‘Cold as ice’: Serial killer admits to eight murders in case that haunted Long Island for years
‘Cold as ice’: Serial killer admits to eight murders in case that haunted Long Island for years
The long-running case concluded in a Suffolk County courtroom on Wednesday, as a six-foot-four man in a black suit and blue tie stood before the judge and confessed to the violent deaths of eight women. Rex Heuermann, now 62, confirmed to Judge Timothy Mazzei that he had suffocated and tied each victim in the same way before discarding their remains along Long Island’s isolated coastline. He responded with brief, measured nods to the judge’s questions, rarely glancing at the crowd of family members who had gathered to witness the resolution, some of whom struggled to contain their sorrow.
The families of the victims had endured over a decade of uncertainty, as detectives worked tirelessly to unravel the mystery of the murders that gripped the region for years. “Everyone had a theory,” recalled Sandra Symon, a former high school classmate of Heuermann.
“A lot of people would talk about it – it was not taboo.”
Those theories finally collapsed in 2023 when police arrested Heuermann, a married father of two residing in Massapequa Park, a tranquil suburb of Long Island, after linking him to the crimes through DNA evidence from a pizza box found in his childhood home.
Heuermann’s guilty plea on Wednesday added one more death to his list: that of a 24-year-old woman in 1996. His victims, all believed to be sex workers at the time of their deaths, included Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla, and Karen Vergata. Some of them had been reached by Heuermann through online advertisements on Craigslist. While he provided few new insights during the hearing, he affirmed that he lured them with promises of money, killed them, and left their body parts on the beach. His answers to the judge were limited to “strangulation” and “guilty.”
John Ray, an attorney representing the victims’ families, described Heuermann’s demeanor as unyielding.
“There wasn’t a jot of remorse in that man’s face.”
“He was as cold as ice,” Ray said. The architect received multiple life sentences, which will be finalized on 17 June. His ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter sat silently in the back of the courtroom, the latter clutching tissues, while reporters swarmed the area the night before the hearing. Ellerup expressed solidarity with the victims’ families, calling their grief “immeasurable.”
In the quiet village of Massapequa Park, where 18,000 residents live under American flags, one house has always drawn attention: a run-down red-shuttered home with green-lined windows. Joe, a neighbor who moved there with his wife in 1995, noted its stark contrast to the surrounding houses.
“It doesn’t fit in the neighbourhood, but what are you going to do?”
Joe, who asked for privacy, added that the house was once a local eyesore but now attracts media and true crime enthusiasts. Despite the attention, most residents have moved past the case, with Joe stating,
“It’s not headlines anymore. American society has a short memory for things.”
The community no longer dwells on the killer who once lived among them.
