LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK — Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering eight women in a Suffolk County courtroom, confirming to Judge Timothy Mazzei that he strangled and bound each victim in the same manner before dropping their remains on remote beaches on Long Island. Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect, received several life sentences, with formal sentencing scheduled for June 17.

Heuermann answered "Yes" to most of the judge's questions about his crimes. He told Mazzei that he lured his victims with promises of money, then murdered and dismembered them before leaving their remains on the beach. He had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and was originally charged with the murders of seven women, but he pleaded guilty to an additional killing from 1996, bringing the total number of admitted murders to eight.

The eight victims were Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Costello, 27; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Jessica Taylor, 20; Valerie Mack, 24; Sandra Costilla, 28; and Karen Vergata, 34. The victims are believed to have been sex workers at the time of their deaths, and Heuermann contacted some of them through their advertisements on Craigslist.

Investigators took more than a decade to solve the murders. In 2010, four sets of human remains were found within a quarter mile of each other on Gilgo Beach. The Suffolk County Police Department did not involve federal investigators in the probe initially. Former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke, who oversaw the case, was arrested in 2015 and later convicted on charges including obstruction of justice.

Suffolk County police arrested Heuermann in 2023 in Massapequa Park, New York, at the run-down house where he spent his childhood, after linking him to the murders through DNA evidence recovered from a pizza box. He lived in Massapequa Park and was a married father of two.

Family members of the victims were present in the courtroom, and some stifled cries as Heuermann spoke. His ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, watched from the back of the courtroom dressed in black, and his daughter held tissues in her hand. Outside the courthouse, Ellerup said her thoughts were with the victims' families and described their loss as immeasurable. The evening before the plea hearing, reporters gathered at Heuermann's childhood home, where Ellerup and their children spoke to reporters alongside their attorney in response to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a relative of one of the victims.

"There wasn't a jot of remorse in that man's face. He was as cold as ice." John Ray, an attorney for the victims' families, said after the hearing.