Long Island-based serial killer Rex Heuermann has been sentenced to life in prison

Rex Heuermann, the New York architect who killed women for at least 17 years until police determined their deaths were the work of an assassin, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole.

The sentencing caps an unusual investigation that has solved one of New York’s most perplexing mysteries — one that began as a series of seemingly unconnected and unmarked disappearances of mostly young sex workers. Over time, it became the focus of true crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began finding the remains of victims along a beach road near Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

“Are you at least sorry?” Judge Timothy Mazzei asked him Wednesday in a loud, angry voice.

Heuermann nodded and appeared on his lips: “Yes.”

“You are disgusting – a despicable man, if you are a man,” said the judge, his voice rising. “And he is a coward.”

As Heuermann was led away in handcuffs, spectators in the packed courtroom appeared to jeer.

The children of the victims express grief

Heuermann has been very quiet about his numerous court appearances since his arrest in 2023. His ex-wife and two grown children were not in the sentence, as they said through their lawyers that they would not respect the families of the victims.

Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty in April to the murders of seven women: Barthelemy, Taylor, Valerie Mack, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Sandra Costilla.

Heuermann also admitted in court that he killed an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, although he was never charged in her death. He said he strangled his victims and dismembered some of their bodies.

After decades of waiting for justice, relatives of the murdered women laid to rest on Wednesday.

“He fills me with so much disgust, I can’t stand it,” said Jasmine Robinson, the victim’s cousin Jessica Taylor.

Brainard-Barnes’ two children, who were seven and one when she disappeared, said Wednesday that she never saw them grow into adulthood. Her sister, Melissa Cann, said she lived with “survivor’s guilt” for decades, wondering if there was anything she could have done to protect Brainard-Barnes.

“It was a weight I carried everywhere,” Cann said, sobbing. But, he said, that guilt “isn’t mine to bear. It belongs to Rex and Rex alone.”

Liliana Waterman was three years old when her mother Megan disappeared. The daughter said she did not fully understand what had happened until she turned nine.

“All of a sudden, my world came crashing down,” she said. “Was he in pain? Was he afraid?”

The Gilgo Beach investigation began in earnest in late 2010, after police found a large number of human remains along the beach’s main road on Long Island’s South Shore. The remains were the result of the search for Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker whose death in Gilgo Beach was ruled an accidental drowning by Suffolk County officials.

Investigators used DNA analysis and other evidence to identify the victims. In some cases, they have been able to link them to fossils found elsewhere on Long Island years ago.

Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and most of their remains were found in a park not far from Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, about 80 kilometers from Manhattan, where Heuermann worked. But other remains were found in the Hamptons and on Fire Island, miles away from Gilgo Beach.

“I hope she suffers,” said Amanda Funderburg, the victim’s sister Melissa Barthelemy. Funderburg recounts when she was 15 years old when she received a mocking phone call from her days after Barthelemy disappeared.

The pizza box released the same DNA

The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a truck a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

Finally, they matched DNA from a pizza crust Heuermann threw in a Manhattan trash can to genes extracted from heavily damaged hair strands found on the women’s remains.

Investigators gathered other evidence, including cell phone and tracking data that showed Heuermann was arranging meetings with certain victims shortly before their disappearances. After Heuermann’s arrest, prosecutors found what they called a “blueprint” for the murder in his computer files.

The disappearance has been the subject of many true crime shows and documentaries. Robert Kolker’s 2013 book about several missing women, The Lost Girlsit served as the basis for a Netflix movie seven years later starring Amy Ryan, Gabriel Byrne and Lola Kirke.

As part of his plea deal, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.

He has spent the past three years in solitary confinement at the Suffolk County Jail.