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Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged with a seventh murder and was back in court Tuesday in Riverhead, according to a report.
Previously charged in the deaths of six women, the 61-year-old Massapequa Park father is now also charged with second-degree murder for the 2000 slaying of 24-year-old Valerie Mack, a Philadelphia mother who worked as an escort at the time of her disappearance.
Heuermann, who was first arrested in 2023, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment before Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei.
“Your honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges,” said Heuermann, who was shackled and dressed in a jail jumpsuit, according to reports.
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For 20 years, Mack was known as Jane Doe No. 6 after her torso was discovered in a wooded lot off Mill Road in Manorville in November 2000. Investigators found more of Mack’s remains off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2011, authorities have said. She was identified four years ago through DNA.
Investigators said DNA testing linked a female hair found on Mack’s remains to Heuermann’s wife and daughter. Hair on six of the seven victims are now linked to Heuermann or family members.
Investigators additionally found pornographic images on devices belonging to Heuerman that, according to court documents, depict content resembling Mack’s injuries, the report said. Further, Heuerman allegedly frequently viewed the imagery around the time of Mack’s death.
Heuermann, a longtime Manhattan architect who commuted to work from the home he shared with his wife and daughter, was initially accused last year of murdering four women whose bodies were found in 2010, bound with belts or tape and wrapped in burlap along Gilgo Beach on Long Island.
The victims — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes — became known as the “Gilgo Four.” Heuermann pleaded not guilty to all charges related to their deaths.
In June 2024, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney added two second-degree murder charges for the deaths of Jessica Taylor in 2003 and Sandra Costilla in 1993. Heuermann entered not guilty pleas to those charges as well.
The women were among at least 11 sets of human remains discovered near the Long Island waterfront in Suffolk County since 2010.
The alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has now been charged with a seventh murder — Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old from New Jersey who was killed in 2000. pic.twitter.com/IziDFJAzeZ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 17, 2024
Tierney last June named Heuermann as a suspect in Mack’s murder, unveiling a document he said was discovered on a device seized from Heuermann’s home that referenced Mill Road as a potential “dump site.”
‘Lost Girls’
The murders have drawn immense public attention beyond Long Island, attracting national headlines and becoming the subject of the 2020 Netflix film “Lost Girls.”
In 2022, an interagency task force was formed with investigators from the FBI, as well as state and local police departments, aimed at solving the case.
