The accused Gilgo beach serial killer is expected to plead guilty during his next court appearance, according to two sources close to the case.
Rex Heuermann had previously pleaded not guilty in the deaths of seven women dating back to 1993. But sources familiar with the case said Heuermann will change his plea to guilty when he next appears before a judge on April 8.
Heuermann’s attorney and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawyer for the estranged wife of Heuermann, as well as the lawyer for his adult children, declined to comment.
Heuermann, a Manhattan architect who lived on Long Island, was arrested on July 13, 2023 and charged in the murders of Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. In Jan. 2024, he was charged in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and less than five months later, was charged with murdering Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor. In Dec. 2024, an indictment was unsealed, charging Heuermann in the death of Valerie Mack.
Remains of most of the victims were found on an isolated stretch of a shoreline parkway not far from Heuermann’s home, authorities said.
The trial was set to begin in September.
Heuermann and his attorneys had tried to separate the sprawling case into as many as five separate trials, because the killings involved different time frames, torture and mutilation techniques, and dump sites for the bodies. The defense also contended that jurors would struggle with the “volume and complexity” of the evidence in the case if all seven killings were tried together. They argued the 62-year-old Massapequa resident risked being improperly convicted by the “cumulative effect” of the evidence against him.
Prosecutors claim Rex Heuermann, the lead suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings case, made hundreds of calls to sex workers in the years before his arrest. NBC New York’s Greg Cergol reports.
The judge in the case denied the defense’s motion, siding with prosecutors who argued that the killings were committed in a similar matter and that evidence in the cases overlaps. Prosecutors also maintained that many of the victims are connected by overlapping evidence and witnesses.
The defense had also tried multiple times to toss out some DNA evidence that prosecutors had said overwhelmingly implicates Heuermann. The judge turned down two attempts by Heuermann’s legal team, who argued that DNA evidence developed by Astrea Forensics violated state public health law because the California lab does not hold a required permit from New York’s health department to handle lab specimens.
Prosecutors said in court filings that the state health law cited by defense lawyers applied only to certain clinical labs — not ones used in criminal investigations. The judge ultimately sided with the prosecution, marking the first time advanced DNA analysis was set to be allowed as evidence in a New York court.
