Gilgo Beach — Rex Heuermann

The Gilgo Beach investigation began in 2010 with the search for a missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, along a stretch of Long Island's South Shore. That search turned up ten other sets of remains, and Suffolk County police would later call it one of the most consequential homicide investigations in the island's history. For thirteen years no one was charged.

In July 2023 police arrested Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect who lived in Massapequa. He was first charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, three of the four women found wrapped in burlap within a few hundred feet of each other in December 2010, and then with the murder of the fourth, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Investigators tied him to the killings through DNA and years of phone and travel records.

In April 2026 Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven murders: Barthelemy, Waterman, Brainard-Barnes, Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla. He also admitted killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata. On June 17, 2026, after victim impact statements from families who had waited more than a decade, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He gave a brief statement in court. Prosecutors have said he is cooperating with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and any further disclosures about unsolved cases would come from that work.

The case is resolved. It is filed under Unspeakable, a register the board reserves for cases where guilt has been established by plea or conviction.