Who were victims of Gilgo Beach serial killer?
A suspected serial killer has been arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders — and now his victims are again taking center stage in the chilling saga that has gripped the nation for more than a decade.
The man who was in custody Friday is 59-year-old Rex Heuermann, a New York City architect and married dad of two living in Massapequa Park, The Post can confirm.
The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010, a source told The Post.
But the sprawling, years-long investigation that has led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County, which occurred between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most of the victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two noteworthy exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Follow The Post’s live blog for updates on the Gilgo Beach serial killings arrest
Here is what we know about the Gilgo Beach victims:
Melissa Barthelemy
Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.
Barthelemy advertised on Adult Friend Finder and other sites under the aliases “Chloe” and “VerySexyChloe.” She had the words “Blaze” and “Focus” tattooed on her back, and letters on her chest. She was known to meet clients at bars, restaurants and hotels on Manhattan’s West Side.
On the night of her final sighting, Barthelemy told a friend she was going to see a man and would be back in the morning. Her cellphone records show she traveled from the Bronx to Manhattan, likely by taxi.
Barthelemy’s mother had not heard from her or been able to contact her for a few days, so she reported her missing to the NYPD on July 18, 2009. The investigation showed that the woman’s cellphone pinged in Manhattan, Freeport, Massapequa and Lindenhurst.
After Barthelemy’s disappearance, her younger sister received a string of taunting phone calls from someone using the victim’s phone. These calls were believed to have come from the sicko killer and were made from the area near Penn Station.
On December 11, 2010, Barthelemy’s skeletal remains were found on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, during the search for another missing sex worker, Shannan Gilbert.
Although she was the first victim found, she is believed to be the second of the so-called “Gilgo Four” to be killed.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old and living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.
At the time, Brainard-Barnes was working as a prostitute, advertising her services on Craigslist and Backpage under the names “Juliana” or “Marie.” Her routine was to travel to Manhattan for a few days to work as an escort, then return home to Connecticut. While in Manhattan, she was known to stay at various budget motels in Midtown.
On occasion, Brainard-Barnes would travel with another woman who worked out of a different room at the same hotel. They both may have used a male friend, whom they would refer to as their cousin, to accompany them and offer protection.
Brainard-Barnes traveled with her gal pal the weekend she went missing, but her friend returned home early and Brainard-Barnes stayed behind. She was last heard from at 11:43 p.m. July 9, 2007, when she called another friend in Connecticut. Although she was known to work out of motel rooms, that night she told her friend she would be going to meet someone on an “out-call.”
Brainard-Barnes was reported missing on July 14. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway during the search for Shannan Gilbert.
She is believed to be the first victim in the “Gilgo Four.”
Who is Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann?
A suspected serial killer has been arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island, The Post can confirm.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a married dad of two and architect at a New York City firm, has a home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park, sources told The Post.
His arrest is tied to the “Gilgo Four,” four women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in 2010.
The body of Barthelemy was first found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010, sparking fears of a serial killer in the area.
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By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10, including eight women as well as an unidentified man and toddler.
Heuermann’s arrest comes after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February 2022.
Amber Lynn Costello
Amber Lynn Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello used the names “Carolina” or “Mia,” and had tattoos of “Kaos” on her neck, a butterfly on her lower back and the word “Margeret” on her leg.
Costello had moved to New York from Clearwater, Florida, and had completed a 28-day drug rehab, but had relapsed not long before her disappearance.
Costello and her housemates shared a cellphone. The other female roommate was also a sex worker, and the men would arrange dates with clients for the women. Costello did “in-calls” at her home, as well as “out-calls.”
When Costello would meet clients at her house, the two male roommates would often run a scam: Once a john had paid money but before any sex acts occurred, they would confront him, saying Costello was their girlfriend, and the man would flee.
Costello was last seen leaving her home on September 2, 2010, to meet a client for sex. Costello did not have her cellphone with her at the time and she was never reported missing.
Costello’s body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway. She is believed to be the fourth victim of the “Gilgo Four.”
Megan Waterman
Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort, advertising on Craigslist and Backpage. She used the monikers “Lexxy” and “Sexy Lexi.” She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine, possibly accompanied by her pimp.
Waterman was staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge. She left the hotel at 1:30 a.m. June 6 to meet a client. She later called her pimp, who was in Brooklyn at the time, to tell him she was going to a convenience store near the hotel.
Waterman was reported missing to the police in Maine two days later. Family members said it was unlike her not to call them to check on her then-3-year-old daughter.
Waterman’s body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. She is believed to be the third victim in the “Gilgo Four.”
Waterman’s pimp was arrested on unrelated federal charges of interstate trafficking of prostitutes in April 2012 and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Jessica Taylor
Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003.
Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Police later made the connection between the remains found near Gilgo Beach and those recovered in Manorville and identified as Taylor.
Valerie Mack
Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. Like most of the other victims in the Gilgo Beach investigation, she worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.”
Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police.
Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.” More bones were found on April 4, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
In May 2020, both sets of remains were positively identified as Mack using advanced DNA methods with the help of the FBI.
Unidentified Asian man
The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011.
It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death.
He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth. It is believed that he died five to 10 years before the discovery of his body.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler near the burial sites of Valerie Mack and the unidentified Asian man. The child was about 2 years old at the time of her death and likely non-white.
A week later, two more sets of human remains were found along Ocean Parkway. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother.
The African American woman’s partial remains were first discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast.
Karen Vergata, formerly known as Jane Doe No. 7
The second partial set of remains that was found on April 11, 2011, along with the body of the woman dubbed “Peaches” was linked by DNA to a body that was found 15 years earlier on Fire Island.
On April 20, 1996, skeletal remains of a woman were unearthed in Davis Park on Blue Point Beach. The victim was believed to have been a young white female with several distinctive scars.
The two sets of remains, collectively known as “Jane Doe No. 7,” were identified in August 2023 as Karen Vergata, who was was living on West 45th Street and is believed to have been working as an escort.
She was not reported missing, officials said.
Vergata’s two sets of remains were linked by DNA analysis in July 2011, and were subsequently identified definitively thanks to genetic genealogy and a relative buccal swab in October 2022, according to officials.
Shannan Gilbert
Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association, a gated community, on the morning of May 1, 2010.
Gilbert’s driver remained in his car while she met with the john. During the encounter, Gilbert reportedly began acting irrationally, prompting her client to contact the driver and ask the woman to leave. After initially refusing to comply, Gilbert eventually ran outside.
She knocked on several doors and spoke with two neighbors before disappearing.
The search for Gilbert led to the discovery of multiple other human remains near Gilgo Beach between December 2010 and April 2011.
Gilbert’s body was finally discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
Both Brewer and Pak had been cleared of any involvement in Gilbert’s death.
In May 2022, police released a 911 call that an audibly troubled Gilbert made on the day of her disappearance, repeatedly telling a dispatcher, “something is going to happen to me.”
The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which reviewed the Gilgo Beach cases, has concluded that Gilbert’s death was not consistent with her being the victim of a serial killer, leading Suffolk County authorities to rule that what happened to Gilbert was a “tragic accident” and noncriminal.
Gilbert’s family members have disputed that conclusion, saying through their attorney they believed she was murdered.
