Gilgo Beach serial killings

Gilgo Beach serial killings
Exit for Robert Moses Causeway on the Ocean Parkway, near where the first body was found
Date	1993–2011
Reward amount	$25,000
Capture status	Suspect in custody
Attack type	Serial killing, murder of sex workers
Victims	6+
Charges	First-degree murder (3 counts) Second-degree murder (6 counts; three lesser included offenses and three individual charges)[1]

The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1993 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer, or the Craigslist Ripper.

The victims' remains were found over a period of months in 2010 and 2011 after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert resulted in a police search of the area along the Ocean Parkway, near the remote beach towns of Gilgo and Oak Beach in Suffolk County. The remains of four victims designated "The Gilgo Four" were found within a quarter of a mile of each other near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Six more sets of remains were found in March and April 2011 in Suffolk and Nassau counties.^[2][3][4] Police believe the latter sets of remains predate the four bodies found in December 2010.^[5]

Gilbert's remains were found a year after the remains of "The Gilgo Four" were discovered. Her cause of death remains contested with police claiming accidental drowning while an independent autopsy determined possible strangulation.

In July 2023, Rex Heuermann, a resident of Massapequa Park on Long Island, was arrested in Midtown Manhattan and charged in the murders of three of "the Gilgo Four" victims: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Costello, and in January 2024, Heuermann was charged with the murder of the fourth "Gilgo Four" victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. On June 6, 2024, he was charged with the murders of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. According to his indictment, Heuermann is under investigation for the 2000 death of Valerie Mack.