Serial killer pleads guilty to killing NC native + 7 other women. What to know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Heuermann pleaded guilty to eight murders, seven from Gilgo Beach.
- Amber Costello’s procurer’s tip and DNA evidence helped link Heuermann.
- Heuermann said he strangled victims, who had been hired as escorts.
The murder of a North Carolina woman born in Charlotte and raised in Wilmington is officially closed with the guilty plea of Rex Heuermann, 62, a Long Island man dubbed the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.
Amber Lynn Costello is one of eight women included in Heuermann’s guilty plea in Suffollk County, New York, on Wednesday, April 8, which comes more than 15 years after the first bodies were found along Long Island’s Gilgo Beach. When asked in court how he killed the women, Heuermann answered “strangulation.” He explained he had hired the women as “escorts,” killed them, bound them in burlap and left them along Ocean Parkway, the New York Times reported.
Heuermann was arrested in 2023 and charged with seven murders, but had been suspected of killing an eighth woman, and possibly more. Seven of the women from his guilty plea were found along Gilgo Beach and an eighth was found in Southhampton, wrote the New York Times.
Costello’s body was discovered on Gilgo Beach in 2010. She had moved to New York from Wilmington after a falling out with her family over her drug dependency, her former husband Michael Wilhelm of Kannapolis told Associated Press in 2011.
A profile of Costello published in Newsday in February 2011 said that Costello left her North Babylon, NY, home on Sept. 2, 2010, telling her roommates, “If my sister calls, tell her I love her.” Costello was twice married and divorced and had four nieces, Newsday reported.
Costello’s younger sister, Kimberly Overstreet, got her into a drug rehab program in New York, and Costello lived in a sober house before moving into an apartment, according to the Newsday profile. When Costello stopped communicating with family, her sister told Newsday that she thought Costello was back in rehab.
Costello was key to Heuermann’s capture
Costello’s link to Heuermann was key to his identification and arrest. Costello had been involved in sex work and her procurer is the person who told police that a “first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche” was the vehicle he believed Costello’s killer was driving, according to a bail application, as reported by media outlet Outkick.
The police searched registration records and were led to Heuermann. Media reports also state that Costello’s procurer described her last client as a 6-foot-4-inch-man who looks “like an ogre.” DNA evidence officially connected him to the killings.
When Heuermann was arrested in 2023, Costello’s aunt, Bonnie Sasse of Gaston County, told Queen City News that she had been calling the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office for years asking about her niece.
“Amber was such a beautiful, beautiful, loving human being, and I miss her terribly,” Sasse told the outlet. Sasse also gave her impression of Heuermann’s appearance: “That man was huge. I mean, none of these girls stood a chance against him … He looks like a cold monster. In his eyes, you can just see he’s a sociopath. … I’m just glad he’s going to be put away forever and will never be able to hurt anyone ever again.”
Heuermann had planned to move to SC
Heuermann purchased 18 acres of land in a secluded area of Chester County, South Carolina, in July 2021 and had planned to retire there, The State newspaper previously reported.
A Chevrolet Avalanche was seized from the SC property, either the same truck or a truck similar to the one Heuermann was driving when he killed Costello.
Heuermann’s brother Craig also owned property in the secluded South Carolina subdivision.
About Rex Heuermann
Heuermann, who was also known as the Long Island Serial Killer before being identified, was a 59-year-old architect who lived in Massapequa Park on Long Island and worked in midtown Manhattan.
At the time of his arrest, Heuermann had been married to Asa Ellerup for 27 years and the couple had one adult daughter. Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after his arrest.
He was arrested in July 2023 and charged with the murders of three women, with four other charges following soon after. He pleaded not guilty at the time and was held without bail.
The Gilgo Beach victims
There were four women at the center of the Heuermann case, known as The Gilgo Four, because they were found in the same area on Gilgo Beach on Jones Beach Island, a Long Island barrier island, in 2010.
Their bodies were discovered when police were searching for another young woman who had disappeared, 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert. Instead of finding Gilbert, police discovered the bodies of four women wrapped in camouflaged burlap. They had all been strangled, according to reports. (Gilbert’s body was found later.) A total of 16 women were eventually found in the area.
From a previous report published in The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer, and some additional reporting from crimetimelines.com, more about the women Heuermann has pleaded guilty to killing:
Costello: Costello was 27 years old and living in North Babylon when she disappeared. According to a site dedicated to the case, Costello was last seen leaving her home on foot on September 2, 2010. She was going to meet a client. Costello, who had three roommates, was never reported missing. She was found on December 13, 2010. She is thought to be the fourth victim in the Gilgo Four.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes: Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old and living in Connecticut when she was killed. She is believed to be the first victim of the Long Island Serial Killer. Brainard-Barnes was last heard from on July 9, 2007, when she called a friend in Connecticut from a motel in New York. She told the friend she was going out on a call. She was reported missing a week later. Her body was found on December 13, 2010.
Melissa Barthelemy: Barthelemy was 24 years old and living in the Bronx when she was killed. She was last seen at her apartment on July 12, 2009. That evening, she told a friend she was going to meet a man and would be back in the morning. Her cell phone records show that she traveled from the Bronx to Manhattan, with activity in Freeport, Massapequa and Lindenhurst, reported Gilgo News. Her mother reported her missing on July 18, 2009.
After her disappearance, her younger sister received “taunting phone calls” from someone using Barthelemy’s phone. The calls are believed to have come from the killer and were made from Manhattan. Barthelemy’s body was found on December 11, 2010. She was the first victim discovered, but is believed to be the second of the four women to be killed.
Megan Waterman: Waterman was 22 years old and living in Maine when she disappeared on June 6, 2010. She was staying at a motel in Hauppauge, on Long Island, at the time of her disappearance, and left at 1:30 a.m. on June 6 to meet a client at a nearby convenience store. She was reported missing in Maine on June 8, by family members concerned that she had not called to check on her 3-year-old daughter. Her body was found on December 10, 2010. She is thought to be the third victim of the Gilgo Four.
Jessica Taylor: Taylor was a 20-year-old woman from Poughkeepsie, New York working as a sex worker at the time of her disappearance in 2003. Taylor had previously worked in Washington, D.C. and had multiple arrests, including one in North Carolina. Her remains were discovered by a woman walking her dog in a wooded area east of Gilgo Beach.
Valerie Mack: Mack was a New Jersey woman, 24 years old at the time of her disappearance. Some of her remains were found November 19, 2000, by a hunter’s dog in roughly the same area as Taylor’s. The medical examiner believes she was killed between September and November of that year. She was linked to Heuermann through DNA.
Karen Vergata: Vergata went missing in February 1996, when she was 34 years old. Some of her remains were found on Fire Island that same year, while other remains were found on Gilgo Beach in 2011. She was initially known as Fire Island Jane Doe or Jane Doe #7.
Sandra Costilla: Costilla is the oldest of the cases tied to Heuermann. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Costilla had lived in Queens, and was 28 years old at the time of her death. Her body was found by hunters in Southampton on Nov. 21, 1993. The Suffolk County district attorney’s office said a hair from Heuermann’s ex-wife was found on Costilla’s arm and Heuermann’s DNA was on her clothing.
Lyn Riddle, a reporter for The State newspaper, contributed to this story. This story has been updated.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Serial killer pleads guilty to killing NC native + 7 other women. What to know."
