This Thursday, April 9, Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court. Prosecutors sentenced him to serve three consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole.
Rex Heuermann was born on September 13, 1963 in Nassau County, New York. Throughout his life, he never really left this state where he was born, choosing to settle in Massapequa Park, a quiet town on Long Island, just a few kilometers from the beaches where the bodies of his victims were found. A proximity which, in retrospect, makes one dizzy.
After studying architecture, Heuermann built his reputation in the highly competitive New York construction sector. In 1994, he founded his own firm, RH Consultants & Associates Inc. He gradually established himself in the city’s architectural landscape. His firm works notably for Catholic Charities, the New York City Department of the Environment, American Airlines, Nike and Burlington Coat Factory. Among its most iconic projects, RH Architecture collaborates with Target to integrate a department store into a historic 1884 building in SoHo, a heritage-listed district of New York.
On a personal level, Heuermann is a married man and father of a family. Nothing, in appearance, distinguishes it from its neighbors. He goes to the office, comes home in the evening, does his shopping. An ordinary man from an ordinary America.
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The crimes of Rex Heuermann
Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Karen Vergata and Sandra Costilla are the names of his various victims. He killed his first victim Sandra Costilla in 1993 after picking her up in a car. After strangling her, he dumped her body in Southampton, a small village on Long Island. It was from his fifth murder of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009 that the New Yorker changed his modus operandi. No more dismemberment, from now on he will wrap the various corpses in burlap before abandoning them along the Ocean Parkway. He will do the same in 2010 with Megan Waterman Amber Lynn Costello.
After more than 20 years of investigation, Heuermann ended up making these confessions. This news was then a shock for some of the victims’ relatives. Some even broke down in tears when he detailed his crimes in court. For the families, this verdict represents much more than a legal conviction. It is a true official recognition of their pain, long ignored.
“The Gilgo Beach Killer” is therefore locked behind bars for good. The respected Manhattan architect is no more. He now becomes a convict and the names of his victims must never be forgotten.
