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From 1993 until 2010, an unseen killer terrorized women in the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island.

In 2023, authorities arrested Rex Heuermann after finding substantial evidence — from his car to DNA to electronic contact with multiple victims — linking him to some of the crimes.

He has been definitively linked to eight of the murder victims.

Now, he has been sentenced — and he’s never getting out.

There are real debates as to how many Gilgo Beach victims died by his hand

In November of 1993, Sandra Costilla went missing from New York. Her remains were found later that month.

She was, as far as investigators can tell, the first of many.

Off and on, often with years between the killings, women vanished or were found — in part or on whole — in the general vicinity of Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

It was not until July of 2023 that Heuermann was charged with seven of the murders.

These were not the only women who died horribly in this area. They were just the ones that investigators had successfully linked to Heuermann.

Heuermann was a Manhattan architectural consultant and a resident of Massapequa Park.

Investigators determined that, in addition to other evidence, these horrific killings had taken place when his wife and children were traveling out of state.

Multiple pieces of evidence led authorities to Heuermann, including DNA evidence from a discarded pizza crust and also hair fiber analysis.

In April of 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to the seven murders for which he had been charged.

He also admitted to another killing, that of Karen Vergata, though he had not been charged in her death.

Life without the possibility of parole

On Wednesday, June 17, TMZ reports that the court sentenced Heuermann to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.

The judge is said to have accurately referred to him as “a disgusting and despicable man” during the hearing.

In that same session, the judge also reportedly called Heuermann a “coward.”

Seventeen years of stalking and lethally strangling women, some of whom he’d had previous electronic contact with, is not the behavior of a courageous or righteous individual.

Heuermann also used his computer to search for things like child sex-abuse material (CSAM) and photos of the family members of his victims. If anything, the judge was being nice.

Our culture sometimes mythologizes serial killers, due in no small part to a long history of police dragging their heels or simply missing evidence.

Serial killers are not geniuses, or artists, or misunderstood victims. Most serial killers are at or below average intelligence.

Heuermann chose to end the lives of at least eight women. Serial killers have varying conscious motives and backgrounds, but the vast majority have a hatred of women at the core of what drives them to kill.

Someone who does things like this cannot be among us. He needs to be incarcerated for the public good.

Perhaps, in time, police can find evidence linking him to more victims. It won’t bring them back, but it may give more families a sense of closure.

Or, if they do not find more evidence, it may show investigators that there are more killers to be found.