if he will. His lawyers didn\u2019t respond to messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Asa Ellerup, his ex-wife, and their two grown children have said through their lawyers that they won\u2019t be attending the sentencing out of respect for the victim\u2019s families.<\/p>\n

Heuermann, 62, of Massapequa Park, pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.<\/p>\n

The sentencing fell on what would have been Taylor\u2019s 43rd birthday, cousin Violet Swager noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy birthday, Jess,\u201d Swager said as she dismissed Heuermann as a \u201cweak, disgusting coward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

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

Melissa Cann, Brainard-Barnes\u2019 sister, told the court she lived with \u201csurvivor\u2019s guilt\u201d for decades, wondering whether she could have done something more to protect her sister.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was a weight I carried everywhere,\u201d she said, sobbing deeply. \u201cThe guilt changed me. I could not let myself have happiness. I convinced myself this was all my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, she said, that guilt is \u201cnot mine to carry. It is for Rex and Rex alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and most of their remains were found on a desolate parkway not far from Long Island\u2019s Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles from Manhattan.<\/p>\n

But two of the killings took place years earlier. Costilla\u2019s remains were found in 1993, more than 60 miles away in the Hamptons, while Vergata\u2019s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island, more than 20 miles east of Gilgo Beach.<\/p>\n

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

The search for the killer of the other women, though, went cold for years until a renewed investigation identified Heuermann as a potential suspect in 2022.<\/p>\n

Detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.<\/p>\n

Eventually, they matched\u00a0DNA from a pizza crust\u00a0Heuermann had discarded in a Manhattan trash can to genetic material extracted from\u00a0highly degraded hair fragments\u00a0found on the women\u2019s remains.<\/p>\n

Investigators amassed other evidence including cellphone and tracking data showing Heuermann arranged meetings with some of the victims shortly before their disappearances.<\/p>\n

Then in 2024, after Heuermann\u2019s arrest, prosecutors recovered what they described as a \u201cblueprint\u201d for the killings from his computer files. Among the documents was a\u00a0series of checklists\u00a0with reminders to limit noise, clean the bodies and destroy evidence.<\/p>\n

As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann has agreed to cooperate with the FBI\u2019s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.<\/p>\n

Heuermann has spent the\u00a0past three years\u00a0alone in a segregated cell at the 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 Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, who oversees the Riverhead jail.<\/p>\n

He will serve out his term in a state prison to be determined later.<\/p>\n

Follow Philip Marcelo at https:\/\/x.com\/philmarcelo. Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Rex Heuermann faces the likelihood of a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the Gilgo Beach serial killings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nVictims\u2019 relatives condemn New York\u2019s Gilgo Beach serial killer at sentencing - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15714\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Victims\u2019 relatives condemn New York\u2019s Gilgo Beach serial killer at sentencing - 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