After Rex Heuermann, some follow-up questions

Now it is final. The Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann, 62, will be locked up for life. He’d pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted to the strangulation death of an eighth. The court proceedings Wednesday cap a monumental tale of depraved violence.

The details are well known. His victims, ages 20 to 34, were slain between 1993 and 2010. All were hired as escorts, or sex workers, when they first disappeared. Heuermann, an architect from Massapequa Park, went along for decades living a mainstream life free of detection and suspicion.

It’s also well known that the case was marred and investigations delayed by the early failures of Suffolk County law enforcement, including a cutoff of ties with the FBI. Rumors and conspiracy theories found fertile ground as scandals surrounding Police Chief James Burke and District Attorney Thomas Spota became a backdrop. Finally, new leadership and more earnest investigation years later, aided by advances such as DNA technology, pinned down the evidence that led to Heuermann and proved how he killed people.

But this dark episode should not be considered closed — we don’t know what really happened to Shannan Gilbert.

It was Gilbert who unintentionally rang the alarms that focused police attention on the other victims.

She too was a sex worker. She called 911 after running from a client’s home in Oak Beach, and claimed someone was trying to kill her, in May 2010. While searching for Gilbert near Gilgo Beach, police discovered remains of someone else that December — Melissa Barthelemy. Three others were found in the following days. It wasn’t until December 2011 that Gilbert’s remains were found.

For her, a cause of death apparently could not be determined. The coincidence of Gilbert dying near where others were dumped after being murdered still seems bizarre.

Gilbert’s case didn’t fit the pattern that would be tied to Heuermann. For one thing, she’d been brought to the client’s house by a man considered a friend who drove her there. He was said to have waited for her in the car. Heuermann’s victims were found on the north side of Ocean Parkway, but Gilbert was found on the south side.

Did she trip and drown in the marsh in an irrational state as originally speculated? Her body was found face up.

Hers is not the only cold case. Remains of a victim of a violent homicide, a biological male of Chinese descent, were discovered in 2011 near Gilgo Beach dressed in women’s clothing. Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney released sketches and appealed to the public for information in 2024.

After the sentencing Wednesday, Tierney was asked if he believed Heuermann had killed more than the eight people he has acknowledged. “It doesn’t matter what I think,” Tierney replied.

Yes, it does. As district attorney, Tierney has the responsibility to keep alive the Gilbert investigation.