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

Attorneys for accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann have received a massive amount of evidence to review from the prosecution.

Mr Heuermann, the Manhattan architect accused of murdering at least three women and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of shore in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach, appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since his arraignment.

Mr Heuermann is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010. Prosecutors say he’s also the main suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007.

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Back in 2010, very few people knew the name Gilgo Beach.

The small beach in Long Island didn’t have the same draw for New York day-trippers or staycationers as the shores along other oceanfront towns like Montauk or East Hampton.

And for anyone outside of New York state, they’d likely never even heard of it.

That all changed one night in May when a terrified woman called 911 begging for help to save her from someone she believed was trying to kill her.

A search of the area for the missing woman followed – and what it uncovered was something that placed Gilgo Beach on the map forever.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp reports:

His Manhattan business describes him as a registered architect with over 30 years’ experience.

His neighbours describe him as a “family man” living with his wife and two children in a tight-knit community in Suffolk County.

But now authorities are describing him as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer who unleashed terror along the shores of Long Island more than a decade ago.

So who is Rex Heuermann?

Rachel Sharp reports:

Multiple sex workers have revealed that they held onto recordings of phone calls with the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect after he contacted them – but they refused to meet with him.

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told The Independent in a statement on Monday that officials have been interviewing sex workers as they are booked into local jails about any past encounters they had with Rex Heuermann.

So far, two women have revealed that they not only were in contact with the accused killer but also had made recordings of conversations with him.

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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.

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 Gilgo Beach murders victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7 has finally been identified more than 26 years after her partial remains were first discovered along the Long Island shores.

Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old woman who was last seen alive in Manhattan in 1996 while working as an escort, was named on Friday by Long Island officials.

The huge breakthrough in the case comes almost three decades after some of her remains were first discovered – and weeks after 59-year-old father-of-two architect was arrested and charged with the murders of three other victims.

It was 20 April 1996 when a woman’s legs were found wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach.

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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.

The sons of a newly-identified Gilgo Beach murders victim Karen Vergata reportedly were not notified by Long Island police before her name was revealed to the public.

Suffolk County officials announced on Friday that Vergata had been identified as the victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7, more than 26 years after her partial remains were first discovered along the Long Island shores.

District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters that the confirmation was made last year but investigators kept it under wraps due to the ongoing investigation into Rex Heuermann, the suspect in four other Gilgo Beach killings. Officials refused to comment on whether or not her murder may be linked to the suspected serial killer.

The district attorney also attributed the delay to the need to contact Vergata’s family members.

However, it has since emerged that Vergata’s two biological sons - Eric and Gary Doherty - apparently were not informed before Friday’s announcement.

Eric’s girlfriend Michelle Nolan told the New York Post that he only found out after the press conference when they were contacted by the woman who adopted them as young children a few years before Vergata’s death.

Ms Nolan said Eric was distraught, having believed that Vergata was only missing.

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