SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK — Former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison called for the Gilgo Beach taskforce to remain intact following Rex Heuermann's guilty plea, saying investigators should continue looking into other missing sex workers who may be connected to Heuermann or other predators. Harrison, a former New York Police Department chief of detectives, assembled the taskforce of FBI agents and local detectives after becoming commissioner in 2020 and spoke at a June hearing after Heuermann's plea and sentencing.

Heuermann pleaded guilty in Riverhead, New York, to the murders of seven women and admitted to killing an eighth. He was arrested and charged in July 2023 and is scheduled to receive consecutive life sentences. The victims were mostly sex workers.

"The taskforce needs to remain intact. We need to see if there are other missing sex workers out there and to maybe attach them to Rex Heuermann or other predators who are engaged in the same activity," Harrison said. "He's going away for the rest of his life but that doesn't mean we can't still be a voice for other sex workers that are missing."

The case dates to 2010, when police searching for a missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, found four sets of human remains on Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County. The remains were later identified as those of Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. Six more bodies were found in the same area.

Before Harrison became commissioner, only one detective had been assigned to the case. Suffolk County investigators had initially invited help from the FBI and later declined it. Harrison assembled the taskforce and worked with Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who made the case a department priority. The taskforce focused its investigation on the housemates of Costello, and in April 2022, police internally identified Heuermann as a person of interest.

Harrison said Heuermann's decision to plead guilty reflected the strength of the evidence against him. "He saw that he was cornered," he said. "He realized what was going to come out so he thought: 'Let me take the plea deal and put this thing behind me.'"

Regarding Gilbert's death in 2010, police maintain it was likely due to drowning during a drug- or alcohol-fueled panic. "I think it was a horrible and unfortunate accident but because she was a sex worker, and everybody else was involved in that lifestyle, people want to put them together," he said. "We know of no relationship other than they were involved in the same line of work."

Harrison, now a commentator at CBS News, expressed mixed feelings about the plea deal. "I'm happy we're able to put this behind us now," he said. "Anytime there's a criminal that's gotten away with such heinous crimes for such a long time, and now they're going to jail for a long period, is very rewarding in the law enforcement world." But he added: "He's able to rest, and I don't like it. Rex Heuermann is getting one over. But God willing, he's going to apologize to the families at the sentencing."