Rex Heuerman Finds Out His Fate
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just weeks after a judge said says Rex Heuerman "will go to trial come hell or high water," the accused serial killer pleads guilty to all seven murders for which he's charged, and an additional murder. We learned details of what police found on Heuermann's phones. Yes, multiple phones. Rex Heuermann used a series of burner phones to lure sex workers, contacting them hundreds of times over two years, according to court documents. These "untraceable" phones, along with his personal phone, traced to a "tight cluster" of cell towers near his Massapequa Park home, linking him to the victims and taunting calls made to family members.
Police arrested the prominent New York architect in connection with murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. The 8th victim, 34-year-old Karen Vergata, was last heard from on Valentine's Day 1996. Her legs and feet were found the same year on Fire Island. Her skull was found fifteen years later near Tobay Beach in Nassau County.
The women's remains were found along Gilgo Beach in Long Island within 500 feet of each other. The first four victims, dubbed the Gilgo Four, were found wrapped in burlap. Heuermann, originally claimed his innocent. Now he will spend the rest of his life in prison, sentenced to multiple life terms for his crimes
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Caryn Stark - Forensic Psychologist, renowned TV and Radio trauma expert and consultant, www.carynstark.com, Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice
- Mike Gould - Former Nassau County (NY) lieutenant and Founding member of the New York Police Department (NYPD) K-9 unit. He's led several investigations into serial killers, including the Gilgo Beach killer on Long Island. Former National Guardsman and has worked on secret service detail for two presidents
- Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan", Instagram @JoScottForensic
- Josh Zeman - Investigative Journalist and Documentary Film Director. Director of "The Killing Season," Host of the podcast: "Sinister with Josh Zeman," Website: Sinisterpod.com Insta: @Joshzeman, X: @Siniterpod, TikTik: @Sinisterwithjoshzeman FB: @Sinisterpodcast YT@Sinisterpodcastjz
- Dave Mack - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories'
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:03.2 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.1 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:12.0 | Bombshell tonight. |
| 0:14.5 | The so-called Gilgo Beach serial killer, |
| 0:18.2 | aka the Long Island serial killer, Rex Huraman, is sentenced for a string of grisly murders. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. I want to thank you for being with us. That's right. |
| 0:35.0 | In the last hours, sentencing goes down in a court of law. Rex Heerman, |
| 0:40.2 | the Long Island serial killer, is sentenced. Heerman confessing to killing eight women. That much we |
| 0:49.0 | know, we know of at least eight dead bodies that remains lined up like a row at the cemetery there |
| 0:58.2 | on Gilgo Beach and Long Island. He would drive by those hand dug graves every single day. |
| 1:06.0 | Heerman, a New York architect, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and the eighth, a 34-year-old woman, Karen Vergata, the guilty plea, a stunning reversal for human who, for years denied, tearfully denied being responsible. |
| 1:25.6 | He's now sentenced to three consecutive terms of life. In that jurisdiction, |
| 1:32.3 | there is no death penalty. He can kill as many people as he wants to and still get life behind bars. |
| 1:38.9 | And we, the taxpayers, have the joy of feeding him and housing him, three hots and a cot every single day |
| 1:46.2 | for the rest of his natural life. And then I can tell you right now, where he's going there, |
| 1:51.1 | where he's going afterwards. Straight to hell. What do we know about the case? |
| 1:56.2 | Sightings of the victims, phone calls are from the victims, train rides by the victims, victims that left |
| 2:03.3 | and never came back, keeping a victim alive for days on in so he could play with him. There are |
| 2:13.6 | going to be more victims uncovered of the Long Island serial killer Rex Herman. |
| 2:19.8 | The calm, serene, almost grandfatherly image that Rex Human portrayed since his arrest was a lie. |
| 2:27.9 | And quite frankly, an insult to both law enforcement, but more importantly, the families that had to endure that during every court |
... |
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