Gilgo Beach Murders: A Timeline of the Long Island Serial Killer Suspect's Crimes, Arrests and Charges (2024)

Since human remains were found in Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2010, law enforcement has been investigating a string of seemingly related murders.

In 2023, after a years-long investigation, police arrested Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann and charged him with three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello. Six months later, he was also charged with another count of murder in connection with Maureen Brainard-Barnes' death. All four women worked as escorts and were in their early 20s when they disappeared between 2007 and 2010.

In June 2024, Heuermann was charged in connection with the murders of two more women — Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor — which occurred in 1993 and 2003, respectively.

When Heuermann was first arrested, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told PEOPLE that authorities were “in the process of gathering a massive amount of digital evidence and trace evidence. We’re undergoing that process so we just have to wait for that to play out. Then at the end, we’ll see what we get.”

Ultimately, they collected both evidence from burner phones and internet searches, as well as DNA evidence that led to suspicion of Heuermann. Now, the Massapequa Park resident is awaiting his trial date in jail at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County.

From when the murders began to Heuermann’s legal proceedings, here’s a complete timeline of the Gilgo Beach serial killings.

December 11, 2010: A police officer discovers human remains during a training exercise with his K9 partner

A Suffolk County Police Department officer was on a training exercise with his K9 partner Blue when they discovered the remains of Barthelemy on the Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach. Two days later, police found the remains of Waterman, Costello and Brainard-Barnes in the same area. They were all strangled and wrapped in camouflaged burlap.

Costello was last seen on Sept. 2, 2010, after she left her home in West Babylon, N.Y. Only a few days earlier, she called her roommate, frightened after she had been dancing for a client who then threatened to rape her.

Her roommate ran home, she later told PEOPLE, to help Costello, but when she got there, she found a bulky man in their living room. “It was like fighting Frankenstein,” she said.

April 4, 2011: Three human remains are found throughout a stretch of Ocean Parkway

Throughout 2011, more human remains were found, including those of a female toddler, an unidentified Asian male and a woman initially referred to as Jane Doe #6 on April 4. A week later, two additional human remains were found in Nassau County, including those of the mother of the toddler.

“We can’t say beyond a shadow of a doubt all these murders are connected,” serial-killer profiler and expert John Kelly told PEOPLE in 2016. “But serial killers can change their [methods]. A sad*stic killer would be about convenience.”

December 13, 2011: A fifth body is found on Gilgo Beach

A year after initially searching for the missing 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, authorities found her remains on Gilgo Beach. Gilbert, an escort, had called 911 on the night of her disappearance in the gated Oak Beach community in May 2010. She placed the call after she ran away from a meeting with a client who she connected with on Craiglist.

January 16, 2020: Police release a photograph of a leather belt they claimed belonged to the murderer

Though the FBI and local police were involved in the case, no progress had been made in a decade. However, in January 2020, police released a photograph of a black leather belt found at one of the crime scenes that allegedly belonged to the killer.

The belt had the initials “WH” or “HM” imprinted on it. At a press conference, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said the belt was “handled by the suspect and didn’t belong to any of the victims.”

January 2022: Suffolk County district attorney assembles a new task force to investigate the murders

A new Suffolk County district attorney directed the creation of a task force that involved interagency law enforcement officials, including FBI agents and state and local police.

“Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruined families,” Suffolk County Police commissioner Rodney Harrison later said at a July 2023 press conference commending the work of the task force. “If not for the members of this task force, he would still be on the streets today. However, even with this arrest, we’re not done.”

March 2022: Authorities tie Rex Heuermann to the case after he was identified with a vehicle a witness saw

Law enforcement initially started investigating Heuermann as a suspect when a witness identified a first-generation Chevy Avalanche that was registered to him. The witness claimed she saw him drive away in the car in the vicinity of where Costello was the day before she disappeared.

January 2023: A surveillance team matches DNA from a pizza box discarded by Rex Heuermann to DNA found on a victim

A year into the renewed investigation, a surveillance team was able to match DNA from Heuermann to DNA found on a victim. Authorities had over 300 subpoenas and search warrants and were able to collect “abandoned DNA samples” from a pizza crust Heuermann had thrown out in a Manhattan trash can in addition to 11 bottles he discarded in a trash can outside his house.

DNA and hair from both the pizza crust and the bottles allegedly matched DNA and hair found on the victims’ bodies. Though the hairs belonged to Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, detectives believed she was not involved as she was out of the area when each woman disappeared.

July 13, 2023: Rex Heuermann is arrested

Armed with a mountain of evidence, authorities arrested Heuermann in Manhattan. In addition to the DNA matches, authorities also had records of him using burner phones to contact his alleged victims and their families.

“He was using these burner phones and fictitious accounts to contact sex workers,” District Attorney Tierney told PEOPLE following the arrest. “We knew we had to take him down, and we thought it would be safer to do it [away from] his home, since he has 92 gun permits. I’d say he was pretty surprised, so we did our job well.”

He continued, “I think he lived this double life, and he used the anonymity of phones and computers to shield himself from the rest of society. Unfortunately for him — and fortunately for the rest of us — he wasn’t successful.”

After discovering the burner phones, authorities also found disturbing online searches using fictitious emails and accounts, allegedly including searches about raping and torturing women, child p*rn and rape p*rn.

He was also allegedly obsessed with updates on the case, searching for information about the Gilgo investigation over 200 times in a 14-month period.

According to authorities, included in his searches were: “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer” and “why hasn’t the long island serial killer been caught.”

January 16, 2024: Rex Heuermann is charged with a 4th murder

After already being charged for the murder of three of the four bodies found in Gilgo Beach in 2010, Heuermann was also charged in connection with the murder of Brainard-Barnes due to DNA evidence.

Brainard-Barnes was last seen checking out of a Super 8 Motel on July 9, 2007, in New York City. She was later found bound with three leather belts, one of which was used to tie her ankles.

Prosecutors alleged that Heuermann had lured her out to Long Island to murder her while his now estranged wife was out of town with their children, aligning with his previous patterns.

June 6, 2024: Rex Heuermann is charged with two additional murders

After spending nearly a year in jail awaiting trial, Heuermann was charged in connection with two more murders, including Costilla in 1993 and Taylor in 2003.

A grand jury indicted the former architect over 20 years after Taylor’s remains were found by a witness who was walking their dog on July 26, 2003, according to an amended indictment. Taylor was found “lying on her back with her legs bent underneath her” with a tattoo on her torso “severely obliterated by a sharp object” and her arms decapitated.

Meanwhile, Costilla’s remains were discovered on Nov. 20, 1993, by two people who found her "lying on her back with her arms outstretched over her head with her uncovered legs spread apart” while they were hunting in a wooded area, per the indictment.