Gilgo Beach murders – updates: Serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann charged with fourth murder

Follow updates here as Rex Heuermann returns to court

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann is expected to be charged with the murder of a fourth woman, whose body was found dumped along the shores of Long Island over a decade ago.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney is slated to announce what is tipped to be a “significant development” in the investigation into the Gilgo Beach killings in a press conference on Tuesday morning, according to a press release from his office.

The briefing – joined by members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr, and Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Robert Waring – will take place after Mr Heuermann appears for a court hearing at 9.30am ET at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead on Long Island.

In the court appearance, new charges are expected to be unsealed against Mr Heuermann, sources told NBC News and CBS News.

Read the full story:

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney is slated to announce what is tipped to be a “significant development” in the investigation into the Gilgo Beach killings in a press conference on Tuesday morning, according to a press release from his office.

In an announcement, shared with the media on Monday, the DA’s office announced a press briefing at 9.30am ET.

The briefing – joined by members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr, and Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Robert Waring – will take place after Mr Heuermann appears for a court hearing at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead on Long Island.

Rex Heuermann is scheduled to appear in court at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead on Long Island at 9.30 am ET on Tuesday.

The accused serial killer had not been expected to appear in court until February, but a new hearing was slated for 16 January.

In the court appearance, new charges are expected to be unsealed against Mr Heuermann, sources told NBC News and CBS News.

The accused killer is already charged with the murders of three women – Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

Now, he is expected to be hit with charges over the murder of a fourth woman.

The Independent will give you all the updates here.

His Manhattan business described him as a registered architect with over 30 years’ experience.

His neighbours described him as a “family man” living with his wife and two children in a tight-knit community in Suffolk County.

But now authorities are describing him as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer who unleashed terror along the shores of Long Island more than a decade ago.

Rex Heuermann was arrested on 13 July in connection to the shocking murder case where body after body was found dumped along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

So who is the man suspected of being the infamous Long Island serial killer?

The remains of at least 11 victims were found in the Gilgo Beach area though it remains unclear if they are all the work of the same killer. Many were sex workers who offered escort services on Craigslist or worked in New York City.

The first victim found was Melissa Barthelemy, whose remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on 11 December 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert – a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished after visiting a client in Oak Park and making a chilling 911 call where she revealed fears for her life.

Two days later on 13 December, the remains of three other victims – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello – were found close by.

All three women were known to advertise escort services on Craigslist.

Brainard-Barnes was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City while Costello was last seen leaving her North Babylon home one day in early September 2010. Waterman was last seen alive in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

Brainard-Barnes, Waterman, Costello and Barthelemy are known as “the Gilgo Four”.

Seven months later, on 26 July 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were found in a wooded area in Manorville during the ongoing search for Gilbert. Taylor worked as an escort in New York City.

Valerie Mack also worked as an escort but was last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011 but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

On 4 August 2023, Long Island officials announced that another victim – known as Jane Doe 7 or Fire Island Jane Doe – had also finally been identified as 34-year-old Karen Vergata who was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort.

Some of the victims have never been identified.

The skeletal remains of an Asian male, aged between 17 and 23 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall and with poor dental health, were found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. He is believed to have died around five to 10 years earlier.

That same day, the remains of a female toddler were discovered. She was later identified as the daughter of the also-unidentified female victim dubbed “Peaches” whose remains were found in Nassau County.

This is the moment that Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann was arrested on a crowded New York street back in July.

For around two decades, the sands and marshes of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach kept a dark secret.

A killer or killers roamed the locality, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them.

Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered.

Then, in 2010, a chilling 911 call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.

What they discovered was far more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Over the next year, the remains of 11 victims – mainly female escorts – were discovered dumped in the area, plunging the Suffolk County community into terror.

But, the case went cold and no arrests were made, no suspects were named and there was no justice for the victims and their families.

That is, until now...

Rex Heuermann’s DNA was found on one of the victims, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said that a male hair had been found on the burlap used to wrap Waterman’s body before the killer dumped her along Gilgo Beach.

When the hair was first retrieved in 2010, it was unsuitable for DNA analysis, according to the court documents.

But that hair was kept safely locked away and was submitted for analysis in 2020. A DNA profile came back.

Now, to check if it matched Mr Heuermann, investigators needed his DNA to compare the samples.

This January, a surveillance team watching the suspect saw him chuck a pizza box into the trash close to his office in Manhattan.

They nabbed the box and found a leftover pizza crust inside.

The forensics later came back: it was Mr Heuermann’s hair found on Waterman’s body.

The hunt for the Gilgo Beach killer all began when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old woman working as a sex worker, disappeared.

It was one night in May 2010 when Gilbert called 911 for help after leaving a client’s house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

In the chilling call, released last year, Gilbert is heard repeatedly telling the 911 operator that “somebody’s after me” and saying that she feared for her life.

She is also heard arguing with a man – who she refers to as Mike – who appears to be trying to encourage her to get back into a car; at one point, she is heard asking if he is “going to kill” her.

“These people are plotting to kill me,” she tells the dispatcher.

She was never seen alive again.

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of a different woman.

Over the next weeks and months, 10 victims were found before Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011.

Her cause of death is widely contested, with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the client’s home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation.