Suspected Gilgo Seaside serial killer Rex Heuermann charged in slayings of two extra ladies

Accused Gilgo Seaside serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged with the brutal murders of two extra ladies whose stays have been discovered over twenty years in the past after authorities discovered a damning doc during which he mentioned his crimes in “excruciating element,” prosecutors introduced Thursday.

Heuermann, 60, was again in courtroom in Riverhead, New York, on Thursday morning the place he was arraigned on homicide costs within the 2003 dismemberment dying of 20-year-old Jessica Taylor and the 1993 dying of 28-year-old Sandra Costilla. He pleaded not responsible to the stunning costs that got here simply days after one other exhaustive search at his Lengthy Island dwelling.

Prosecutors revealed that Heuermann saved a “blueprint” of his crimes on a tough drive in his basement.

Suffolk County District Legal professional Ray Tierney mentioned the Gilgo Seaside Activity Power believes “this planning doc that was utilized by Heuermann to plot out his kills with excruciating element”

“His motivations, meticulous planning, and clear intent have been apparent,” Tierney mentioned. “His intent was nothing brief however to homicide these victims.”

Legal professional John Ray, who represents the victims’ households, mentioned this digital knowledge was important to the brand new costs.

“He didn’t suppose that any of these items that he listed would ever be discovered as a result of they have been buried inside his digital gadgets that he had erased a very long time in the past,” Tierney instructed reporters on Thursday morning. “What he didn’t acknowledge is the sophistication of contemporary digital knowledge investigation, and that’s what these items circled.”

The doc includes a collection of checklists with duties to finish earlier than, throughout and after the killings, in addition to sensible classes for “subsequent time.”

Among the many dozens of entries written are reminders to wash the our bodies and destroy proof, to “get sleep earlier than hunt” and to “have story set.”

One part, titled “issues to recollect,” seems to focus on classes from earlier killings, prosecutors mentioned, corresponding to utilizing heavier rope and limiting noise as a way to maximize “play time.” A “physique prep” guidelines consists of, amongst different objects, a notice to “take away head and arms.”

The previous Manhattan architect, who was first arrested in July 2023, has already been charged with the 2009 and 2010 murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes – collectively often known as the “Gilgo 4” – after their stays have been present in burlap sacks alongside Ocean Parkway.

The stays of the 4 ladies have been the primary of 10 discovered alongside a distant seaside parkway on Lengthy Island between late fall 2010 and early spring 2011. All 4 ladies have been intercourse staff, authorities have mentioned.

Jessica Taylor, a Poughkeepsie resident who labored as an escort in New York Metropolis, was discovered dismembered in a wooded space of Manorville, New York, on July 26, 2003. Her torso was discovered, however different elements have been lacking.

These stays, together with her head, arms and forearm have been found years later – alongside Ocean Parkway on March 29, 2011 – and initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5.”

Sandra Costilla was a resident of Queens whose stays have been discovered on November 20, 1993, on Cove Highway in North Sea, a Southampton city. She had not been included among the many group of Gilgo Seaside victims — till now.

As an alternative, investigators suspected that convicted serial killer John Bittrolff was linked to Costilla’s homicide, however he was by no means charged. He’s at present serving a 50-years-to-life sentence at Clinton Correctional Heart in Dannemora.

Prosecutors say a part of the doc that refers to a “physique prep” guidelines and a notice to “take away head and arms” might join Heuermann to a different sufferer, Valerie Mack.

Mack’s partial skeletal stays have been found close to the physique of Taylor after her disappearance in 2000.

Heuermann has not been charged within the dying of Mack. However requested throughout a information convention after Thursday’s listening to if he was a suspect, District Legal professional Ray Tierney replied, “That’s honest to say.”

New homicide costs comply with second huge search at suspect’s dwelling

Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla are the primary alleged victims of Heuermann who have been murdered earlier than 2007, in line with Newsday, which first reported information of the indictment this week.

That is additionally the primary time he’s been charged in reference to victims whose stays have been discovered dismembered and someplace aside from Ocean Parkway. This expands the world of the place he allegedly dumped our bodies by greater than 40 miles.

Heuermann, who has been held with out bail since his arrest on July 13, has pleaded not responsible to the 4 homicide costs. He was beforehand due again in courtroom for a standing listening to on June 18 till this week’s indictment got here by means of.

