Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann slammed as ‘small man’ as judge gives max sentence for murder spree
The 62-year-old also confessed to an uncharged eighth murder, with victims found from the Hamptons to Gilgo Beach
By Michael Ruiz Fox News
Published June 17, 2026 12:10pm EDT
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Rex Heuermann, the Long Island serial killer who has admitted to the murders of eight women between 1993 and 2010, will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Judge Timothy Mazzei on Wednesday handed down three consecutive sentences of life with no parole followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 to life — the maximum possible under New York law.
Heuermann, 62, spoke in court before he was sentenced.
"I’m responsible," he said. "The words I would say have no meaning."
One of the victims' families told him to speak up. Mazzei stepped in and said: "I know that you’re sorry you got caught. I assume you’re sorry for what you did to your wife and children…Are you at least a little bit sorry for what you did to these eight women?"
Heuermann nodded yes and said he is.
"You’re a disgusting and despicable small man, if you’re a man at all," Mazzei said. "And you’re a coward."
After giving him the maximum possible sentence, Mazzei told bailiffs to "get him out of here."
Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven of the murders on April 8 and confessed to an uncharged eighth.
The victims were found concealed across different parts of Long Island, from the Hamptons to Gilgo Beach. Some were dismembered. All had been strangled.
They have been identified as Sandra Costilla, 28, found in North Sea; Karen Vergata, 34, found on Fire Island and near Tobay Beach; Valerie Mack, 24, found in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach; Jessica Taylor, 20, found in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway — and the so-called Gilgo Four, who were all found just east of Gilgo Beach in the brush north of Ocean Parkway. They were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
Gilgo Beach, about 45 miles east of New York City, where Heuermann worked, and about 15 miles from his former home in Massapequa Park.
Concerns of a serial killer first emerged in late 2010 after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old woman who placed panicked 911 calls from the Oak Beach community before vanishing into the surrounding marsh.
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