After decades waiting for justice, relatives of women murdered by New York's Gilgo Beach serial killer laid into him on Wednesday before he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his admitted crimes. "A million years isn't enough," said Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, per the AP. "Nothing will ever make this right." Rex Heuermann clasped his hands on the defense table in an eastern Long Island courtroom, looking straight ahead and lightly tapping his fingers. The Long Island architect, who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting he killed eight women, was arrested in 2023. "You fill me with so much repugnance, I can't stand it," Robinson said. The judge in the case added to Heuermann, per News 12: "You are a coward."
The sentencing caps an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York's most perplexing mysteries—one that began as a series of seemingly unconnected and largely unmarked disappearances of young women, but became the focus of true-crime documentaries, books, and podcasts after police began discovering the victims' skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a coastal parkway, per the AP. Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Taylor, Melissa Barthelemy, Valerie Mack, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.
Heuermann also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, though he was never charged in her death. He said he strangled his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies. Heuermann, who remained largely silent through multiple court appearances since his arrest, also had a chance to speak on Wednesday. "I am responsible for all that was said in this room," he said, per News 12, adding, "The words I say have no meaning." When the judge asked him if he was even "a little bit sorry" for his crimes, Heuermann simply answered, "Yes."
The serial killer's ex-wife and two grown children weren't at the sentencing, having said through their lawyers that they'd stay away out of respect for the victims' families. Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and most of their remains were found on a parkway not far from Long Island's Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles from Manhattan. As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers. "Justice has been done, but it can't replace what has been taken," said JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack, in court on Wednesday. "She had dreams, and you took them all away from her."
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