'A million years isn’t enough': Victims' relatives confront Gilgo Beach
serial killer at sentencing
[June 18, 2026]
By PHILIP MARCELO and JENNIFER PELTZ
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — After decades waiting for justice, relatives of
women murdered by New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer laid into him
Wednesday before he was sentenced to life in prison. He told them: “I am
responsible” for the crimes.
“There are no words I can say," said Rex Heuermann, the Long Island
architect who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting
he killed eight women. “The words I would say would have no meaning.”
The sentencing capped an extraordinary investigation that solved one of
New York’s most perplexing mysteries. The seemingly unconnected and
largely overlooked disappearances of young women became the focus of
true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began
discovering the victims’ skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a
coastal parkway.
Heuermann, 62, will have no possibility of parole.
“A million years isn’t enough,” Violet Swager, a cousin of victim
Jessica Taylor, said. “Nothing will ever make this right.”
Judge calls Heuermann ‘despicable’
As a series of victims' kin spoke, Heuermann sat with his hands on the
defense table, looking straight ahead and lightly tapping his fingers.
Then Amanda Funderburg, victim Melissa Barthelemy's sister, commanded
Heuermann to look at her. He glanced in her direction, but his eyes were
slightly downcast.
“I hope you suffer,” Funderburg said as she recounted a taunting phone
call she received from him days after Barthelemy disappeared. Funderburg
was 15 years old.
JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack, told the killer that her
daughter “had dreams, and you took them all away from her.”
“Justice has been done, but it can’t replace what has been taken,” Mack
said.
Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven
women: Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello,
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.
Heuermann also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen
Vergata, though he was never charged in her death. He said he strangled
his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their
bodies.
“Are you at least a little bit sorry for that?” Judge Timothy Mazzei
asked Wednesday in an indignant voice.
Heuermann nodded and said “Yes, I am.”
“You are disgusting — a despicable man, if you are a man at all,” the
judge said, his voice rising. “And you are a coward.”
As Heuermann was led away in handcuffs, spectators in the packed
courtroom jeered.
Victims' families recount a confounding loss
Liliana Waterman, who was 3 when her mom vanished, said she has been
waiting her entire life to confront her mother’s killer.
“She can finally rest in peace,” Waterman said outside the courthouse.
“He can’t hurt anybody else.”
Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010 and their remains
were all found on Long Island. Most were along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo
Beach. Costilla’s remains were found in 1993 in the Hamptons, while
Vergata’s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island.
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Gilgo Serial Killer Rex Heuermann is sentenced before Judge Timothy
Mazzei at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Wednesday,
June 17, 2026. (James Carbone /Newsday via AP, Pool)
Brainard-Barnes’ two children, who were 7 and 1 when she disappeared
in 2007, underscored Wednesday how her absence shaped their lives
and how she never got to know the adults they became.
Her sister, Melissa Cann, sobbed deeply as she described wondering
for decades if she could have done more to protect Brainard-Barnes.
But, she said, that guilt is “not mine to carry. It is for Rex and
Rex alone.”
Heuermann’s ex-wife and two adult children said they did not attend
the sentencing out of respect for the victim’s families.
How the Gilgo Beach serial killer was caught
The case spilled into view in 2010, when investigators started to
find remains along Ocean Parkway while looking into the
disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, whose death
was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.
The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a
pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims
disappeared in 2010.
Eventually, they matched DNA from a pizza crust Heuermann discarded
in a Manhattan trash can to genetic material extracted from highly
degraded hair fragments found on the women’s remains.
Investigators amassed other evidence, including cellphone and
tracking data showing Heuermann arranged meetings with some victims
shortly before their disappearances.
After Heuermann's 2023 arrest, prosecutors recovered what they
described as a “blueprint” for the killings from his computer files.
Among the documents was a series of checklists with reminders to
limit noise, clean the bodies and destroy evidence.
Life behind bars
Heuermann will soon be transferred to a state prison after having
spent the past three years alone in a segregated cell at the Suffolk
County jail, reading crime novels and striking up a brief
correspondence with the infamous “Happy Face Killer.”
Calling him “a monster,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray
Tierney declared there was nothing Heuermann could say to mitigate
his deeds.
“There is no doubt this defendant is sorry,” Tierney said. “He is
sorry he got caught.”
Defense lawyer Michael Brown said Heuermann has shed tears, and
there may be “some sincerity in his expressions of remorse.” His
client appeared “as normal as they come” during their interactions,
Brown said, in stark contrast with his crimes.
“He’s somewhat of a charismatic figure when you talk to him,” Brown
said.
As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann has agreed to cooperate with
the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial
killers.
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Peltz reported from New York.
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