In April 2026, Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering seven women in the Gilgo Beach killings and acknowledged in court that he killed another victim, bringing to a close a case that had confounded investigators for years and relied on forensic work and evidence links across time.
The investigation grew out of discoveries made during searches for missing sex workers in and around Long Island, beginning in the years before the later arrests. The Associated Press timeline describes how, starting in 2010, investigators pursuing the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert also encountered human remains along Ocean Parkway, the barrier-island road where authorities later found several victims’ bodies in close stretches.
A key early phase began before the 2010 police search, when remains were discovered on different parts of Long Island and in other locations and later proved to belong to different victims. The Associated Press timeline recounts, for example, that hunters found Sandra Costilla’s body in North Sea in 1993, and that in 1996 partial remains of Karen Vergata were found on Fire Island. It also describes later finds that investigators were able to connect back to victims through later DNA work, including naming partial remains found inside a plastic tub in a state park on Long Island that authorities initially kept anonymous for years.
As remains accumulated, investigators also developed new identification methods. The Associated Press timeline says Vergata remained unidentified for many years until new DNA analysis helped police identify her in 2025 as Tanya Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran living in Brooklyn before she disappeared. The timeline also describes how other sets of remains connected to victims were found at different points along Ocean Parkway and elsewhere on Long Island, including human remains discovered years earlier in areas where investigators could later compare DNA profiles.
The record also traces how police effort shifted from scattered remains to an apparent pattern once the 2010 discoveries brought multiple victims into view on Ocean Parkway. The Associated Press timeline says that on Dec. 11, 2010, a police officer and his dog discovered human remains during a training exercise along Ocean Parkway, and that authorities later identified the remains as those of Melissa Barthelemy. Two days after that find, Dec. 13, 2010, police found the bodies of Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman on the same quarter-mile stretch.
The AP timeline says Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly announced the discovery the following day and told the public that a serial killer might be to blame. After that announcement, police expanded their search for additional victims and pursued leads tied to the missing Shannan Gilbert, whose case helped drive the broader investigation.
The case then moved into a “cold case” phase that still produced new evidence as forensic work continued. The Associated Press timeline says that in January 2022, the Suffolk County district attorney convened a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings, and that by July 13, 2023, investigators arrested Heuermann and charged him with murdering Costello, Waterman and Barthelemy. Prosecutors identified the core evidence as mobile phone location data suggesting Heuermann and the victims were in the same places at some of the same times, along with traces of DNA found on the remains.
Later charges followed as investigators pursued additional victim connections. The Associated Press timeline reports that on Jan. 16, 2024, Heuermann was charged in the death of Brainard-Barnes, with prosecutors citing a hair genetically similar to a DNA sample from Heuermann’s wife. It also says investigators launched a new search of Heuermann’s home on May 20, 2024, lasting nearly a week, and that by June 6, 2024, prosecutors charged him with murdering Costilla and Jessica Taylor.
The timeline also describes the case reaching still more victims’ remains through indictments and later legal steps. It says an indictment charging Heuermann in Valerie Mack’s death was unsealed Dec. 17, 2024, and that on April 8, 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, involving the killings of Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Costello, Sandra Costilla, Mack, Taylor and Waterman, while acknowledging in court that he killed Karen Vergata.
Elsewhere in the AP timeline, the sequence of discoveries includes earlier victim disappearances and the circumstances that triggered searches. For instance, it says Shannan Gilbert disappeared in May 2010 after fleeing a client’s house and banging on a neighbor’s door, and that recorded 911 calls captured her telling a dispatcher people were after her while she refused offers of help. It also recounts how other women were last seen in 2009 and in late 2010 before remains were found in the ensuing years along Ocean Parkway.
Taken together, the AP timeline shows how the case unfolded from isolated finds and missing-person leads into a linked investigation spanning years—culminating in charges grounded in both DNA evidence and mobile phone location data. It also shows how later forensic identification transformed older remains into victims whose names could be tied to the broader pattern prosecutors pursued, until the guilty plea in April 2026.