James Carbone/Pool via REUTERSRex Heuermann, known as the Gilgo Beach serial killer, who admitted to brutally murdering eight women, received the maximum sentence on Wednesday.
He will serve three life sentences for first-degree murder, plus 25 years to life on four second-degree murder charges, all running consecutively.
The sentencing followed a series of angry, poignant statements on Wednesday, as victims’ family members described how the brutal losses created “lifelong devastation” for them.
In April, Heuermann confirmed that he strangled and bound his victims before scattering their remains along Long Island’s remote beaches.
“You are a disgusting and despicable, small man, if you’re a man at all. And you’re a coward,” said Judge Timothy Mazzei as he handed down the maximum sentence in a Riverhead, Long Island courtroom. “Get him out of here.”
The courtroom erupted in cheers.
Heuermann, who appeared in a dark suit, blue shirt and grey tie, gave a brief statement before the sentence, claiming responsibility, then acknowledged that at this point, his words had “no meaning.” When asked by the judge if he was “a little bit sorry”, he replied, “yes”.
The murders took place between 1993 and 2010, but the case took over a decade to solve.
After initially pleading not guilty, Heuermann ultimately admitted to the murders of: Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Costello, 27; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Jessica Taylor, 20; Valerie Mack, 24; Sandra Costilla, 28; and Karen Vergata, 34.
After the hearing, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney gave credit to the families of the victims. “I want them to get their revenge by going on to have wonderful lives…now it’s time for them to heal,” he said.
BBC NewsHeuermann’s defence attorney Michael Brown said he spoke to his client after the hearing briefly and that he will be visiting him in prison.
“From his standpoint, we saw the writing on the wall. He wanted to spare his family the ordeal of going to trial,” said Brown.
The hearing started with fiery statements from victims’ family members.
Amanda, sister of Melissa Barthelemy, described to the court the phone calls Heuermann made to her family after killing her sister, detailing how he was letting her sister’s body “rot” and how he raped her. “I was 15,” she said.
She addressed him directly: “You can look at me when I’m talking to you. It’s been 17 years since we last spoke.”
For the first time, Heuermann, who had been staring straight ahead blankly, turned towards the podium, then immediately back.
“The things I’d do to you are worse than what you’ve ever done to anyone,” she said as gasps were heard in the court. “Save me a spot in hell because I’ll see you there.”
James Carbone/Pool via REUTERSTaylor’s cousin told the court on Wednesday that she will never forget getting calls that parts of her cousin’s body had been found on Gilgo Beach.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around the word ‘torso’,” she said, repeating “headless and handless”.
She called Heuermann “sick, twisted, heartless”. “23 years we waited. For a while it felt like this day would never come,” she said.
Police arrested Heuermann, a married father of two living in the suburb of Massapequa Park, in 2023. The 62-year-old architect was taken into custody by Suffolk County police who swarmed his Midtown Manhattan office after tying him to the murders with DNA from a pizza box.
Heuermann was first charged in the murders of seven women, but in April, he pleaded guilty to an additional killing in 1996. Though many of his victims were missing for years, the case came to light in 2010 when investigators found four sets of remains within a quarter mile of each other on Gilgo Beach.
“Mr Heuermann, you have done horrendous things to Valerie’s earthly body, but you have not touched the real Valerie,” said Mack’s father.
“I can only imagine when my day comes and I stand before Jesus, Valerie will be at his side.”
Heuermann’s victims are all believed to be sex workers at the time of their death, some of them contacted by him through their advertisements on Craigslist.
At the time, some of them had young children – now adults – who the court heard from during the hearing.
Nicolette Brainard-Barnes, daughter of Maureen, acknowledged that her mother was a sex worker, which she said led her name to be “slandered”.
“Like every sex worker, my mother was an entire human being,” she said.
She said she was only 7 when her mother disappeared. “I had to wonder where she was,” she said. “I was a little girl and I needed my mom.”
Her whole life has been shaped by her mother’s absence, she said.
“She was young at heart, but she was also just young,” she said. “Now I’m nearly two years older than she will never be.”
Liliana Waterman, Megan’s daughter, was 4 when her mother’s body was found. She said she learned details of the crime on the internet when she was 9.
“I remember asking my grandparents what the words ‘prostitute’ and ‘pimp’ meant,” she said.
She wondered if her mother was scared or if it was her fault, she said.
The sister of Maureen Brainard-Barnes broke down into sobs as she talked about how much she missed her.
“Nothing could have prepared me for the day Maureen didn’t come home,” she told the court Wednesday. “This was not only a destruction of life, this has become a lifelong devastation of a family.”
Police investigated the deaths for over a decade, and had been sitting on a tip that – once acted upon – led to the killer within weeks.
The Suffolk County Police Department did not involve federal investigators in the probe at first, and leaders of the investigation faced separate obstruction scandals. In 2022, with new leadership, Suffolk County Police created a task force to investigate the murders – bringing together federal and local law enforcement – which led them to Heuermann in six weeks.
The police acted on a description given to police in 2010 by the roommate of Costello, after she had a run-in with a client. The roommate described a large man he described as looking like “an ogre” who drove a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, an unusual vehicle.
Family members of the victims have alleged police investigations were not aggressive enough because the victims were sex workers. Some Long Island residents agreed, saying they were horrified by how long it took to get justice.
