[Silence] - I'm Macy Egeland for NewsdayTV.

The story that has haunted Long Island for nearly 16 years has reached another milestone.

The Gilgo Beach serial killer who admitted to murdering eight women has been sentenced.

But before we look ahead, we're taking a look back.

From the moment the first victims were discovered along Ocean Parkway, Newsday was there.

Our photographer, James Carbone, was the first member of the media on the scene, as investigators uncovered what's become one of the country's most infamous serial murder investigations.

Since then, we've brought you exclusive reporting from the courtroom, interviews with investigators, prosecutors, Rex Heuermann's defense attorney, and the families forever changed by these crimes.

Today we present our special report, taking you inside the courtroom, where the victim's families came face to face with the killer, and we heard from Rex Heuermann himself for the first time.

Here's Judgment Day: Sentencing of a Serial Killer.

- [Amanda] You were letting her body rot.

(camera clicks) - [Elizabeth] He simply wanted to torture and kill.

(camera clicks) - [Jasmine] Headless and handless.

(camera clicks) You will spend the rest of your forever in prison.

(camera clicks) - I'm responsible for what was said in this room today.

- [Macy] Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann broke his silence at sentencing.

- Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these poor, innocent women?

Eight women that were strangled to death.

At least eight that we know of.

- [Macy] For more than a decade, these murders haunted Long Island.

Eight women, eight families.

- My world shattered.

The day my sister was found in the brambles on the side of a dark, lonely highway.

- [Macy] Years of unanswered questions.

- Since the first bodies were found to the conspiracy theories to everything else, Long Islanders were glued to this story because there was no ending.

No one could be right until we got to this day.

- Back then, as I heard that call on the scanner and I went down there when they discovered those bodies, I had no idea that it was actually related to a serial killer.

I never imagined, you know, that they would catch this guy.

And just between then and now, it's really stunning, surreal, and shocking.

- [Macy] The Massapequa Park father is now in prison for the rest of his life, but there's a void that can never be filled.

- A million years isn't enough.

Nothing will ever make this right.

- You know, closure is a tricky word, you know, because they'll never have closure, you know, on this case.

- [Macy] A chapter coming to a close.

- I hope he rots in hell.

(suspenseful music) (suspenseful music fades) (attendees clapping) (tense music) - [Reporter] Turn the mic.

Turn that camera.

- Come on up.

Come in, you're the more important.

All of you are the most important people here.

- [Announcer] Number 3 on for sentencing Rex A. Heuermann.

- Let's get him out.

- The day of the sentencing, I think there was a feeling of anticipation that I don't remember feeling previously.

Not that the sentencing means it's done because obviously for the family members of the victims, it will never be done.

But a sense that this was the ending of this chapter of the case.

- So I was designated as the pool photographer for Gilgo Beach.

(camera clicking) This is one of the biggest stories on Long Island, crime stories, and I've covered every single hearing.

The only single photographer allowed in.

- I think everybody knew that this court day was going to be different because we knew we were going to hear from most, if not all, of the victim's family members.

And also there was a possibility that Heuermann himself was going to talk.

(door clicks) - Coming up.

- June 17th, 2026.

What was once a cold case comes to a close, and we hear from the admitted killer himself.

- There are no words I can say.

I am responsible for what was said in this room today.

The words I would say have no meaning.

And I'm going to leave it there at this time.

- I know that you're sorry that you got caught.

I assume that you're sorry for what you've done to your wife and children.

Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these poor, innocent women?

Eight women that you strangled to death.

At least eight that we know of.

Are you at least a little bit sorry for that?

Yes?

- [Heuermann] Yes, I am.

- You know what?

You've been described as a very big man, but you're a disgusting and despicable small man, if you're a man at all.

And you're a coward!

Get him out of here.

(attendees cheering and clapping) - [Attendee] Ogre!

Ogre!

- [Attendee 2] I hope they rape you in the (beep) and kill you.

- It was like a sporting event.

It was celebratory.

People literally stood up and cheered.

There was claps in the audience, obviously victims' family members.

And, you know, after somebody hits a big shot late in the game, people are chanting MVP.

- We don't normally see that here in Suffolk County.

I understand why the families would've done that.

- [Interviewer] So it didn't bother you?

- No.

You know, how I'm going to sit here and judge these folks who we just went through what they've sustained and suffered.

Some for over 30 years.

- I got to see his reactions, his faces.

Of course, you can't catch every reaction with a photo.

His back is facing the crowd.

So the crowd only sees his back.

I get to see his reactions.

So every time one of the victims' family members said what he did, like he would, they would confront him and say, "You killed her, you did this to them."

He nodded his head up and down, like he knew exactly what he did.

