The woods where Sandra Costilla was found

Crime Scene Location in Southampton, New York

On November 21st, 1993, two hunters discovered the body of Sandra Costilla at this location in North Sea, Southampton.

The address is 50 Fish Cove Road, Southampton, New York.

The 28-year-old had been strangled to death and left partially clothed in these residential woods. Her striped shirt had been pulled up over her head, and she had suffered "numerous sharp force injuries" to her body.

Sandra Costilla Long Island — This is an aerial image of 50 Fish Cove Road in Southampton. We have highlighted the property boundaries in red. Costilla's body was discovered by two hunters who were walking through the woods on this 7.22-acre lot.

At the time, the police stated that she "might have been raped."

Costilla is believed to be the first known victim of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann.

Heuermann has been charged with Sandra Costilla's murder — Heuermann has been charged with Costilla's murder.

Her remains were lying in the woods for several days before they were discovered. The authorities identified her using her fingerprints, which had been entered into the system after she was arrested for jumping over a subway turnstile in 1992.

Sandra Costilla — This is a digitally enhanced image. Costilla's maiden name was Rajcoomar. She was born in Sangre Grande in Trinidad and Tobago on August 25th, 1965. She was orphaned at the age of seven. In 1984, she married a man named Benjamin Costilla in Hawaii. Shortly afterwards, the couple moved to New York. In 1989, she gave birth to a son. He was just five years old when she was murdered.

Costilla's last known address was on Gates Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. However, it is believed that she wasn't living there at the time of her death. According to a court document released in February 2025, Costilla had been making frequent trips to Manhattan at the time of her disappearance.

Court Document — On November 15th, 1993, an acquaintance of Costilla's drove her to "work" in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. At the time, she claimed to be employed by a print company in the area. However, the investigation revealed that she hadn't worked at the company since 1992. This was six days before her remains were found in North Sea.

The police said that she was a "drifter" who sometimes used the surname Cutello.

Initially, Costilla's murder was believed to be linked to the killings of two sex workers named Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee. Although she had no arrests for working in the sex trade, the police stated that she lived a lifestyle that was "substantially similar" and that there was anecdotal evidence that she had been working on the streets.

Aerial image — This aerial image of the location was taken in 2013. The houses to the west did not exist at the time of the murder. According to court documents, Heuermann had ties to the area around Southampton. Notably, this site is approximately four miles north of the Southampton Pistol & Rifle Club.

In 2014, Manorville resident John Bittrolff was charged with killing Tangredi and McNamee. Shortly afterwards, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said that the authorities were investigating whether Bittrolff was also involved in Costilla's murder.

Bittrolff was later excluded after a forensics lab determined that a strand of male hair on the victim did not match his DNA profile.

In April 2024, the police conducted a number of searches around Manorville on Long Island. They also searched the woods where Costilla had been found.

On June 6th, 2024, Heuermann was indicted for the murders of Costilla and a Gilgo Beach victim named Jessica Taylor.

Newspaper articles — When the authorities searched Rex Heuermann's home in 2023, they found an old issue of Newsday from November 22th, 1993. The newspaper contained a short article about the discovery of Costilla's remains.

Heuermann was connected to the crime by the male hair that had been found on her shirt. A strand of female hair on the victim's right arm also proved to be a DNA match with a woman who had previously lived with him before the murder.

The woman in question is believed to be his first wife. Notably, Costilla's murder occurred shortly after the breakdown of his first marriage, at a time when he was living by himself. It is believed that the hair transferred to victim's clothing while she was inside his residence in Massapequa Park.

Sandra Costilla crime scene location

The address and the GPS coordinates for this location are as follows:

Address

50 Fish Cove Road, Southampton, New York, NY 11968, USA

Map

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GPS coordinates

The latitude and longitude coordinates for the site are:

40.935658, -72.407290

Directions

The woods lie to the east of Noyack Road in Southampton.

Photos

Photos of the site and other related images.

John Bittrolff was the prime suspect in Costilla's murder

In July 2014, the authorities indicted a Manorville carpenter named John Bittrolff for the murders of Colleen McNamee and Rita Tangredi. Three years later, he was found guilty of the crimes and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Following his arrest, Bittrolff was publicly named as the prime suspect in Costilla's murder.

Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said that Costilla's case was very similar to the killings of Tangredi and McNamee.

The three victims were small and slight, standing at around five feet tall. They were all strangled to death and then posed in similar ways in wooded areas. Spota said that trace evidence found at Costilla's crime scene also pointed toward a connection. However, he did not provide any further details.

DNA analysis of the victim's hair later excluded Bittrolff as a suspect.

Newspaper clipping from 1994

Following McNamee's murder, the Suffolk County Police Department publicly admitted that there was a possible connection between the three crimes.

Sandra Cutello

This newspaper article was published in November 1993, shortly after Costilla was identified.

Suffolk homicide Detective Lieutenant John Gierasch said that she also went by the surname Cutello.

This location belongs to the following categories:

Crime Scenes Serial Killers Long Island Serial Killer Locations

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The woods where Sandra Costilla was found