Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann's 'subtle shift' in court demeanor hinted at possible guilty plea, DA says

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney can still recall the "subtle shift" he detected in the demeanor of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann during recent court hearings.

After more than three decades as a prosecutor, Tierney had learned to pick up on certain hints. And he began to suspect that Heuermann, who for nearly three years had denied murdering eight women, was ready to accept his role in the vicious crime spree that had terrorized Long Island for decades. 

"In retrospect I think he was done, for whatever reason. And I think shortly thereafter, we got some communication from the defense, and it all came together rather quickly," Tierney told NewsdayTV in an interview Wednesday night, only hours after Heuermann, 62, an architect and father of two from Massapequa Park, matter-of-factly admitted the murders during a 27-minute hearing in a Riverhead courtroom.

Heuermann will spend the rest of his life in state prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. The startling admissions closed the book on a case that has riveted the region and garnered worldwide attention.

But while Tierney's team wanted to close the ugly chapter and give a degree of finality to the victims' families, he had one additional ask.

While Heuermann had been charged with the murders of seven women — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla — they wanted Heuermann to take responsibility for the death of an eighth suspected victim, Karen Vergata, whose partial remains were found in Fire Island in 1996 and near Jones Beach in April, 2011. 

An offer was made, Tierney said. Confess to Vergata's murder and they would not charge him with the crime.

"Since we weren't giving really any break on the [prison] time, given the nature of the case, in return for that, if there was other homicides that we could close and provide closure to the families, we wouldn't charge those additionally," said Tierney, the two-term Suffolk district attorney and former federal prosecutor.

The district attorney also suggested, and Heuermann agreed, to sit down for interviews with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which studies the minds of serial killers.

"It's not investigative, it's clinical," Tierney said. "And they can confine their conversation to the eight cases which he took responsibility for."

Leading two lives 

In his wide-ranging interview with Newsday, Tierney repeatedly noted the "duality" of Heuermann's personality.

At home and at work, Heuermann came off as "inoffensive" and "safe."

But when his wife and children would leave for vacations without him, the other, darker side of Rex Heuermann would reveal itself.

"He was very disciplined in his ability to keep both sides separate and to really hide one side or the other from those that he wanted to keep hidden," Tierney said. "You see it in the movies. But in real life, that's really, really difficult to do. And he was very adroit at it. ... So the discipline he had to sort of maintain the tremendous toll of this dual life is sort of chilling."

Looking back on the case, Tierney reflected on the moments of investigation by dedicated professionals that did not seem critical at the time but would prove invaluable years later.

The FBI agent who performed the cellphone analysis driving through Long Island roads in 2011.

The Suffolk County Crime Lab evidence analyst who sat "in a frozen field" trying to pick up minute strands of hair that could be of significance.

"He does his job properly, and then years later, it bears fruit," Tierney said. "So that's very impressive to me. It's very inspiring to me. And there's tons of little stories like that along the way, which led to our success."

In the end, Tierney said, the case came down to providing justice to the victims — those eight women whose faces were pasted on a board in the DA's Hauppauge office and which are "etched in my mind indelibly."

And when Tierney finally had the opportunity to inform the victims' families that, after more than a decade of grief and heartbreak, the case would finally be resolved, their reaction was "something that you'll never, never forget."

NewsdayTV's Doug Geed contributed to this story.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.