Rex Heurman’s children are “joining him on his journey into darkness” and standing by the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, their lawyer says.
Victoria Heurman and Christopher Sheridan have remained by their father’s side even after he was charged with two more murders and prosecutors revealed details of damning “planning documents” he allegedly kept on a computer in his Massapequa Park home, his attorney, Beth Mitteff, said.
“They will continue to brave the scrutiny and adversity and wait for the legal process to play out in the court of law, not the court of public opinion,” Mittev told The Post on Friday morning.
“You could say they’re accompanying us on a dark journey,” Mitteff says. He also spoke to the US Sun newspaper.
“Yet these are young people who have done nothing wrong and are trying to prevent their lives from being completely destroyed in the midst of all of this,” the lawyer said.
Following his arrest last summer, Heurman, 60, was charged with murder in the deaths of three women whose bodies were found along Ocean Parkway in late 2010.
He was charged in January with murdering the fourth victim of the so-called “Gilgo 4.”
On Monday, the hulking father of two returned to Suffolk County Court to be arraigned on charges in the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla and the 2003 death of Jessica Taylor.
During the trial, prosecutors revealed what they called a “blueprint” for Heuermann’s crimes, including a list of possible disposal locations and a strategy for targeting young women and avoiding detection.
The grisly discovery was made on a laptop hard drive in the basement of the home Heuerman shared with his wife and children.
Miteff declined to comment on whether Victoria and Christopher had read much of the evidence, but said they wanted to see the case against their father for themselves at trial.
“As any criminal lawyer will tell you, there is a big gap between a charge and a conviction, and whether there is one charge or 100, it’s still a charge,” Mitteff pointed out.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuerman, a New York City architect and married father of two, was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, which are linked to the so-called “Gilgo Foursome,” women found wrapped in burlap just days apart in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrests revolved around the discovery of more than a dozen human bones along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most of the victims were petite female prostitutes with green or hazel eyes, but there were two exceptions: a two-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthélémy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport neighborhood of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her Underhill Avenue basement apartment on July 12, 2009. Heuerman was charged with Barthélémy’s murder in July 2023.
Maureen Brainerd Burns,twenty five
- Brainerd Barnes lived in Norwich, Connecticut. She disappeared on July 6, 2007 after riding an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut to Grand Central Station in Manhattan. Her body was discovered in December 2010. Heuerman was indicted on charges of Brainerd Barnes’ murder in January 2024.
Amber Lynn Costello27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived with one woman and two men in West Babylon, New York. Costello advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support his and his roommate’s drug habits. Costello was last seen leaving his home on September 2, 2010, and was discovered on December 13, 2010. Heurman was charged with Costello’s murder in July 2023.
Megan Waterman,twenty two
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mother of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen in Maine, boarding a Concord Trailways bus with her family bound for New York. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Heuerman was charged with Waterman’s murder in July 2023.
Jessica Taylor20
- The body of Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman who worked as an escort in New York City, was discovered in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Another body of her, originally named “Jane Doe No. 5”, was discovered along Ocean Parkway on March 29, 2011.
Valerie Mack,twenty four
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort under the alias “Melissa Taylor”. Mack was last seen by relatives in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but was never reported missing to police. Her partial skeletal remains were discovered in Manorville in September 2000, and she was initially referred to as “Jane Doe No. 6”. On April 4, 2011, more bones were discovered along Ocean Parkway.
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of an unidentified Asian male were discovered along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. At the time of his death, the man was estimated to have been between 17 and 23 years old. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall and had bad teeth.
“Peaches” and her daughter
- In 1997, the remains of an African-American woman were discovered at Lake Hempstead State Park. She was nicknamed “Peaches” because of the tattoo of a bitten peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police discovered the remains of an infant who was two years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the remains belonged to “Peaches,” the mother of the two-year-old girl.
Karen Vergata
- The victim, previously known as Jane Doe 7, was identified as Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old Manhattan woman. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around February 14, 1996, and her feet were found in a plastic bag two months later in a park near Blue Point Beach on Fire Island. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort. In August 2023, two sets of Vergata’s remains were identified.
Shannan Gilbert,twenty three
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort from Jersey City who traveled with her driver, Michael Pak, from Manhattan to her Oak Beach home on the morning of May 1, 2010 to meet client Joseph Brewer. She vanished after speaking with two neighbors. Her body was found in a swamp near Oak Beach on December 13, 2011, about a half-mile from where she was last seen alive.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Taylor, a 20-year-old woman who worked as an escort in New York City, was discovered in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Another body of her, originally named “Jane Doe No. 5”, was discovered along Ocean Parkway on March 29, 2011.
Sandra Costilla
- Kostila was killed in 1993 but was not previously included among the alleged Gilgo Beach victims. Investigators suspected convicted serial killer John Bittrollf of involvement in Kostila’s death, but he was never charged with her murder. The case remains one of several unsolved murders on Long Island.
“They are not going to be swayed or swept away in the court of public opinion. They are going to wait until this case is decided by a jury and a judge within the four walls of a courtroom.”
Heuermann’s children have largely stayed out of the public eye since his shocking arrest, although Victoria was pictured with her mother, Asa Elerup, at a court hearing in April.
Ellerup married Heuermann in 1996. She filed for divorce days after his arrest, but has since maintained that her husband was incapable of carrying out the brutal murders.
Last year it was revealed that Ellerup and her two children would receive at least $1 million for appearing in an NBC/Peacock documentary about the Gilgo Beach murders.
