RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island architect who lived a secret life as New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer heard from a lineup of victims’ loved ones at his sentencing Wednesday for the admitted killings of eight women.Hands clasped and resting on the defense table in an eastern Long Island courtroom, Rex Heuermann looked straight ahead and lightly tapped his fingers as the relatives began giving statements. “Justice has been done, but it can’t replace what has been taken,” said JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack. “She had dreams, and you took them all away from her.”Heuermann faces the likelihood of a life prison sentence. The sentencing caps an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York’s most perplexing mysteries — one that began as a series of seemingly unconnected, and largely unmarked disappearances of young women, but became the focus of true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began discovering the victims’ skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a coastal parkway.
Heuermann, who has remained largely silent through multiple court appearances since his 2023 arrest, will also have a chance to speak Wednesday, but it’s not immediately clear if he will. His lawyers didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
