Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Rex Heuermann, the man charged with seven of the Gilgo Beach murders that gripped Long Island, is expected to plead guilty next month, according to a source. He’s expected to enter the guilty plea on April 8 in the serial killings, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Two sources close to the case also confirmed the expected plea to NBC New York's Greg Cergol. It was first reported by Newsday. Heuermann, an architect who was married at the time with children, was arrested in July 2023, initially charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He now stands accused of killing seven women. His arrest came as police were investigating the deaths of at least 10 people, mostly female sex workers, whose remains were found during searches in 2010 and 2011 along Long Island's Gilgo Beach. Police do not believe all those deaths are linked to the same person. Heuermann had maintained his innocence in the slayings and previously pleaded not guilty to the charges. His trial was set to begin in September. NBC News has reached out to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office for comment. An attorney for Heuermann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Heuermann was initially charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old who had been reported missing in 2009; Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old who went missing in 2010; and Amber Costello, a 27-year-old who also was reported missing in 2010. In 2024, he was charged with the killings of four more women: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, a 25-year-old who went missing in 2007; Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old who disappeared in July 2003; Sandra Costilla, a 28-year-old whose remains were found in a wooded area in Southampton in 1993; and Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old who disappeared in 2000. His arrest at the time shocked his quiet village of Massapequa Park in Nassau County. He was known as a family man who commuted to work in Manhattan as an architect. The bodies discovered near Gilgo Beach had long-haunted the community. Those cases had gone cold after years of investigation, but in 2022 a joint law enforcement review focused on a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to Heuermann, which was flagged during Costello’s disappearance from a witness’ tip. Authorities said cellphone evidence and DNA taken from a discarded pizza crust was used to build their case against Heuermann. In September, a Suffolk County judge ruled that DNA evidence can be used in the trial, a move that the defense sought to block.
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