Gilgo Beach murders - update: Police identify victim Karen Vergata but won’t comment on Rex Heuermann link

The remains of at least 11 victims’ were found in the Gilgo Beach area though it remains unclear if they are all the work of the same killer. Many were sex workers who offered escort services on Craigslist or worked in New York City.

The first victim found was Melissa Barthelemy whose remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on 11 December 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert – a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished after visiting a client in Oak Park and making a chilling 911 call where she revealed fears for her life.

Two days later on 13 December, the remains of three other victims – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello – were found close by.

All three women were known to advertise escort services on Craigslist.

Brainard-Barnes – known as one of the Gilgo Beach Four – was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City while Costello was last seen leaving her North Babylon home one day in early September 2010.

Waterman was last seen alive in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

From L: (top) Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman (bottom) Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, John Doe

Seven months later, on 26 July 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were found in a wooded area in Manorville during the ongoing search for Gilbert. Taylor worked as an escort in New York City.

Valerie Mack also worked as an escort but was last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011 but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

On 4 August 2023, Long Island officials announced that another victim – known as Jane Doe 7 or Fire Island Jane Doe – ha finally been identified.

Karen Vergata, 34, was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort.

Her legs were first found wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach in 1996. Almost exactly 15 years later on 11 April 2011, her skull was then found off Ocean Parkway.

In a press conference announcing her identity, officials refused to confirm whether or not her murder may be linked to Mr Heuermann.

Some of the other victims are yet to be identified.

The skeletal remains of an Asian male, aged between 17 and 23 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall and with poor dental health, were found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. He is believed to have died around five to 10 years earlier.

That same day, the remains of a female toddler were discovered. She was later identified as the daughter of the also-unidentified female victim dubbed “Peaches” whose remains were found in Nassau County.

In a statement released through her lawyers Macedonio & Duncan, Rex Heuermann’s wife has pleaded to be left alone.

“On behalf of my family and especially my elderly neighbors, who have also had their lives turned upside down by the enormous police presence, in addition to the spectators, and news crews,” Ms Ellerup’s statement read.

“They deserve to live peacefully; they should be able to walk their dogs and go to the grocery stores without cameras shoved in their faces.

“I am pleading with you all to give us space so that we may regain some normalcy in our neighborhood.”

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

In the chilling call, released last year, Gilbert is heard repeatedly telling the 911 operator that “somebody’s after me”.

She is also heard arguing with a man – who she refers to as Mike – who appears to be trying to encourage her to get back inot a car and at one point, she is heard asking if he is “going to kill” her.

Map showing proximity of home being searched by police and Gilgo Beach where bodies were found

“These people are plotting to kill me,” she tells the dispatcher.

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler.

Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the client’s home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers.

Several theories have been mulled over the years but no one had ever been charged with the killings.

Authorities have previously said they believe that three separate serial killers could be responsible for the slayings over a period of around 20 years.

Aerial view of Manorville area where Valerie Mack remains were recovered

The case appeared to go cold for several years until last year when Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison vowed to finally close the case and bring the killer or killers to justice.

The newly-appointed commissioner said that, with “a set of fresh eyes”, he had faith that he could get the cold case “across the finish line”. He launched a dedicated taskforce for the case.

The victim names were there, finally, in black and white on charging documents, immortalised in the justice system as their alleged killer stood before a judge. Melissa Barthelemy. Amber Costello. Megan Waterman. They were names that had before been connected primarily to a cold case and a mystery – a mystery still unravelling – and their appearance on the court documents marked a step towards justice and, just maybe, some semblance of closure for families and investigators.

Long Island architect and married father-of-two Rex Heuermann, 59, was charged with three counts of first- and second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ms Barthelemy, who went missing in 2009; Ms Costello, who vanished in June of the following year; and Ms Waterman, 22, who disappeared in September 2010.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said this week he was “confident” that Mr Heuermann would also be charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard Barnes, 25, who went missing in 2007. Her body was discovered in December 2010 in the same vicinity and within the same week as the remains of the three other victims.

Authorities were searching for Shannan Gilbert, who went missing in 2010, when they began discovering bodies along the south shore of Long Island; Mr Heuermann has not been charged in her death

But there were other names not included in the court documents, and there are other families watching closely as the investigation progresses – wondering if their loved ones’ murders were at the hands of the alleged serial killer.

And there are other victims whose names are still unknown – other bodies found on Long Island that may or may not be linked to the same perpetrator. Their families may not even known they are dead.

The Independent’s Sheila Flynn reports:

The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann broke her silence in her first interview this week where she revealed that she has been left filled with “anxiety” and their two children “cry themselves to sleep” over the horror.

“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety,” Asa Ellerup told The New York Post.

“My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, they’re not children. They’re grown adults but they’re my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.”

Their daughter Victoria has been left feeling “not human”, with Ms Ellerup’s lawyer Bob Macedonio explaining that the family had been treated “like animals”.

Ms Ellerup spoke out as she said that the family’s home in Massapequa Park had been left in tatters by investigators who spent almost two weeks combing through the property for evidence connected to the murders or for trophies the accused killer took from his victims.

Images show the bathtub with holes cut out and possessions strewn everywhere.

Mr Macedonio told the Post that he is making an itemised list of the damage to send to the DA’s office.

For around two decades, the sands and marshes of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach kept a dark secret.

A killer or killers roamed the locality, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them.

Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered.

Then, in 2010, a chilling 911 call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.

What they discovered was far more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp reports:

Karen Vergata was 34 years old at the time of her disappearance, according to officials.

Vergata lived on West 45th St in Manhattan and is believed to have been working as an escort at the time.

She went missing around 14 February 1996 – Valentine’s Day.

Police said that no missing persons report was filed at the time of her disappearance.

Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the “Gilgo Four” murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, “sadistic” online searches, phone calls taunting victims’ families, his wife’s hair found on the victims’ bodies – and a pizza crust.

The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.

Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costello’s disappearance. He also matched the witness’ description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white “ogre”-like male in his mid-40s, around 6’4’ to 6’6” tall, with “dark bushy hair,” and “big oval style 1970’s type eyeglasses”.

The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.

Among this was Mr Heuermann’s alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.

He also allegedly took two of the victims’ cellphones – and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.

Mr Heuermann’s DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wife’s hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.