Suspect Gilgo Beach Killer Rex Heuermann May Seek Five Separate Trials for Murder Charges

Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is seeking as many as five separate trials for the seven murders he is charged with.

According to his defense attorneys, Michael Brown and Danielle Coysh, the planned separate trials will correspond with when he was charged with each murder. Coysh and Brown said that they will seek one trial for the original three murders he was charged with in July 2023 – Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello – and individual trials for all the murders he was charged with later on – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack.

“We have seven victims,” Coysh said. “They span over 20 years. We have the Gilgo Four. Those first three are tied together. And then we have Maureen, who is the fourth. And then we have other bodies that were found out east in a completely dissimilar manner than the Gilgo Four, right? So it’s a no brainer that those should be excluded, both in time, in appearance and witnesses and everything. So we moved the DA is going to want to keep those Gilgo Four together, because they were found in the same place, similar manner, similar crime scene, but we moved to separate Maureen from those first three in terms of evidence and things like that, and that’s what we did. And it’s up to the judge to decide.”

Brown continues to call the DNA evidence against Heuermann – which has, so far, linked him to every victim whether his DNA, his estranged wife Asa Ellerup’s DNA, or his daughter Victoria Heuermann’s DNA – into question, and on Feb. 18 will work with prosecutors to set a date for a Frye hearing to discuss admissibility of the DNA evidence in court.

“A fry hearing is really the admissibility of this new what they call science,” Brown said. “We call it magic, quite frankly.”

The DNA evidence Brown speaks of is the nuclear DNA testing in the case, which was done with the assistance of Astrea Forensics, a California-based lab that specializes in broken down, older DNA evidence such as rootless hair. Astrea’s assistance has not yet been used in any case in the state of New York.

Both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA testing in the case have linked Heuermann to the victims in the case, via hair found on them allegedly belonging to him or to his family members. Mitochondrial DNA testing is only able to rule out a percentage of the human population, while nuclear DNA testing is more linear, and able to identify specific individuals it belongs to with a higher statistical amount of the population ruled out.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney welcomed the defense’s motions, but clarified that they will still seek one trial for all seven murders and expects that the nuclear DNA will be allowed at trial.

“This is the next generation of DNA testing,” Tierney said. “I started in 1992, and we had RFLP, then we went to PSL, PCR, then we went to STR. Now I would submit that this is the next generation of the evolution of the technology. It’s exciting to be at the forefront of that, and we look forward to proving the scientific acceptance and the effectiveness of of this technology.”

Up to four victims traditionally associated with the Gilgo Beach serial killings are still unaccounted for in terms of charges. Those victims are Karen Vergata, whose dismembered legs were found on Fire Island in 1996 and whose skull was found on Tobay Beach in 2011, an unidentified Asian individual who was biologically male, “Peaches Doe,” whose remains were found at Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997 and on Jones Beach in 2011, and “Baby Doe,” a toddler, known to be the daughter of Peaches, who was found near Valerie Mack in 2011.

Tierney has refused to directly name Heuermann a suspect in any of these murders, but has acknowledged the similarities and insists the investigation is continuing.

Additionally, the District Attorney recently formed a Cold Case Task Force, looking at hundreds of unsolved missing persons or murder cases in Suffolk County dating back to 1965. While Tierney would not name Heuermann a suspect in any known case from that, either, he noted that both task forces are continuing their work.