Gilgo Beach killings: Suspect Rex Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, charged with 7th murder, in death of Valerie Mack, court papers show

Rex A. Heuermann, the Massapequa Park architect accused in the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killings, was charged in the 2000 slaying of a seventh woman Tuesday, the latest development in a crime that has haunted Long Island for more than a decade.

Heuermann, 61, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Riverhead to a 10-count superseding indictment that adds a charge of second-degree murder for the death of Valerie Mack, a New Jersey woman whose severed torso, arms and legs were discovered bound by rope in garbage bags in November 2000.

"Your honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges," Heuermann told State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead when asked how he intended to plead.

The emphatic statement, which caused a courtroom packed with media and family members of alleged victims to let out an audible collective gasp, was the first assertion Heuermann has made in court since his initial arraignment on July 14, 2023.

Defense attorney Michael J. Brown, of Central Islip, said he did not instruct his client to speak in court.

"He's extremely frustrated," Brown said of the mindset that led Heuermann to personally answer to the charges. "He has said from day one he is not responsible for these murders."

Mack, who was 24 years old when her family last saw her around the fall of 2000, is a native of Atlantic City. She was known for two decades as Jane Doe No. 6 after her partial remains were found by a trio of hunters in a wooded lot off Mill Road west of Halsey Manor Road in Manorville. Additional remains, including her skull, were located off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2011. Mack was identified by police through DNA in 2020.

The Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office estimated Mack was killed between two and eight weeks before her remains were located Nov. 19, 2000, prosecutors said.

The latest breakthrough in the case came from female hair found on Mack's remains that investigators linked to Heuermann's wife and daughter through DNA testing by two outside laboratories, court documents unveiled Tuesday revealed.

Prosecutors said a female head hair found near Mack's left wrist was used to build the mitochondrial DNA profile that excludes 99.65% of the North American population but not Heuermann's daughter, Victoria, who was between 3 and 4 years old at the time Mack was killed, and his wife, Asa Ellerup, court records show. A nuclear DNA profile later disclosed the hair likely belonged to Victoria, prosecutors said.

Speaking with reporters following the arraignment, Brown said he finds it unusual that in cases where DNA evidence has been established, investigators have made that connection through just a single hair sample.

"There's one hair, again," Brown said of the physical evidence in the Mack case.

Brown also questioned the lack of DNA evidence found inside Heuermann's home, where prosecutors have said they believe the killings likely occurred.

Hair has linked Heuermann, or family members, to six of the seven alleged victims, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Investigators still believe Heuermann committed the alleged killings while alone in his house, Tierney said, but unlike with the other alleged victims they have not been able to find evidence that speaks to his family’s whereabouts at the time of Mack’s death. Investigators have also not yet presented any evidence of electronic communications between Heuermann and Mack or said how they may have met.

The district attorney and his team of prosecutors did present some circumstantial evidence investigators believe further links Heuermann to Mack’s death.

Among the discoveries was pornographic images found on Heuermann's seized devices that show he frequently viewed content depicting imagery similar to the injuries on Mack around the time she was killed, the bail letter shows, including breast mutilation and women tied by rope.

"During the month of September 2000, investigators observed a large uptick in downloads of pornographic images depicting bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism," the document reads.

Prosecutors believe the injuries to Mack's breast, which they described as "two continuous ragged defects," were made after her death, the bail letter says.

Detectives also believe Heuermann removed a tattoo with Mack's son's name from her left ankle, according to court papers. Multiple people interviewed told detectives Mack had the tattoo, but no tattoo was found on her ankle when her remains were recovered, the bail letter said.

Tierney named Heuermann as a suspect in Mack’s killing in June, when prosecutors unveiled a document they discovered on a device investigators said they seized from Heuermann’s home that referenced Mill Road as a potential "dump site."

That document, which investigators believe was created the year Mack was killed, also listed "foam drain cleaner" among supplies prosecutors believe Heuermann sought to help cover up his alleged killings.

Investigators have since learned he hired a plumbing company to check his mainline drain, paying $265.83 in November 2000, prosecutors said.

"At around the time of the commission of the crime, a plumber did go to the Heuermann residence," Tierney said at a news briefing following the arraignment.

The alleged planning document also includes mentions of rope, tape, plastic bags and the removal of identifying marks, prosecutors said.

Investigators also say they recovered a collection of physical copies of magazine and newspaper articles about the killings, including copies of Newsday, the New York Post, People and New York magazine, which they say he kept near his work desk, in a basement vault and in his bedroom. The publications were all store-bought, prosecutors said in the bail letter.

"We think it's circumstantial evidence of [Heuermann's] interest in the case; the victims, the methods used by law enforcement," Tierney said of internet searches and other evidence included in the new bail letter. "When taken with certain evidence, it paints a certain picture."

JoAnn and Edwin Mack, Valerie Mack's parents, attended the arraignment Tuesday along with relatives of other alleged victims in the case. They declined to speak with reporters.

"They are very grateful for the small bit of closure the [Gilgo Beach] Task Force was able to provide," Tierney said of the Mack family.

Tricia Hazen, Mack’s sister, told Newsday she was gratified to learn of the charges Tuesday.

"That is awesome," the New Jersey resident said. "I am very happy he was indicted for the murder and glad he will pay for another [victim]."

Like Jessica Taylor, whose killing Heuermann was charged with in June, some of Mack’s mutilated body parts were discovered in Manorville within days of her death before additional remains were found off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2011. Each set of Taylor and Mack’s remains were found within a mile and a half of each other and investigators have long believed the deaths were related.

The latest indictment is the fourth charging Heuermann in the killings of the women, six of whom are among eight sets of human remains found between December 2010 and April 2011 along the same 2.6-mile stretch of the north side of Ocean Parkway.

Heuermann, who owned an architectural firm in Manhattan, was arrested outside his office on July 13, 2023. He was arraigned the following morning on charges of first- and second-degree murder in the killings of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello, who were each killed between 2009 and 2010.

Heuermann was then arraigned on a superseding indictment in January charging him with second-degree murder in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who was killed in 2007. Waterman, Barthelemy, Costello and Brainard-Barnes, referred to by investigators as the Gilgo Four, were the first sets of remains discovered near Gilgo Beach in 2010.

A second superseding indictment in June charged Heuermann with second-degree murder in the killing of Taylor in 2003 and Sandra Costilla, whose body was discovered in the Southampton hamlet of North Sea in 1993.

Famed California attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Taylor and Waterman family members, said she attended Tuesday's arraignment with her clients to support the Mack family. The families handed out roses to the Macks.

"We want her family to know that they are not alone in their grief," Allred said of the Macks. "We see you, we hear you and we hope you will accept our condolences for your loss."

Tierney declined to discuss the remaining unsolved Gilgo Beach cases, which include three still unidentified sets of remains, other than to say those investigations are ongoing. He said it’s difficult to say if Heuermann might face more charges before heading to trial, adding that Mazzei is eager to move the cases to trial.

The judge on Tuesday set an ambitious Jan. 15 deadline for the defense to file motions for a hearing on the DNA evidence and to separate the Gilgo Four case from the others. Tierney said prosecutors would oppose attempts by the defense to try the cases separately.

Mazzei said he intends to hold the DNA hearings in either late February or early March. Tierney has conceded a hearing on the scientific standards used in the case is necessary because the nuclear DNA methods used by an outside laboratory to recover data from degraded hair samples has never been presented in a New York court.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.