Suspected Long Island serial killer charged with two more murders

The man accused that he is the Long Island serial killer has been charged with two more counts of murder in connection with the remains of the victims found near his alleged dump in Gilgo Beach along the south shore of Long Island.

According to a new Suffolk County warrant application obtained by Rolling rockLong Island, Rex Heuermann — who already faces four counts of murder in connection with the victims of the “Gilgo Four” — has been charged in the cold-blooded murders of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costillo, two other women whose remains were found near Manorville of Long Island , and Gilgo Beach and whose deaths predate the previous LISK victims by nearly decades.

At least 10 bodies were discovered buried on the shore of Long Island's Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Police initially believed that the bodies of four women found in close proximity to each other, each wrapped in similar burlap, were killed by the same person. Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, who were all sex workers at the time of their deaths, were dubbed “The Gilgo Four” and remained victims of the Long Island serial killer's cold case until the arrest of Heuermann in July 2023;

Heuermann — who was first charged with the murders of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello in July 2023 and Brainard-Barnes in January 2024 — has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Like the previous four victims attributed to LISK, Taylor was a sex worker at the time of her disappearance in 2003. Her remains were first discovered near Manorville in 2003, while the rest of Taylor's remains were found in 2011 as part of a investigation that revealed the 10 bodies in the Gilgo Beach area.

“Investigators believe that the mutilation of the victim's tattoo, the decapitation of his head and the dismemberment of Ms. Taylor's hands were acts committed by Rex A. Heuermann to prevent the victim from being identified through facial recognition, fingerprints and/or or tattoo recognition'. the bail application said Thursday. “During the initial investigation in Manorville in 2003, the victim's head, arms and hands were not found at the scene and their location remained unknown to law enforcement for approximately eight years.”

Heuermann could potentially face even more murder charges: After the discovery of Taylor's remains, investigators had long believed that she and Valerie Mack — another sex worker who disappeared in 2003 and whose remains were found as part of the LISK investigation in 2011 — they were the victims of the same killer, as their remains were similarly disposed of in the same area near Manorville. While Heuermann was not charged in Mack's Thursday murder, the bail application mentions Mack several times and notes the similarities between her 2000 killing and Taylor's.

(Incidentally, Manorville was home to another convicted serial killer, John Bittrolff, a one-time LISK suspect, who had also witnessed the deaths of Taylor and Mack due to the proximity of the remains to Manorville and the fact that he was also convicted for murdering two sex workers and suspected of a third murder.)

This story is evolving...