Rex Heuermann's house

This is the home of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann.

It is located at 105 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park, New York.

Heuermann lived in this house with his wife, Asa Ellerup, their daughter, Victoria, and Ellerup's son, Christopher Sheridan.

On the evening of July 13, 2023, authorities arrested Heuermann in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders.

Heuermann was apprehended more than 12 years after police discovered the skeletal remains of several sex workers off Ocean Parkway on Jones Beach Island.

In April 2026, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of murder. In the documentary series "The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets," psychotherapist Alison Winter said that Heuermann admitted to killing seven women inside the residence.

He also told his family that he killed his first victim, Sandra Costilla, in a vehicle outside the house in November 1993.

Background

Heuermann was born on September 13, 1963, to Delores and Theodore J. Heuermann (1925-1975). He grew up in this house before purchasing it from his mother for $170,000 in May 1994.

The three-bedroom property was built in 1956.

Heuermann has been described as an avid hunter and carpenter who built furniture at his home workshop. A former coworker told New York Magazine that he liked to hunt deer, elk, and occasionally bears.

Former classmates at Alfred G. Berner High School said he was a nerdy, reclusive, and awkward teenager who "didn't fit in." Despite his height, he was frequently targeted by bullies because he never fought back.

Neighbors said children often avoided the house on Halloween due to its poor condition. Others described how Heuermann sometimes glared at passersby while chopping wood in his front yard.

One neighbor later recalled joking that there were bodies buried on the property.

Heuermann was a seasonal employee at Jones Beach State Park during the summer of 1981. He also worked there between May 3, 1982, and October 24, 1984. The park is close to where the Gilgo Beach victims were later found.

In 1987, he began working as an architect in Manhattan, commuting via the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). During the early 1990s, he worked for architect Harvey Rothenberg.

He married his first wife, Elizabeth Ryan, on September 27, 1990, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

In 1992, the couple moved into 105 1st Avenue, where they lived with Heuermann's mother, Delores. Shortly thereafter, Delores moved out to live with her boyfriend.

Ryan and Heuermann separated the following year, with Ryan leaving the residence in September 1993. Their divorce was finalized in May 1994.

Heuermann murdered his first victim, Sandra Costilla, in November 1993, roughly two months after Ryan had moved out.

In 1994, he founded his architecture company, RH Consultants & Associates, Inc., in Manhattan.

He married Ellerup in April 1996, the same month the second known Gilgo Beach victim, Karen Vergata, was found.

In a 2022 interview with L'Interview, he described himself as an architectural consultant and "troubleshooter" who helps clients and other architects deal with the NYC Department of Buildings.

Gilgo Beach murders

Over the years, there was speculation that the killer had a connection to Manhattan.

Jessica Taylor was last seen near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, while Maureen Brainard-Barnes disappeared after leaving a motel on West 46th Street.

The killer also repeatedly called the sister of Melissa Barthelemy from several locations within the city.

Investigators had suspected a Massapequa connection since 2012, as the FBI identified patterns in cellphone activity in that area.

Two of the victims' devices went dead in the vicinity shortly after they were picked up by an unknown client who had contacted them using burner phones.

Furthermore, the phone the killer used to contact Amber Lynn Costello had traveled from Manhattan to Massapequa Park before eventually arriving in her neighborhood in West Babylon.

Investigation

The Gilgo Beach Task Force began focusing on Heuermann after they determined he may have been the last client to see Costello.

Costello's roommate told detectives the victim had been visited by a large man who drove a dark-colored pickup truck. The witness recalled that the truck had a triangular brace between the cab and the bed.

Investigators determined that the design was consistent with a Chevrolet Avalanche.

Police identified Heuermann after searching a database for Massapequa residents who had owned an Avalanche.

Upon learning he matched the physical description of the suspect, the team began looking into his digital footprint.

Cellphone records revealed that Heuermann was using fictitious names to operate fake email accounts and burner cellphones. This behavior matched that of the killer, who had contacted the Gilgo Four victims using disposable devices.

Heuermann owned multiple email addresses, including [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

The task force found he used the burner phones to contact sex workers and arrange "hookups" on Tinder. Activity on one of his Google accounts showed that he regularly searched for information about the Gilgo case, its victims, and the victims' relatives.

His continued solicitation of escorts caused concern among investigators, who believed he might kill again.

On January 26, 2023, a surveillance team observed him throwing a pizza box into a trash can outside his workplace. After retrieving the box, they sent the leftover crust to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory for analysis.

A swab from the crust was a mitochondrial DNA match to a male hair found on Megan Waterman.

Female hairs found on Waterman, Costello, and Brainard-Barnes matched the DNA profiles of Heuermann's wife and daughter. Prosecutors believe the hairs transferred to the victims' bodies while they were inside the house.

Analysis of Heuermann's call history determined that his personal phone and three of the killer's burner phones had repeatedly pinged at the same locations.

Arrest

Officers apprehended Heuermann on the evening of July 13, 2023. At the time, he had just left his workplace in Midtown Manhattan and was walking south on Fifth Avenue. A security camera at a nearby store captured the moment plainclothes officers surrounded him on the sidewalk.

Authorities spent nearly two weeks searching his house, removing evidence, and digging up the backyard.

A forensic examination of one of Heuermann's devices uncovered a deleted Microsoft Word document titled "HK2002-04."

Prosecutors claimed he created the document to plan his crimes and avoid detection.

Investigators suspected that Heuermann had carried out the killings in his basement.

The task force conducted a second search of Heuermann's residence in May 2024, during which they removed wood paneling from the basement walls and seized old newspapers about the murders.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said that Heuermann had kept the materials as "trophies."

Additional charges

Initially, Heuermann was charged with only three of the Gilgo Beach killings. He wasn't indicted for Brainard-Barnes' death until January 2024.

On June 6, 2024, he was charged with the murders of Taylor and Costilla.

Six months later, in December 2024, prosecutors also indicted him for the 2000 murder of Valerie Mack, bringing the total count to seven.

Guilty plea

In April 2026, media outlets reported that Heuermann planned to enter a guilty plea for the crimes. They also indicated that he was expected to plead guilty to the 1996 murder of Karen Vergata, a crime for which he had not been charged.

On April 8, 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to eight counts of murder.

Before his plea, he privately admitted his guilt to his wife and daughter.

Heuermann described his modus operandi to psychotherapist Alison Winter. On the first day, he cleaned the entire basement and readied himself for the victim. On the second day, he met the victim and acted kindly until just before the murder. He then engaged in postmortem activity before dumping the body that night.

Day three was "cleanup," during which he disposed of every tool, tarp, and piece of clothing. He left the fourth day free as an emergency buffer in case something didn't go as planned.

On June 17, 2026, Heuermann was sentenced to life in prison without parole.