Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann issued his most defiant denial in court on Tuesday after prosecutors charged him with a seventh murder in the long, emotional saga of the Gilgo Beach killings.
The hulking suspect, cuffed from behind and wearing a dark-colored suit during a hearing at Suffolk County Criminal Court, raised his voice and professed his innocence again, even as the charges against him continued to mount.
“Your Honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges,” Heuermann blurted out, shaking his head, as he was arraigned on the new indictment.
It was the most he has ever spoken in court.
But prosecutors and the victims’ families were unmoved by his denial as more details emerged about victim Valerie Mack, who was killed, dismembered and mutilated some time between Sept. 1 and Nov. 19, 2000, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Mack, 24, had been working as an escort in Philadelphia and was last seen by her family that year in New Jersey. A hunter’s dog discovered Mack’s decapitated body in a wooded area of Manorville, Long Island, on Nov. 19, 2000.
Her remains were tied with rope in a black plastic bag that was wrapped with duct tape, according to court papers. Both of her hands had been severed from her body and one of her legs was cut off, the documents said.
The rest of Mack’s remains were found more than a decade later, in April 2011, along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach, authorities said.
A woman’s hair found on Mack’s remains was linked through DNA to Heuermann’s wife and daughter, indicating that the victim’s body was dismembered in the architect’s Massapequa Park, Nassau County, home, prosecutors allege.
In 2010 and 2011, the bodies of 11 people were found on or near Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann, 61, is charged with killing six other women whose remains were found on Long Island. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
“The lives of these women matter. We, as investigators, understand that. No one understands that more than the families,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a news conference with Mack’s parents and other victims’ relatives.
Mack’s parents said nothing after the hearing. Instead, they received well-wishes and flowers from the parents of other victims.
“We are here today because we wish to support the family members of victim Valerie Mack,” said Gloria Allred, an attorney representing victims’ families. “We want her family to know that they are not alone in their grief.”
Allred said she expected nothing less than a not guilty plea from Heuermann.
“Under the law, he is presumed innocent, unless and until he is found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” Allred said. “So he can say it until he’s blue in the face, but really what matters is what the evidence shows.”
Among the evidence, according to prosecutors, are pornographic images consistent with injuries Mack suffered. The images involved cutting a woman’s breast and tying up women with rope.
Heuermann’s lawyer Michael Brown said he was not surprised by his client’s tone.
“I know he’s extremely frustrated,” Brown said after the hearing. “He has said from day one he is not responsible for these murders. From day one, he wanted his day in court. I expected him to say something at a lower level, but he obviously wanted to address the court. So he did.”
Heuermann was first charged in July 2023 with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. In January, Heuermann was charged with the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
He was later charged with two more murders — the 2003 death of Jessica Taylor, and the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders, which span three decades. He is currently being held without bail.
Cops said it was a Long Island pimp — and pizza crust DNA — that steered investigators toward Heuermann, a husband and father who had been living quietly in Massapequa Park and commuting to Manhattan, where he worked as an architect.
The pimp described the suspect’s vehicle to authorities, giving them details about a green Chevrolet Avalanche during a spring 2022 meeting with investigators.
Cops also retrieved DNA from a pizza crust found in a Manhattan trash can near Heuermann’s work office and matched it with a hair found on Waterman’s body.
Heuermann has been in custody since his arrest in July 2023.
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