The crowd couldn't see that, but I saw it.

- During the victim impact statements, he did not show any emotions.

It just seemed like his mind was wandering elsewhere and he really wasn't listening.

And maybe he didn't want to hear what they had to say.

I didn't think he was going to speak at all.

And I was kind of hoping if he started speaking that he would say, "I'm sorry."

But he didn't do that.

And it doesn't really give the families, the victims or the families any closure.

- I saw someone who was defeated, someone who looked more disheveled than he normally does.

He was... This is a guy who at times has been somewhat arrogant during this process.

At one point when he was being arraigned on one of the superseding indictments, he, instead of just saying that he pleads not guilty, and really, you let your lawyer do the talking for you, he was, "I did not kill these women, your honor."

You know, very defiantly would speak in court at a moment like that.

Highly unusual.

- Judge Tim Mazzei, as I seen him, he's a tough judge.

One of the victims actually, and she was talking about her cousin, very graphic, about what he did to her.

I heard like sniffling and stuff to my right.

His eyes got watery.

And he grabbed a tissue, took his glass off, and wiped his eyes.

I never seen him before emotional before.

(suspenseful music) - Rex Heuermann ended an exhaustive investigation and officially ended a decade's old mystery by pleading guilty to seven murders and admitting to an eighth homicide.

(suspenseful music continues) - [Judge] Are you pleading guilty voluntarily and of your own free will?

- Yes.

(suspenseful music continues) - The man who terrorized Long Island for more than a decade pleaded guilty in the killings of seven women.

(suspenseful music continues) So in court that day, an eighth victim's family also got some answers.

- Karen Vergata is the one admitted Heuermann victim who he was never charged with killing.

As part of the plea, he gave them a confession to an eighth victim beyond the seven that he was charged with.

- A lot of people are wondering why Rex Heuermann took a plea deal.

- Number one is, I do think he wanted to spare his family.

The ordeal of exposing them.

I know he also did not want to put the victim's families through that ordeal as well.

But I would think, also, I do think he saw the writing on the wall, as the evidence came forward.

- So there was an enormous amount of evidence collected by investigators in this case?

- To get through all the discovery on this case, you would probably need a room full of lawyers and working 24/7 for a year or two.

- [Ken] So during this search of Heuermann's Massapequa Park home, investigators found a set of instructions prosecutors described as a murder roadmap.

- Clearly, that was a powerful piece of evidence.

There's no no getting around it.

When you saw that document and you saw step by step.

- So Heuermann had a four-day killing ritual.

He would, the first day would be making an initial contact.

He would plan everything, get everything ready.

The next day would be spent with the person, the actual kill.

He would have a day for cleanup, disposing the remains.

And then he built in this extra day in case anything went wrong, he needed to scramble.

And then he would go off and meet his family.

It was always said that his family had nothing to do with this because they were out of state, out of the country, always out of town when these killings took place.

- Then we found mementos and trophies at his house.

There was the original newspaper reports of when Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack were first written about in the newspaper.

There was the same bounty paper towel that was only available in 2010, which was found with Megan Waterman.

That exact same paper towel, same pattern was found in his workbench.

When you look from the defendant's perspective, I think there is an aspect where he really wants to control things.

And, you know, the plea is sort of the last thing he's able to control.

- [Ken] Heuermann's plea deal included a twist.

- My client is also obligated to completely, truthfully, and fairly cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigations Behavioral Analysis Unit.

- What they do is they look at individuals and look at cases and see what they can learn from a clinical and psychological standpoint.

And so that's what they're doing with this defendant to try to gain insight on him and about him.

- [Interviewer] What was it like to defend the Long Island serial killer?

- It was a challenge.

And it was certainly the most challenging case of my career.

I've handled many significant cases, big cases on Long Island, including numerous murders.

But this really transcends all of those cases.

The intensity, the amount of discovery, the scrutiny.

You know, you're under the microscope.

And of course, you're dealing with the indictment contained.

At the end of the day, it was seven murders.

- [Shannan] There's somebody after me.

- [Operator] Where are you?

- [Shannan] There's somebody asked for me.

- [Operator] Where are you, ma'am?

- [Shannan] I don't know.

(Shannan screams) - [Ken] Shannan Gilbert's frantic 911 call led investigators to a discovery that changed Long Island pretty much forever.

So in December of 2010, while searching for the missing sex worker, police found human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

- As they kept saying more and more bodies are found, I'm like, "Wow, this could be a big, huge, one of the biggest stories I've covered."

I was on the scene first.

- [Ken] Four women were found naked, bound, and discarded, and they became known as the Gilgo Four.

It was Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

And over time, more remains were found.