It comes simply days after Gilgo Seaside Activity Power investigators accomplished a second search of Heuermann’s dwelling in Massapequa Park and a search of an space of Manorville the place the partial stays of two Jessica Taylor — and Valerie Mack — have been discovered greater than twenty years in the past.

Taylor’s torso was discovered off Halsey Manor Lane in Manorville a couple of mile south of the place Valerie Mack’s stays have been found close to the Lengthy Island Expressway, Newsday reported. Nonetheless, Mack’s dying is just not part of the brand new indictment, sources instructed the paper.

Over the course of 9 days again in April of this 12 months, Gilgo Seaside Activity Power investigators searched the world of Manorville the place the stays of Taylor and Mack have been found, in addition to Heuermann’s dwelling.

A primary search of the home again in July lasted 12 days and turned up greater than 200 firearms, together with dozens saved in a basement vault. Investigators additionally tore up a wood deck, used an excavator to dig up the yard and scanned for buried objects with specialised gear.

Robert Macedonio, who represents Heuermann’s estranged spouse, Asa Ellerup, talked to Newsday final week after inspecting the situation of the Massapequa Park property following the latest search.

“It appears to be that the main target was within the basement,” Macedonio mentioned on the time.

“There doesn’t appear to be a lot disturbance within the loos [and] bedrooms.” However particulars of what precisely the investigators have been on the lookout for within the basement stays a thriller.

Gilgo Seaside sufferer was as soon as tied to a unique suspect

Investigators descended on Lengthy Island’s Manorville in April on the lookout for proof within the 1993 homicide of Sandra Costilla, which they’d hoped to tie to convicted assassin John Bittrolff, 57, police sources with data of the case instructed the New York Submit on the time.

The intensive search shifted to North Sea, a hamlet inside Southampton City, the place she had been discovered on November 20, 1993, crushed and strangled. She was nude and her arms have been tied behind her.

Costilla, who additionally used the final identify Cutello, was 28 years previous when she was killed. She had lived in Ridgewood, Queens till round 1992, police mentioned on the time. And information confirmed she had additionally beforehand lived in an condominium in Flushing, Queens

She was initially linked to the murders of Colleen McNamee and Rita Tangredi, who John Bittrolff was later convicted of killing.

However the DNA linking him to the opposite two victims was not discovered at Costilla’s scene, former Assistant District Legal professional Robert Biancavilla mentioned in 2014.

Her dying had not been tied to the Gilgo Seaside investigation till Okay-9 items spent 5 hours in April looking out the wooded North Sea property the place her stays had been discovered, Newsday reported.

Whereas the opposite Gilgo Seaside homicide victims have been described by police as intercourse staff, Costilla was not.

Simply months earlier than Heuermann was arrested at his Manhattan agency final 12 months, Bittrolff was dismissed because the Gilgo Seaside suspect.

Gilgo Seaside saga started with a lacking intercourse employee

The case started again in Might 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a younger lady working as a intercourse employee, vanished after leaving a consumer’s home on foot close to Gilgo Seaside. She known as 911 for assist saying she feared for her life and was by no means seen alive once more.

Throughout a seek for Gilbert in a dense thicket near the seaside, police found human stays. Inside days, 4 victims had been discovered. By spring 2011, the variety of victims rose to 10.

Gilbert’s physique was then present in December 2011. Her reason for dying is broadly contested with authorities lengthy claiming that it’s not related to the serial killer or killers however that she died from unintended drowning as she fled from the consumer’s dwelling.

Nonetheless, an unbiased post-mortem commissioned by her household dominated that she died by strangulation and her household continues to imagine she was murdered.

Courtroom information present that Heuermann was linked to the “Gilgo 4” murders by means of a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner telephones, “sadistic” on-line searches and telephone calls taunting victims’ households.

E-mail accounts allegedly utilized by Heuermann have been used “to entry and/or conduct searches associated to pornography, rape, torture, and intercourse staff a number of thousand occasions,” prosecutors mentioned.

Among the many harrowing searches have been: “post-mortem pictures of feminine”, “tales of rape audio”, “escorts manhattan”, and “very skinny white teen tied up porn.”

His DNA was additionally discovered on one of many victims, whereas his spouse’s hair was discovered on three of the 4 ladies he’s related to, in line with prosecutors.

Investigators are persevering with to work to find out if Heuermann can be linked to any of the opposite victims – whereas regulation enforcement officers throughout the nation are probing chilly case murders for any potential ties.

A trial date has not been set.