Rex Heuerman pleads guilty to Gilgo Beach murder
Rex Heuerman has pleaded guilty to eight murders in Gilgo Beach after a years-long investigation on Long Island, New York.
Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuerman has pleaded guilty to murdering eight women over a period of nearly 20 years on Long Island, and admitted to his now ex-wife that he murdered seven women in their home, she said in a new documentary.
Heuerman initially pleaded not guilty to seven murders, but changed his plea to guilty on April 8, and also confessed to the eighth murder. According to his confession, the 62-year-old architect murdered the women between about 1993 and 2010.
Asa Ererup, who was married to Heuerman for 27 years and filed for divorce in 2023 after Heuerman was arrested and first indicted on three murders, revealed in the Peacock documentary “Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets” that her husband confessed to her murder.
“He looked very nervous. Very, very nervous,” Ellerup said in a preview shared by Peacock. “He said he murdered eight women.”
“He said I wasn’t home the entire time,” Ellerup said. Prosecutors said she and her daughter were out of town during many of the murders.
Asked if anyone was killed in the house, Ellerup said: “He said yes, they were killed in his room downstairs. All but one.”
This episode is scheduled to be released on April 23rd. The preview published by Peacock did not include when Ellerup and Heuerman’s conversation took place. Ellerup’s attorney did not immediately return a request from USA TODAY.
Heuerman’s guilty plea is for the murder of 22-year-old Megan Waterman. Melissa Barthelemy, 24 years old. Amber Costello, 27 years old. Maureen Brainerd Burns, 25 years old. Jessica Taylor, 20 years old. Sandra Kostila, 28 years old. He also admitted to killing Karen Bergata, 34.
Some of the women are believed to have worked as sex workers.
In 2010 and 2011, several bodies were discovered along New York’s Gilgo Beach, leading authorities to fear that a serial killer was at work. It took another 10 years for investigators to match the DNA from Heuerman’s pizza to the man’s hair found with his body. He was first implicated in a series of murders involving a pickup truck. Authorities said one of the women’s bodies also had hair that contained DNA matching Heuerman’s daughter, who would have been an infant at the time of the murder.
Mr. Heuerman is scheduled to appear in court again on June 17th for sentencing. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders of three women, and 100 consecutive years to life imprisonment for the murders of four women. The Suffolk County district attorney’s office said he agreed to admit to killing Bergata, and her case is subject to guilty pleas in seven other murder cases.
After pleading guilty, Ellerup asked for privacy for his family.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Their loss is immeasurable and the focus should be on them in this moment,” Ellerup said.
Contributed by: N’dea Yancey-Bragg
