Rex Heuermann Pleads Guilty to Seven Gilgo Beach Murders

Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect from Massapequa Park, Long Island, pleaded guilty on April 8 in Suffolk County Court to the murders of seven women and admitted to killing an eighth, bringing a dramatic end to one of the most notorious serial killer investigations in New York history. The killings, which spanned from 1993 to 2010, targeted young women working as escorts, whose remains were discovered along remote stretches of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann confessed to strangling all eight victims, with seven of the murders occurring in the basement of his family home while his wife and children were out of town. In a face-to-face meeting captured in footage from the Peacock documentary "The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets," Heuermann told his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, that he had killed eight women. When she addressed him formally as "Mr. Heuermann" and asked how many he had killed, he replied without hesitation, "He said eight." Ellerup, who divorced him shortly after his July 2023 arrest, described sensing his nervousness at first, but noted that his demeanor shifted to one she recognized from their marriage. "When he started talking, it started feeling...