In the end, 10 sets of human remains would ultimately be found along Ocean Parkway.

- They brought in different K9 dogs searching.

They brought in fire trucks, ladder trucks to search over the woods for bodies.

It was like almost a movie shoot, but this was real, this was a search for bodies.

- In the beginning of '22, things really started to pick up steam.

They created this new task force.

They basically start the investigation from scratch, and it works.

Within just a couple months, they have Heuermann as a suspect, and he's unknowingly under surveillance.

- I think the moment that stays with me the most is the pizza crust.

So just the way that these investigators were able to transform trash, essentially into treasure, to lead to the arrest.

- You know, I'm reading the DNA report.

I was almost disbelieving in my own eyes.

- In July of 2023, Rex Heuermann is arrested by police as he's leaving work.

And we later find out that they did it as soon as they could because they learned from records that he was still communicating with women who were selling sex and they were worried that he could attack again.

(suspenseful music) - Shannan Gilbert is kind of the great mystery still of all this.

There are a million different theories about what might have happened to her.

What's not known is after she made her last contact, how she actually died.

But it was her disappearance and the police search for Shannan Gilbert that ultimately created this whole Gilgo Beach case.

- On the day of the sentencing, we heard from many family members of the victims.

They gave really emotional victim impact statements.

- Rex Heuermann did not just take my mother's life, he stole an entire lifetime of memories that me and her never got to make.

He took away birthdays, holidays, conversations, hugs, advice, and every future moment a mother and daughter should have shared.

- They were all devastating.

Some were softer and more spiritual.

Others were angry and defiant.

What really stood out for all of them is that it was the family members of the victims saying to Heuermann, "This is our day, this is our chance to say what we want to say, and we get the last word.

You don't."

- [Melissa] You are no longer the one in control of this story.

Maureen was not just a victim.

She is a daughter, a sister, a mother, a woman who was loved deeply and will never be forgotten.

- This is just raw emotion.

They had to express themselves.

It's so unique and different than the average murder case because in terms of the typical murder cases, this thing goes back.

Costilla murder goes back to the early '90s.

These people have been waiting for this moment for so long.

It's traumatic for these people.

- Amanda Funderburg, who is the sister of Melissa Barthelemy, and she challenged Heuermann to look her in the eye.

- You can look at me when I'm talking.

- It was sort of like electrically charged.

Like, "Ooh, somebody said, 'Look at me,'" you know, like somebody challenged him, which had not really happened before.

So, I think it made people pay attention.

And I think everybody looked up to see if he was going to look at her, which he did for like a split second.

- It's been about 17 years since we spoke, don't forget.

My heart even skipped a beat as I got a call from a blocked number.

Constantly staring at my phone, waiting for the next call from you.

Because of the several times you had called me from my sister's phone, telling me she was a whore.

And that you raped her in the (beep).

And I should have seen the look on her face when you raped her in the (beep).

Or how I'd ask you where she was.

And you'd tell me... that you were letting her body rot and that maybe one day you'd come tell me where she was.

I was 15.

15 years old.

I was robbed of my youth.

I was robbed of my young adulthood.

And I still feel robbed to this day.

- Haunting phone calls that Heuermann placed her when she was just 15 years old, and bragging about what he had done to her sister.

And those calls, ultimately, were part of what led to his downfall because locations were used to track where that phone call was placed from.

- But do me a favor, save me a spot in hell, because I'll see you there.

- You had one family that came up, and they talked about how they were affected.

And now it's the daughter who's affected, the mother who's affected, the sister, the friend.

And then you go to the next family.

And the next family.

And the next family.

So now you're at eight families.

So as I'm sitting there listening, and you realize the amount of havoc that was caused and wrecked by one individual, that's something that really struck me.

- I was only seven years old when I lost my mother.

And for the next three years, she was missing.

I had to wonder what happened to her.

She lived for only another few weeks past her 25th birthday.

When I myself turned 25, it wasn't the joyful milestone that most young people enjoyed.

It was jarring and painful because I knew that it meant I'd now lived longer than my mom did.

Today, I'm nearly two years older than she will ever be.

Rex Heuermann stole decades of life from a woman who should still be here making memories with the people who love her.

- I'm just glad this is all over with, and I never have to lay eyes on him again.

I'm trying to become whole.

Move on, digest today.

Try to live my best life in her honor, and just keep moving forward.

- Forever our family will hurt because of Megan's absence and all the milestones and life events that lie ahead.

- He'll never leave me.

I think any case that you work and you spend an appreciable amount of time, those victims and even the defendants, they never leave you.

- The story of Gilgo is no longer about hunting a serial killer.

