Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heurman was indicted Thursday morning on charges of the decades-old murders of two more women after hair found near their bodies was linked to Heurman, court documents showed.
Prosecutors wrote in a Suffolk County bail application that the 60-year-old father of two was linked to the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla and the 2003 death of Jessica Taylor through DNA from male hair found on the bodies of both victims.
Heuerman is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to be arraigned in their deaths.
According to documents, Taylor’s torso and legs were discovered by a dog walker in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003.
She had been decapitated and both of her arms had been severed from her body below the elbows, and tattoos on her torso had been “severely obliterated by a sharp object,” the lawsuit states.
Taylor’s skull, hand and forearm were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway east of Gilgo Beach.
Her partial remains were found less than a mile from where police found the burlap-wrapped remains of the so-called “Gilgo Four” several months earlier, according to the filing.
Authorities now believe the dismemberment was “an act undertaken by Rex A. Heuerman to prevent the identification of the victim,” the bail application states.
Heuerman was arrested on July 13, 2023, and charged with the murders of three of the “Gilgo 4” victims: Megan Waterman (age 22), Melissa Barthelemy (age 24), and Amber Lynn Costello (age 27).
He was charged with murdering a fourth woman, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard Barnes, earlier this year.
He was originally charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. In January, prosecutors filed a fourth indictment for the murder of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard Barnes.
Mr. Heurman’s dilapidated home in Massapequa Park was thoroughly searched at least twice following his shocking arrest.
Last year, police discovered a soundproof concrete room in the basement where Heuerman allegedly stored more than 200 guns.
A second search warrant was executed at the home last month, and it was not immediately clear if the additional charges expected Thursday were the result of that search or a separate investigation.
Suffolk County coroner’s officials linked Heuerman to the unsolved deaths through DNA matches found on discarded pizza crusts and energy drinks his adult daughter had tossed in the trash.
Investigators also used cell tower locations to locate calls Heuermann allegedly made to the victims, all of whom were sex workers on Long Island or in the New York City area.
Also known as the “Long Island Serial Killer” or “LISK,” this infamous case came to light in December 2010, when 23-year-old escort Shanann Gilbert disappeared while meeting with a client at Oak Beach Cooperative on May 1, 2010.
While investigating Gilbert’s disappearance, police discovered the remains of the Gilgo Four, all of whom were slender, petite women who had worked in the sex industry before their disappearance.
Jessica Taylor’s partial remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on March 29, 2011. Her body was first discovered in July 2003 in a wooded area in Manorville.
Like Gilgo Four, Taylor was working as a prostitute at the time of her disappearance.
Sandra Costilla was murdered in 1993. She has not previously been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial murders.
Authorities also discovered the skeletal remains of an unidentified Asian man off Ocean Parkway in April 2011, as well as the remains of Valerie Mack, a Philadelphia sex worker whose partial remains were found in Manorville in 2000.
The initial investigation also uncovered the remains of an infant, but DNA testing later determined that it was the daughter of “Peaches,” a black woman whose remains were found at Lake Hempstead State Park.
Heurman, who has lived his whole life on the south shore of Long Island, was identified as a suspect in the case two months after former New York City Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison became Suffolk County police commissioner.
His arrest last summer marked the first public breakthrough in a series of unsolved murders that have plagued Long Island for more than a decade.
