Philip Marcelo and Jennifer PeltzJune 18, 2026 — 3:34pmRiverhead, New York: After spending decades waiting for justice, relatives of women murdered by New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer laid into him on Wednesday before he was sentenced to life in prison. He told them: “I am responsible” for the crimes.“The words I would say would have no meaning,” added Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting he killed eight women.Serial killer Rex Heuermann appears for sentencing at Suffolk County Court on Wednesday, where he was told he would spend the rest of his life behind bars.James Carbone/Pool Newsday via APThe sentencing capped an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York’s most perplexing mysteries.The seemingly unconnected and largely overlooked disappearances of young women 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, 62, will have no possibility of parole.“A million years isn’t enough,” Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of one victim, Jessica Taylor, said. “Nothing will ever make this right.”“You fill me with so much repugnance, I can’t stand it,” she added.Judge calls Heuermann ‘despicable’As a series of victims’ relatives spoke, Heuermann sat with his hands on the defence table, looking straight ahead and lightly tapping his fingers.Then Amanda Funderburg, victim Melissa Barthelemy’s sister, commanded Heuermann to look at her. He glanced in her direction, but his eyes were slightly downcast.Amanda Funderburg (left) and Liliana Waterman were among the victims’ relatives present at the sentencing hearing. AP Photo/Ryan Murphy“I hope you suffer,” said Funderburg, as she recounted getting a taunting phone call from him days after Barthelemy disappeared, when Funderburg was 15 years old.JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack, told the killer that her daughter “had dreams, and you took them all away from her”.“Justice has been done, but it can’t replace what has been taken,” she said.Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.Heuermann also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, though he was never charged over her death. He said he strangled his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies. “Are you at least a little sorry?” Judge Timothy Mazzei asked Heuermann in an indignant voice.Heuermann nodded and appeared to mouth “yes.”“You are disgusting – a despicable man, if you are a man at all,” the judge said, his voice rising. “And you are a coward.”As Heuermann was led away in handcuffs, spectators in the packed courtroom jeered.Victims’ families recount lossLiliana Waterman, who was three when her mother vanished, said she has been waiting her entire life to confront the killer.“She can finally rest in peace,” Waterman said outside the courthouse. “He can’t hurt anybody else.”Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and their remains were all found on Long Island. Most were along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Costilla’s remains were found in 1993 in the Hamptons, while Vergata’s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island.A stretch of marshland along Ocean Parkway on the Long Island south shore, 13 years after the Gilgo Beach victims were found there.Johnny Milano/The New York TimesBrainard-Barnes’ two children, who were seven and one when she disappeared in 2007, underscored how her absence shaped their lives and how she never got to know the adults they grew up to be.Her sister, Melissa Cann, sobbed deeply as she described having wondered for decades whether she could have done more to protect Brainard-Barnes. But, she said, that guilt is “not mine to carry. It is for Rex and Rex alone.”Heuermann’s ex-wife and two adult children said they did not attend the sentencing out of respect for the victims’ families.How the Gilgo Beach serial killer was caughtThe case spilled into view in 2010, when investigators started to find remains along Ocean Parkway while looking into the disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, whose death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a pick-up truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.Victims of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, clockwise from top left: Valerie Mack, Amber Costello, Karen Vergata, Sandra Costilla, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy and Jessica Taylor. Eventually, they matched DNA from a pizza crust Heuermann discarded in a Manhattan rubbish bin to genetic material extracted from highly degraded hair fragments found on the women’s remains.Investigators amassed other evidence, including mobile phone and tracking data showing Heuermann arranged meetings with some victims shortly before their disappearances.After Heuermann’s 2023 arrest, prosecutors recovered what they described as a “blueprint” for the killings from his computer files. Among the documents was a series of checklists with reminders to limit noise, clean the bodies and destroy evidence.Life behind barsHeuermann will soon be transferred to a state prison after having spent the past three years alone in a segregated cell at the Suffolk County jail, reading crime novels and striking up a brief correspondence with the infamous “Happy Face Killer.”Calling him “a monster,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declared there was nothing Heuermann could say to mitigate his deeds.“There is no doubt this defendant is sorry,” Tierney said. “He is sorry he got caught.”His lawyer, Michael Brown, said Heuermann has cried and there may be “some sincerity in his expressions of remorse.” His client appeared “as normal as they come” during their interactions, in contrast with his horrific crimes.“He’s somewhat of a charismatic figure when you talk to him,” Brown said.As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to co-operate with the FBI’s behavioural analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.APGet a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. 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