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WAITING for her workaholic husband Rex to return from work, one balmy July evening in 2023, Asa Heuermann was startled by a rapping on the door, followed by shouts of “FBI, open up!”
“They pushed their way in and asked me, ‘Do you know why we’re here?’” says Asa.
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“The woman investigator said, ‘Have you heard about the murders on Gilgo Beach?’ And I said, ‘I’ve heard of them but I don’t know anything.’ She said, ‘Your husband knows all about it.’”
The raid left Asa and her two children, Victoria, 26, and Christopher, 32, stunned and confused as Rex Heuermann – a well-respected architect in Manhattan – was charged with being one of America’s worst serial killers.
The sadistic murders of young female sex workers and his appetite for torture and child pornography shocked and sickened the nation.
“The FBI said, ‘We have evidence your dad murdered all these women. Your home is now a crime scene,’” recalls daughter Victoria, 26, who worked in her dad’s office as a secretary. “I never would have imagined I would be hearing that in my life.”
The astonishing alleged double life of Rex Heuermann is told in a three-part Sky Crime documentary, The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets where Asa and Victoria talk for the first time about living with the man they considered a warm husband and loving father and their conflicting thoughts on whether he could actually be the “Monster” capable of such horrific crimes.
Rex Heuermann has been behind bars since his arrest on 13 July 2023 for the murder of seven women, but he still has no trial date set.
The trail that led police to his door began with a panicky 911 call on 1 May, 2010 from Shannan Gilbert at 4:51am, saying, “There’s somebody after me. He’s gonna kill me.” She then says to her attacker, “Please stop it!” and screams, before the line goes dead.
Sex worker Shannan 24, had shown up to a house on Oak Beach, in Long Island, New York and fled from there to an area of bramble that runs adjacent to the coast line along Gilgo Beach – a dark and desolate area at night – before disappearing.
While searching for her body, police found four other bodies in the brambles – an apparent serial killer’s dumping ground.
All the women were white, naked and bound and small in height and frame. Three of them were bound with tape and one with belts.
They were eventually identified as sex workers Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who disappeared in July 2007, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, last seen in July 2009, Megan Waterman, 22, who vanished in June 2010 and Amber Costello, 27, in September 2010.
Police looked at the victims mobile phone data and found that they were all contacted by a burner phone in the days leading up to their deaths.
Calls were traced to an area from Massapequa Park on Long Island to Midtown Manhattan. Did the suspect live a quiet suburban life in Massapequa and commute from there to Manhattan every day?
Within a week of Melissa’s disappearance, her 15-year-old sister, Amanda, started to receive a series of sick and twisted calls from a man using Melissa’s mobile phone.
His comments included, “Have you figured out who this is?” “Are you going to be a whore, like your sister, now?” “She’s dead. I killed her.”
‘An ogre’
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At the home of Amber Costello, police interviewed her roommate, Dave Schaller who was able to give them a striking description of her last client, before she was murdered.
He said that he was a hulking figure, around 6ft 4in, wearing glasses and looked like “an ogre.” He drove a distinctive, dark green, first generation Chevrolet Avalanche.
Shannon’s body was not discovered until December 2011 in the same area as the others.
By this stage, investigators had a description of the killer, the make and model of his car and a good idea of the area where he travels between Long Island and Manhattan.
All of these girls that were found on Gilgo Beach, were somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister
Asa, Heuermann’s estranged wife
But, astonishingly, the case dragged on for another decade after a change in personnel in Suffolk County when a new chief of police was elected, James Burke, who decided to remove several members from the task force that were working on the case.
Burke resigned after he was arrested in 2015 for covering up the assault of a man who stole belongings from his car, which was carried out by Burke and his officers.
‘The devil that walked amongst us’
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The investigation did not get fully back on track until May 2022 when an online search for the distinctive green Chevrolet Avalanche in the zone of interest came up with one at 105 First Avenue, Massapequa Park.
They now had a prime suspect. It was the home of 59-year-old bespectacled, Rex Heuermann – a giant of a man.
In 2010, investigators had found five hairs on three of the victims. They determined that three of the hairs were female, one was male and all were Caucasian. But they had degraded to such an extent that it was not possible to use traditional DNA analysis on them.
By 2022, DNA technology had advanced enough for investigators to pull a profile from the hairs. The problem was the suspect had never been arrested and so his DNA was not on the system.
Police, clandestinely surveilling Heuermann, followed him as he left his office, holding a pizza box, which he threw in the bin.
They removed it and swabbed the pizza crust and napkin and sent it to the crime lab. The DNA results provided enough evidence to make an arrest on 13 July 2023 and he was charged with three murders – Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman.
Investigators were startled to find that Heuermann, who had eluded them for so long, lived just one block away from The Nassau County Police Academy, from where intelligence on the case was being gathered.
As Errol Toulon, Sheriff of Suffolk County, puts it: “The fact that he was the devil that walked amongst us, made you wonder how it happened. Basically, it was the person that lived next door. I would pass that house all the time.”
‘House of Horrors’
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The home stood out from others though, because it was so dishevelled with boxes and other rubbish scattered outside. It seemed at odds with Heuermann’s job as an architect.
