Gilgo Beach killings: Suffolk DA Ray Tierney 'taking wait and see' approach in potential guilty plea by Rex Heuermann

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Friday that he’s taking a “wait and see” approach on whether alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann will plead guilty at his next court appearance, as Newsday has reported exclusively.

Tierney, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Hauppauge Friday, declined to confirm Newsday’s reporting, which revealed that the families of the victims in the case had been told recently that Heuermann is planning to plead guilty at his next court appearance on April 8. Tierney also refused to discuss any potential plea negotiations with Heuermann, who has publicly denied any involvement in the killings of seven women from 1993 to 2010.

“Nothing is done and so we wait,” Tierney said. “It’s not my decision and I’m not a party to that decision. There’s a presumption of innocence and a right to trial. And we respect those things and we're just going to have to wait and see.”

The details of Heuermann's expected plea agreement have not been disclosed publicly and the deal could still fall through for any number of reasons, including by Heuermann simply changing his mind. The prosecution could also rescind any deal and the judge could refuse to approve it.

Tierney said Friday that he would be content with either scenario — a guilty plea or the case going to trial.

"I wouldn't be disappointed either way. You have to do the best you can and get your case and ducks lined in a row and when that happens you usually get good results," Tierney said. "If it happens, great; if it doesn't, great."

Outside of Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home Friday morning, former wife Asa Ellerup was seen getting into a vehicle and driving away. She declined to comment to a Newsday reporter.

Heuermann, 62, who owned a Manhattan architectural consulting business until his arrest in July 2023, had been expected to go on trial in September. He faces life without parole if convicted of the top charge of first-degree murder.

Michael J. Brown, Heuermann's lead defense attorney, did not return a call Friday.

Heuermann was initially charged with first- and second-degree murder in the killings of Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. In January 2024, a special grand jury also indicted him on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, effectively answering the question of who killed the "Gilgo Four," the first set of remains found off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in December 2010.

The women, whose skeletal remains were all discovered without clothes and bound, were killed between 2007 and 2009, each at times when Heuermann stayed behind as his wife and children left for vacations, prosecutors have said. Ellerup has since divorced Heuermann but publicly maintained that she believes he’s innocent.

Meanwhile, Heuermann’s adult daughter Victoria Heuermann said in a documentary released last year that her father “most likely” committed the killings. The family was reportedly paid over $1 million to participate in the Peacock documentary. 

Victims Valerie Mack, in 2000, and Jessica Taylor, in 2003, were both mutilated and their severed bodies were dumped near each other off Ocean Parkway and 40 miles east in the vast woodlands of Manorville.
Victim Sandra Costilla was also discovered with sharp-forced wounds to her body even farther east, in the Southampton Town hamlet of North Sea, in 1993, about 60 miles from Gilgo Beach.

Their bodies were all found within days of their disappearances, which prosecutors have also said occurred while Heuermann was alone in the Massapequa Park home he lived in with his family.

The killings likely happened in the basement of the home, prosecutors have said.

All seven women were said to have engaged in sex work, officials have said.

Some onlookers pulled in front of Heuermann's house on Friday.

Karen Schenk, of Dallas, and her brother Joe Behm, of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, — who grew up in West Babylon — and his wife, Michelle Pelner, said they’ve long followed the case, and while they were in town for a relative’s 80th birthday, they wanted to check out the infamous house for themselves. 

“Oh yes, we drove by Gilgo Beach last summer when we were up here. It’s sad,” said Behm, who supports a guilty plea. “I think it is a great thing. ... Why drag everyone through this, especially these folks here who live in the neighborhood, and the family.”

He added: “I’m so glad this is going to be over soon.”

Schenectady said: “so this neighborhood and family can have closure," to which Behm added, “Knock down this house.”

For Philip Cancellieri, Heuermann’s next-door neighbor for the last two decades, the news of a plea was surprising.

“I would have thought that he would have tried to defend himself to whatever capacity, but, yeah, it’s a little perplexing, you know? Is justice being served? I really don’t know.”

He said the initial large crowds of gawkers, police searches and hordes of media that descended on their street after Heuermann’s arrest were intense, but have since all but disappeared.

“It was a little tough in the beginning, but things tend to normalize after a while. You got to keep on living, I guess. Hopefully justice will be served, one way or another. But it’s a little surprising that he is pleading guilty. I guess this is what it is.”

Cancelliri said he had many interactions with Heuermann over the years. 

“Yeah, he seemed like a decent guy.”

And Heuermann’s family?

“Yeah, they are very good, we still talk to each other.”