RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — The former Manhattan architect who led a double life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer came face-to-face Wednesday with the families of his victims before he was sentenced to multiple life terms at an emotionally wrenching hearing.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
One by one, relatives of the women Rex Heuermann admitted to strangling and dismembering addressed the court and delivered searing victim impact statements.
“What you have done to our family is beyond what words can express,” said JoAnn Mack, the adoptive mother of Valerie Mack, who disappeared in 2000.
Some of the family members wept as they described their trauma and denounced the confessed killer. The 62-year-old kept his head down as the statements were read even as some speakers demanded he look them in the eye.
Melissa Cann, a sister of victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes, broke down in sobs as she said her sibling was “not just murdered, she was the victim of a predator and a serial killer so evil, it has been unbearable.”
“You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women behind a mask, a man without empathy, without a soul, who hunted tortured and murdered women,” Cann said of Heuermann.
Amanda Funderburg, a sister of victim Melissa Barthelemy, condemned Heuermann as an “ogre,” a “repulsive monster,” and a “demon inside and out.”
“I hope you take a spot in hell,” Funderburg said, “because I will see you there.”
After all the statements were read aloud, Judge Timothy Mazzei asked Heuermann whether there was anything he wished to say. “There are no words I can say,” Heuermann replied. “The words I would say have no meaning.”
Mazzei then asked whether Heuermann was sorry he killed his victims. “Yes, I am,” Heuermann replied.
“You are a disgusting, despicable and small man, and you are a coward,” Mazzei said before handing down Heuermann’s life sentences, which he was ordered to serve concurrently without the possibility of parole.
“Get him out of here,” Mazzei said to cheers.
Suffolk County Police Dept.
In early April, Heuermann pleaded guilty to counts related to seven murders and admitted that he intentionally caused the death of an eighth woman, Karen Vergata. However, as part of a plea deal, he was not charged with Vergata’s murder.
Heuermann — who lived in Massapequa Park, a middle-class suburb roughly an hour east of Manhattan — was arrested in 2023 based on a trove of evidence, including DNA traces from a discarded pizza crust found in a midtown Manhattan garbage can.
The arrest effectively reopened a case that had gone cold, perplexing investigators and leaving victims’ families in agony.
He was charged with the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27. The women had disappeared in 2009 and 2010. All three women were sex workers whose bodies were found in Gilgo Beach in 2010. Their bodies were bound at the head, midsection and legs by burlap.
In 2024, Heuermann was charged with killing a fourth woman: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. He was later charged with killing three more women whose remains were found on the beach parkway: Jessica Taylor, 20, who disappeared in 2003; Sandra Costilla, 28, whose remains were found in Southampton in 1993; and Valerie Mack, 24.
The serial killings terrified many residents on Long Island, a sprawling and densely populated suburb that is home to a mix of middle-class and wealthy families, including professionals who commute into New York City.