It's more about the women whose lives were lost, the families who waited, and the questions even a confession cannot completely answer.

- Gilgo Beach, it'll just never go away.

This is one of the darkest, if not the darkest chapter in Long Island history.

And I don't think the final chapter's been written.

- Megan Waterman's daughter, Liliana, has always stood out to me.

She was such a powerful voice throughout the court process.

And I think really drives home, you know, what this has meant to the victims, how difficult it's been, how much they miss these women that they've lost in their lives.

But she reminded everyone that they will never be forgotten.

They will forget who Rex is, but their loved ones will never be forgotten.

- Stop saying his name.

Stop putting his face everywhere.

Put the girl's face, put their names, and make it known that we are the ones who live on for them.

- Thinking about that pain that was being inflicted on a loved one, hearing it from those family members, it will stay with me probably for the rest of my life.

- And while you tried to silence her, you failed.

You may have take her presence, but you can never erase her voice and the memories of her.

It lives on in every truth spoken, every tear shed, and every act of courage inspired by her memory.

- Everyone, including reporters, always ask, "Was justice served?"

I don't know that I can answer that.

It doesn't bring back their loved ones.

It doesn't negate the horrific information they heard.

It doesn't bring back the years they lost with their loved ones.

It just means the guy responsible is going away for life.

- Even though justice is done, it cannot replace what you have taken from us.

(light music) (light music continues) (light music continues) - Well, the sentencing may be over, but the Gilgo investigation is ongoing.

Joining me to talk about it from the Newsday Hub is Newsday criminal justice reporter Anthony DeStefano and NewsdayTV reporter Shari Einhorn.

Let's start with what may be the biggest remaining mystery here, Asian Doe.

Even after years of investigation, one of the victims found along Ocean Parkway still does not have a name.

So Anthony, who is Asian Doe, and why is identifying that victim so important?

- Asian Doe is a man of Chinese ancestry whose body was found on April of 2011 along Ocean Parkway.

He had been bludgeoned to death, and he was estimated by investigators to be somewhere between the ages of 17 to maybe 25 years old when he died.

And now the estimates are that he may have died some six years or more before his body was found along Ocean Parkway.

He was wearing woman's clothing, which has led investigators to speculate that he may have been some kind of sex worker.

- [Macy] Okay.

The last remaining victim we know to be identified.

So what are investigators doing now to give this person a name and figure out who he was?

- Well, traditional investigative techniques, such as DNA analysis, have not been able to provide a name to Asian Doe.

What they're doing now is to use an advanced technique of investigative genetic genealogy, which is taking samples from people of Chinese descent and comparing them to, on the one hand, Asian Doe's genetic profile and compare it to people who might be related to him to see if there's some sort of familial connection or some sort of relationship, and try to piece things together with detective work.

- Now, another major chapter is still unfolding in this.

Shari, let's get over to you and talk about Peaches, whose partial remains were also found along Ocean Parkway, and her daughter.

Investigators say Peaches' death is not tied to Heuermann.

So who is Peaches?

Let's start there.

- Macy, part of the remains were found along Ocean Parkway along with the toddler's remains.

But remember, part was also found in 1997 in Hempstead Lake State Park.

That was a dismembered torso that was in a container that was found by a man who had been participating in a fishing clinic.

And the remains went unidentified for nearly three decades.

The remains were referred to as Peaches because of a very distinctive tattoo that was broadcast all over the media.

When the remains were finally identified, we found out that the name of the woman was Tanya Denise Jackson.

She was from Alabama.

She was 26 years old at the time of her death.

She was a US Army veteran who served in the Gulf War, and she was identified as a single mother, a single parent, mother of a two-year-old.

As you mentioned, the toddler's remains were found along Ocean Parkway.

When the remains of the toddler were identified, we learned that the little girl's name was Tatiana.

And there was a lot of speculation that those remains were tied to the Gilgo Beach Killings case, but as it turned out, they were not.

- [Macy] Who is charged in Peaches' killing?

- What we now know is that the man who has been identified as the toddler's father was arrested and charged.

So far, he's only charged with the mother's death, with Ms.

Jackson's death.

His name is Andrew Dykes.

He is from Florida.

He was 66 years old.

And he is a former Tennessee State Trooper.

And what we have learned is that the two of them met when they were in the military.

So that's the connection there.

He has denied any involvement in Ms.

Jackson's killing so far.

- Shari, thank you.

Anthony, thank you.

We appreciate it.

We, of course, will continue following every development in this.

You can read more about the Gilgo killings on our website, newsday.com.

I'm Macy Egeland for NewsdayTV.

Thanks for watching.

(light music) (light music continues) (light music continues) (light music fades)