The woods where Sandra Costilla was found

On November 21, 1993, two hunters found the body of Sandra Costilla in this wooded area at 50 Fish Cove Road in North Sea, Southampton.

The 28-year-old had been strangled and left partially unclothed, her striped rugby-style shirt pulled over her head.

She had sustained multiple sharp-force injuries.

Police at the time said there were indications she had been sexually assaulted.

Costilla's remains had lain in the woods for "one or two days" before the discovery.

Authorities identified her using fingerprints taken a year earlier, when she was caught jumping a subway turnstile.

Sandra Rajkumar

Sandra Rajkumar was born on August 25, 1965, in Trinidad and Tobago, and grew up on Foster Road in Sangre Grande. She was the daughter of Milly Rattansingh and Ramkissoon Rajkumar, a police officer stationed in Toco.

At the age of 10, Rajkumar was orphaned after her father fatally shot her mother and killed himself. In a 2024 interview with The Trinidad and Tobago Express, her younger brother Manny revealed that both he and Sandra witnessed the incident.

In 1982, she married a soldier named Benjamin Costilla in Hawaii. They were not romantically involved, as the marriage was arranged by her half-brother, Anthony, to help her secure her immigration papers.

Rajkumar had a boyfriend in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1986, she returned to the country to bring him back to the United States.

She lived with her boyfriend and Manny in New York City. She gave birth to her son in 1989.

The couple later got a place of their own but struggled financially.

Manny described her life in New York as a "grind" that was "hard as nails." When her relationship ended, she "went into a downward spiral." Her brother recalled that she began drinking heavily and disappearing for a day or two.

Costilla's last known address was on Gates Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, though she had not lived there for over a year. Police at the time described her as a "drifter" who sometimes used the surname Cutello.

According to a court document released in February 2025, Costilla made frequent trips to Manhattan around the time of her disappearance. Six days before her remains were found, a friend drove her to Greenwich Village to drop her off for work.

Costilla told her friend she worked at a print company, but investigators later found she had not been employed there since 1992.

John Bittrolff

Initially, authorities believed Costilla's murder was linked to the killings of two sex workers, Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee.

Although Costilla had no prior arrests related to the sex trade, police said she lived a "substantially similar lifestyle" and that anecdotal evidence suggested she was working on the streets.

In July 2014, authorities charged Manorville carpenter John Bittrolff with the murders of Tangredi and McNamee. Following the arrest, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota publicly named Bittrolff as a suspect in Costilla's case.

Spota said that all three victims were petite, strangled, and posed in wooded areas. He also stated that trace evidence at Costilla's crime scene pointed toward a connection.

Bittrolff was found guilty of the murders of Tangredi and McNamee in 2017 and sentenced to 50 years in prison. However, he was excluded as a suspect in Costilla's death after a forensic lab determined a strand of male hair on the victim did not match his DNA.

Rex Heuermann

In April 2024, police launched a large-scale search in the woods where Costilla was found and in multiple areas around Manorville.

On June 6, 2024, prosecutors indicted Rex Heuermann for Costilla's murder and the 2003 killing of Gilgo Beach victim Jessica Taylor.

During a search of Heuermann's home in July 2023, investigators found an issue of Newsday from November 22, 1993, that contained a short article about the discovery of Costilla's remains.

A male hair on Costilla's shirt connected Heuermann to the crime. Additionally, a strand of female hair on the victim's right arm matched the DNA of a woman who was living with him before the murder.

The woman, believed to be Heuermann's first wife, had moved out of their home approximately two months before Costilla's death.

The murder occurred shortly after the breakdown of his first marriage, when he was living alone in Massapequa Park. Investigators believe the woman's hair transferred to Costilla's clothing while the victim was inside Heuermann's residence.

According to court documents, Heuermann had ties to the area around Southampton.

Colleagues and friends knew Heuermann as a gun enthusiast and an avid hunter. The North Sea area has a long history of hunting, particularly for white-tailed deer and waterfowl. Furthermore, the disposal site is approximately four miles north of the Southampton Pistol & Rifle Club.

On April 8, 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to Costilla's murder, as well as the deaths of seven others. Following the plea, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney gave his personal impression that Heuermann admitted guilt because "he was done" and wanted the trial to "come to a conclusion."

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