Cash-strapped DA pleads with feds to free up $13M to prosecute accused Gilgo Beach serial killer: ‘I will beg them’
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office is running out of cash to keep going after accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann — and is begging the feds to free up $13 million in “frozen” funds.
DA Ray Tierney said Wednesday that he desperately needs the money to keep up with the cost of the prosecution, including court-imposed deadlines to turn over reams of evidence to the defense.
“It’s a budgetary issue,” Tierney said after the suspected killer made his latest court appearance.
“I would love to have that money and be able to use it and bring this case to a resolution,” he said.
Tierney called on the Department of Justice to release some of the millions tied up in an investigation into the office under his predecessor.
“I would love to have that money and take that money which I don’t have for no reason for any contact on the part of my administration,” he said.
“So I am going to go to the Department of Justice once again, hat in hand. I will beg them, ‘Please give me this money so that I can litigate this very significant serial killer case,'” he said. “And we’ll see what our federal government tells me.”
Heuermann, 60, a Massapequa Park architect with offices in Midtown Manhattan, is charged in the grisly slayings of six sex workers whose remains were among a total of 11 bodies found dumped along a desolate stretch of Ocean Parkway since 1993.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009. Heuermann was charged for Barthelemy’s murder in July 2023.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
- Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007. Her remains were found in December 2010. Heuermann was charged for Brainard-Barnes’ murder in January 2024.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found on December 13, 2010, after having been last seen leaving her home September 2, 2010. Heuermann was charged for Costello’s murder in July 2023.
Megan Waterman, 22
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. Heuermann was charged for Waterman’s murder in July 2023.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Valerie Mack, 24
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.” More bones were found on April 4, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
- An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”
Karen Vergata
- A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996; two months later, her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort. Two sets of Vergata’s remains were identified in August 2023.
Shannan Gilbert, 23
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Sandra Costilla
- Costilla was murdered in 1993 but had not been included among the so-called Gilgo Beach victims — until now. Investigators suspected convicted serial killer John Bittrolff in Costilla’s death, but he was never charged in her slaying — which remains one of several unsolved Long Island murders.
The deaths of the victims — Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla — remained unsolved until 2022, when Heuermann was identified as a suspect and charged with three initial murders.
Tierney’s office has since tied the three other bodies to Heuermann, prosecutors said.
More recently, prosecutors launched a campaign to identify another body found in 2011 — “Asian Doe,” who is believed to have been a cross-dressing Asian man killed prior to 2006.
The case has relied heavily on DNA and expert analysis of the evidence, which, along with three decades of police reports and other documents, has jacked up the cost of the prosecution, Tierney said.
“We have to turn over every single piece of paper that was generated in a case that started in 1993,” he said, adding, “I can’t ask people to work for free.”
Who is Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann?
A suspected serial killer has been arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island, The Post can confirm.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a married dad of two and architect at a New York City firm, has a home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park, sources told The Post.
His arrest is tied to the “Gilgo Four,” four women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in 2010.
The body of Barthelemy was first found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010, sparking fears of a serial killer in the area.
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By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10, including eight women as well as an unidentified man and toddler.
Heuermann’s arrest comes after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February 2022.
It is not clear how much the Gilgo Beach case is costing taxpayers, but it is undoubtedly plenty.
In addition to Tierney’s expenses, Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, is representing the hulking architect under a public defender statute that not only pays him with tax dollars but also reimburses him for additional expenses like investigators and expert consultants.
“As most people know, we’re assigned by the court to defend this case because we’re on a murder panel and that’s what we’re doing,” Brown said Wednesday.
“It’s subject to court approval. It’s not in the sense of this is how much you get and work with that. When we need something, we asked the judge and if he signs off we can hire an expert.”
