New York’s Riverhead. On Tuesday, the New York architect who is accused of murder in the Gilgo Beach crimes was charged with the murder of a seventh lady.
Valerie Mack’s remains were discovered on Long Island in 2000, and Rex Heuermann entered a not guilty plea to her murder. Mack, 24, was last seen by her family in New Jersey that year while working as an escort in Philadelphia.
More than ten years after the initial discovery of some of Mack’s skeletal remains in Manorville, New York, officials uncovered more of her remains in Gilgo Beach, almost fifty miles to the west. Until 2020, when genetic testing identified her, they were unknown.
Prosecutors stated in court documents that the human hair discovered with Mack’s remains was tested earlier this year and was determined to be a likely match with Heuermann’s daughter’s genetic profile. His daughter, who would have been three or four years old when Mack passed away, is not charged with any crimes.
Heuermann, 61, is accused of murdering six additional women, the bodies of whom were discovered on Long Island. He has entered a not guilty plea to every accusation.
At a press conference with Mack’s parents and other victims’ families, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney stated that these women’s lives are important. The families are the only ones who truly comprehend that.
Mack’s parents remained silent. The Macks received hugs and roses from the families of four other victims, who also sent their condolences and solidarity through a lawyer.
They were liked and still are. According to lawyer Gloria Allred, who works for the families of Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, and Megan Waterman, “those who knew them and had a strong bond with them miss them every day.”
The DNA technology used to link Mack and other victims to Heuermann has never been found to be trustworthy in a New York case, according to Heuermann’s attorney Michael Brown, who contested the evidence presented in Mack’s killing outside of court.
He also argued that Tierney s office has yet to produce proof any victims’ DNA was found in Heuermann s home, including the many weapons and tools seized during recent searches of the property.
According to Brown, these accusations have a slightly strange quality. Something isn’t quite right.
The Gilgo Beach homicides investigation began in 2010 after police investigating a missing lady discovered ten sets of human remains in the brush along a barrier island parkway, raising suspicions of a serial killer.
Many of the victims were sex workers, and police identified them over the years using DNA analysis and other hints. On Long Island, police also started looking into other unsolved female homicides.
Despite five police commissioners, over 1,000 tips, and questions about whether a serial killer ever existed, the case has continued to drag on.
Heuermann, who lived with his wife and two children in Massapequa Park on Long Island and commuted to a Manhattan architecture office, was arrested on July 13, 2023. He was then accused of killing Amber Lynn Costello, Waterman, and Barthelemy.
He was accused of being responsible for the murders of three additional women earlier this year: Sandra Costilla, Taylor, and Brainard-Barnes.
In a June court filing, prosecutors said they had recovered a file on a hard drive in Heuermann s basement that he used to methodically blueprint his killings including checklists with tasks for before, during and after, as well as lessons for next time.
Prosecutors claimed in court documents on Tuesday that the document, which was produced the same year Mack was murdered, contains information that supports her claim.
For example, it names Mill Road a road near where Mack s first remains were found under the heading DS, which investigators believe stands for dump site.
The document also lists foam drain cleaner under Supplies. Prosecutors say that on Oct. 3, 2000, Heuermann s phone records appear to show him making two calls to a Long Island plumbing company, and he paid another company the following month to check his mainline drain.
In recent searches of Heuermann s home and office, authorities say they found old magazines and newspapers with articles about the Gilgo Beach killings and investigation that prosecutors believe he kept as souvenirs or mementos. Among them was a July 29, 2003, copy of the New York Post that included an article about the investigation into Mack and Taylor s remains.
Tierney said Tuesday that evidence points to Heuermann s home as the scene of the killings in most cases, when his family was out of town.
Heuermann s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, said in a statement that she still does not believe her husband was capable of committing the crimes he s accused of.
The couple s now grown children said in a separate statement they remain steadfast in observing the legal process play itself out, no matter how long it takes or how difficult it is.
Authorities have still not charged anyone in the deaths of some other people whose remains were found on Long Island.
Among them is an unidentified male victim who died in 2006 and likely presented outwardly as a female, and Karen Vergata, whose remains were discovered in 1996 but only identified through new DNA analysis in 2022.
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