Inside the rooms were cluttered with more stacked cardboard boxes, ornaments, china dolls and other belongings. Authorities uncovered 279 fire arms in the basement of the house where he had installed a heavy steel door.
Investigators found his laptops and mobile phone were used to conduct thousands of searches relating to sex workers as well as sadistic torture-related and child pornography.
Computer experts also managed to unearth a word document that he believed he had successfully erased. It detailed how to murder someone without leaving any incriminating traces and find a safe place to dump their bodies.
It was thought that he killed the women in the basement of the home, dubbed by the press ‘The House of Horrors’, before dumping the bodies at Gilgo Beach. Investigators were able to establish that the murders coincided with Asa taking the children – Victoria along with Christopher from her previous marriage – on holiday without Rex, leaving him home alone.
‘Sitting on the fence’
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The family find it difficult – despite mounting evidence – to believe that Rex was not the man they thought he was.
“People say, ‘How could you not know that your husband was a serial killer?’” says Asa. “But my husband was a family man. I don’t believe he did this. I am convinced the person they’re looking for is not a family man.
“The two of us were married for 27 years. We were a hundred per cent part of each other’s lives. Does everyone really believe everything they hear?”
Victoria has said she is “sitting on the fence” and like her mother, waiting to see what comes out in the trial.
“Looking back on my childhood I do find it really hard to believe that my dad really did all of this,” she says. “He was really good with his hands.
“My dad built me a dolls house which I loved. I saw him at regular times throughout the day – morning and night. But there were vacations that he did not join us on.
“I visited him once in jail. What’s scary is that he just seemed like himself. How he always is. And it’s so hard to believe that he is this sick killer.
“But, at the same time, because I was so young at the time, I also don’t know that he’s not this killer. He could have just had a total double life.
“At this point I am mentally protecting myself for the ultimate outcome.”
Asa filed for divorce seven days after her husband was arrested but she remains emotionally attached to him.
“I understand why she divorced my dad,” says Victoria. “They did it to protect the assets. It’s now legally her house. She was married, she gets the assets from the divorce.
“If we lost the house we would be homeless. But it doesn’t mean that we’re not a family anymore.”
At least seven victims…
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On 16 January 2024, Rex Heuermann appeared in court again charged with the murder of a fourth woman – Maureen Brainard-Barnes. DNA on the hairs found on several of the bodies showed that one hair belonged to Rex, three to Asa and one to Victoria.
Five months later he was charged with the cold case murders of two other young sex workers whose bodies were discovered decades earlier along Gilgo Beach – Jessica Taylor, 20, in 2003 and Sandra Costilla, 28, in 1993.
It showed that his alleged killing spree began much earlier than anyone thought – before he had married Asa. On 17 December, 2024, he was charged with a seventh murder – sex worker Valerie Mack, 24, last seen in 2000.
“All of these girls that were found on Gilgo Beach, were somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister,” says Asa.
“Nobody deserves what they got. But Rex was not seeing prostitutes. He’s a family man. He didn’t do this. I would need to hear it from Rex, face to face, that he killed these girls, for me to believe it.”
Victims identified
Sandra Costilla, 28 – Her body was found in November 1993 by hunters in a wooded area in North Sea, Long Island, approximately 60 miles northeast of Gilgo Beach.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 – One of the Gilgo Four discovered in December 2010. A mother-of-two, she disappeared on July 9, 2007.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24 – Went missing on July 12, 2009 while working as a sex worker through Craigslist.
Megan Waterman, 22 – From South Portland, Maine. Megan went missing on June 6, 2010, after placing advertisements on Craigslist as an escort.
Amber Costello, 27 – From West Babylon, New York, a small town ten miles north of Gilgo Beach. She was a sex worker who went missing on September 2, 2010.
Valerie Mack, 24 – Was living in Philadelphia and working as an escort when she went missing in 2000. Mack’s partial remains were discovered in Manorville on November 19, 2000, but were not identified until 2020.
Jessica Taylor, 20 – Jessica Taylor was living in Manhattan when she went missing on July 21, 2003. On July 26, 2003, her torso was discovered 45 miles (72 km) east of Gilgo Beach in Manorville, New York.
Karen Vergata, 34 – A sex worker from Manhattan, she disappeared in 1996, Her severed legs were found in a bag in New York’s Fire Island in April 1996 and other remains were found 15 years later.
‘Jane Does’ – The remains of three other murder victims – a young woman, a toddler and a young Asian male who was wearing women’s clothing – have not been identified.
Shannan Maria Gilbert, 24 – Although her disappearance in May 2020 sparked the search, Heuermann has not been charged with her murder.
Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murders of seven women. He has pled not guilty to all charges and is awaiting trial. He has never been tied to Shannan Gilbert’s death.
In January of this year, Asa said: “Until I see definitive proof I am never going to know for sure whether I saw the signs.”
Shortly before the release of the documentary, Victoria Heuermann told the producers that based on the publicly available facts that have been presented and explained to her, she now believes her father is most likely the Gilgo Beach killer.
The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, is on Sky Crime, on 24 Aug 2025 at 9pm
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