Accused Serial Killer Rex Heuermann Pleads Guilty to 7 Murders, Admits to 8th Killing

Rex Heuermann is pleading guilty.

The 62-year-old Long Island resident admitted in court on Wednesday (April 8) to murdering seven women, and confessed to killing an eighth victim, in connection to the long unsolved wave of murders known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings.

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He pled guilty to multiple murder charges, including three counts of first-degree murder and four of intentional murder, during a courtroom appearance, and will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole, per AP.

During the hearing, he admitted under questioning from Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney to strangling all eight victims, many of whom were sex workers, dismembering some of them, using burner phones to contact them, and wrapping their bodies in burlap before dumping them in remote locations.

The murders reportedly took place over a 17-year period, with many of the victims discovered along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

The case went unsolved for over a decade, inspiring documentaries and Netflix’s Lost Girls.

Investigators linked Rex Heurmann to the crimes through DNA evidence, cellphone records and surveillance that captured him including discarded pizza crusts, which helped match his DNA to evidence found at the scene.

Defense attorney Michael Brown told reporters: “There came a point in this defense where Rex said, ‘I want to plead guilty.’”

When asked if his client was sorry, the lawyer added: “I would hope so…I would expect at sentencing he would have something to say.”

Rex‘s ex-wife Asa Ellerup said, via AP: “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Their loss is immeasurable and the focus should be on them at this time and moment. I ask that you give some privacy to my family as they navigate through this very difficult time.”

He was arrested in July of 2023.