'Gilgo Beach serial killer' Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder on Wednesday for strangling seven women. He also admitted to the murder of an eighth woman, Karen Vergata. This is covered under the plea to the murders of the seven other victims.

Heuermann is expected to be sentenced June 17 to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. He is also expected to receive a consecutive sentence of 100 years to life imprisonment for the murders of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla and Valerie Mack.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office issued additional information on Wednesday that detailed the incidents, including how and when he murdered the women and where he disposed of their bodies.

Costilla, 28, was last seen leaving her home in West Babylon in September 2010.

Tierney said Heuermann picked up Costilla and strangled her, leaving her remains near Fish Cove Road in North Sea, where hunters discovered them a short time later. 

She is survived by her son, who was about 5 years old at the time.

In April 1996, Tierney said Heuermann met Vergata, who was working as an escort. He strangled her, dismembered her body, and transported her remains to multiple locations. Her severed legs were found on Blue Point Beach on April 20, 1996. Nearly 15 years later, on April 12, 2011, her skull was recovered on Ocean Parkway near Tobay Beach during an extensive search of Gilgo Beach.

The 34-year-old was long known as “Fire Island Jane Doe” until genetic genealogy identified her in 2023.

Her dad, Dominic Vergata, told News 12 in 2023 he never gave up hope in the quest to find his daughter, even hiring a private detective to try and find her. Court filings obtained in 2023 show Dominic had regular contact with his daughter, who would often visit home in Glen Head.

The last time he heard from her was on his birthday - Valentine's Day, 1996.

She leaves behind two sons.

Sometime in either September or November 2000, Heuermann met Mack, according to Tierney, and strangled her and dismembered her 24-year-old body, scattering parts in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway. Three hunters later found a black plastic bag near Mill Road containing a decapitated set of remains, eventually identified as Mack. More than 10 years later, on April 4, 2011, her skull, hands, and right foot were recovered east of Gilgo Beach. Mack, who had been working in Philadelphia at the time of her disappearance, was initially referred to as “Jane Doe #6” until she was identified in 2020. 

She had been working in the Philadelphia area as an escort and was last seen by family members in Port Republic, New Jersey. She was never reported missing, News 12 previously reported.

She leaves behind her adoptive parents and her son, whose name was tattooed near her right ankle.

At the end of July 2003, Heuermann met Taylor and strangled her, Tierney said. Some of her body was left near Mack’s remains, just west of Halsey Manor Road in Manorville. Her arms, hands, and head were missing.

Eight years later, her skull, hands, and forearm were found in the Gilgo Beach area.

Taylor was a Poughkeepsie native and worked as a sex worker near Heuermann’s Midtown Manhattan office. Her family previously said she was trying to turn her life around. Her mother was waiting for her to visit her in Poughkeepsie, but she never showed.

Taylor was 20 at the time of her death and is survived by her mother.

In 2007, Heuermann used a burner phone to arrange a meeting with 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes after responding to an advertisement, said Tierney. After killing her, he bound her with three belts and transported her to Gilgo Beach.

She was reported missing from Norwich, Connecticut, in July 2007 and was discovered on Dec. 13, 2010.

Brainard-Barnes leaves behind two children, a sister, a brother and her mother.

Heuermann again used his phone on July 10, 2009, this time to contact Melissa Barthelemy after viewing her advertised services, Tierney said. He strangled her, wrapped her remains in tape and burlap, and left them at Gilgo Beach, where they were found more than a year later.

Barthelemy, of the Bronx, was found dead on Dec. 11, 2010. The 24-year-old's phone last pinged in the areas of Manhattan, Freeport, Massapequa and Lindenhurst. After she was reported missing, her sister got taunting calls from someone she believed to be the killer.

Barthelemy was 24 years old and went missing on July 12, 2009.

She is survived by her sister, mother and stepfather.

On June 6, 2010, Heuermann arranged to meet Megan Waterman, Tierney said. He picked her up from the Holiday Inn in Hauppauge, killed her, and bound her body before dumping it at Gilgo Beach. More than six months later, in December, her remains were discovered on the north side of Ocean Parkway.

Waterman was an escort from Maine and the last sight of her alive was from surveillance footage from the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge. Prosecutors previously said her last call was received near Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park.

Waterman was 22 years old and is survived by her daughter, mother and grandmother.

Heuermann picked up 27-year-old Costello from her home in West Babylon in September 2010. He strangled her, bound her remains with tape and burlap, and left them along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, according to Tierney.

Two months later, her remains were found.

She is survived by her sister.