Beginning in 2010, police looking for a lacking girl discovered no less than 10 units of human stays within the scrub alongside a barrier island parkway, not removed from the sands of New York’s distant Gilgo Seashore. Police virtually instantly feared some had been left by a serial killer.Through the years, investigators used DNA evaluation and different clues to establish the victims. In some circumstances, they had been in a position to join them to stays discovered elsewhere on Lengthy Island years earlier. Investigators concluded that an eleventh individual discovered lifeless — the preliminary topic of their lacking individuals search — unintentionally drowned.Prosecutors have charged a Lengthy Island architect, Rex Heuermann in six of the deaths, however a majority of the killings stay unsolved.Here’s a timeline of the investigation:April 20, 1996: The partial stays of Karen Vergata are found on Hearth Island, a barrier seashore off Lengthy Island’s southern coast. Her identify stays unknown to investigators till 2022, when new DNA evaluation helps them make an identification. Vergata, 34, was final involved along with her household on Feb. 14, 1996. She was concerned in intercourse work when she vanished.June 28, 1997: The partial stays of a girl, nicknamed “Peaches” by investigators after a tattoo on her physique, are found stuffed inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead, New York. Her identification stays unknown.September, 2000: The partial skeletal stays of Valerie Mack, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, are present in a wooded space in Manorville, New York. Mack, 24, was final seen by her household within the spring or summer season of that 12 months in Port Republic, New Jersey.July 26, 2003: The partial skeletal stays of Jessica Taylor are found in a wooded space of Manorville. She was 20 when she vanished and had been an escort working in New York Metropolis.July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who had traveled to New York Metropolis from her house in Norwich, Connecticut, for intercourse work, is final heard from by a buddy. She says she is leaving her resort to satisfy a consumer. Investigators later say cellphone information confirmed her cellphone was final used on Lengthy Island.July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old intercourse employee, is final seen at her house within the Bronx. She tells a buddy she goes to see a person and can be again within the morning. Cellphone location knowledge places her cellphone’s final identified location on Lengthy Island.July 17, 2009: A person begins utilizing Barthelemy’s cell phone to make taunting cellphone calls to her family. There are further calls on July 23, Aug. 5, Aug. 19 and Aug. 26. In a single, a person says he killed her.Might 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a intercourse employee, disappears within the barrier island group of Oak Seashore, New York, after fleeing the home of a consumer and banging on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 name, she tells a dispatcher individuals are after her, however she may also be heard refusing provides of assist. Her pimp, the consumer and his neighbor all inform police she appeared disoriented and bumped into the night time on her personal.June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who had traveled to Lengthy Island from Maine for intercourse work, is final seen at a motel in Hauppauge, New York.Sept. 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, is final seen leaving her house in West Babylon to satisfy with a intercourse work consumer. A male buddy later tells investigators he seen a Chevrolet Avalanche, presumably pushed by the consumer.December 11, 2010: A police officer and his canine uncover Barthelemy’s stays whereas conducting a coaching train alongside Ocean Parkway.Dec. 13, 2010: Police discover the our bodies of Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman on the identical quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway the place Barthelemy’s stays had been situated.Dec. 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly proclaims the invention of the our bodies and says a serial killer may be in charge. Police develop the search, on the lookout for further stays or for any signal of Gilbert.March 29, 2011: A few of Taylor’s stays are found alongside Ocean Parkway.April 4, 2011: Extra stays of Valerie Mack are discovered alongside Ocean Parkway. Close to these stays, investigators additionally discover the stays of an unidentified feminine toddler, later recognized via DNA because the daughter of “Peaches.” Elsewhere on the parkway, investigators uncover the stays of an Asian male. Investigators estimate he died 5-10 years earlier and was in his late teenagers or early 20s. He nonetheless has not been recognized.April 11, 2011: Extra stays of Vergata are found alongside Ocean Parkway, a number of miles west of Gilgo Seashore. Police additionally discover stays belonging to “Peaches” alongside the seashore parkway.Dec. 13, 2011: Gilbert’s skeletal stays are found in a tidal marsh close to Oak Seashore. After an post-mortem and additional investigation, Suffolk Police say she most certainly unintentionally drowned. Her household nonetheless suspects she was murdered. One professional employed by the household mentioned it was potential her dying was a murder.January, 2022: The Suffolk County district legal professional convenes a brand new process drive to research the Gilgo Seashore killings.July 13, 2023: Investigators arrest Heuermann and cost him with murdering Costello, Waterman and Barthelemy. They are saying in addition they consider he killed Brainard-Barnes, however don’t initially cost him along with her killing.Jan. 16, 2024: Heuermann is charged within the dying of Brainard-Barnes. Prosecutors say a hair discovered along with her corpse is genetically just like a DNA pattern from Heuermann’s spouse.Late April, 2024: Police conduct a brand new, multiday search of a wooded space in Manorville the place Taylor and Mack’s stays had been found greater than a decade earlier.Might 20, 2024: Investigators launch a brand new search of Heuermann’s house. It lasts almost per week.June 6, 2024: Heuermann is charged with the deaths of two extra girls — Taylor and Sandra Costilla. Taylor disappeared within the early 2000s. Costilla was killed in 1993.
Beginning in 2010, police looking for a lacking girl discovered no less than 10 units of human stays within the scrub alongside a barrier island parkway, not removed from the sands of New York’s distant Gilgo Seashore. Police virtually instantly feared some had been left by a serial killer.
Through the years, investigators used DNA evaluation and different clues to establish the victims. In some circumstances, they had been in a position to join them to stays discovered elsewhere on Lengthy Island years earlier. Investigators concluded that an eleventh individual discovered lifeless — the preliminary topic of their lacking individuals search — unintentionally drowned.
Prosecutors have charged a Lengthy Island architect, Rex Heuermann in six of the deaths, however a majority of the killings stay unsolved.
Here’s a timeline of the investigation:
April 20, 1996: The partial stays of Karen Vergata are found on Hearth Island, a barrier seashore off Lengthy Island’s southern coast. Her identify stays unknown to investigators till 2022, when new DNA evaluation helps them make an identification. Vergata, 34, was final involved along with her household on Feb. 14, 1996. She was concerned in intercourse work when she vanished.
June 28, 1997: The partial stays of a girl, nicknamed “Peaches” by investigators after a tattoo on her physique, are found stuffed inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead, New York. Her identification stays unknown.
September, 2000: The partial skeletal stays of Valerie Mack, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, are present in a wooded space in Manorville, New York. Mack, 24, was final seen by her household within the spring or summer season of that 12 months in Port Republic, New Jersey.
July 26, 2003: The partial skeletal stays of Jessica Taylor are found in a wooded space of Manorville. She was 20 when she vanished and had been an escort working in New York Metropolis.
July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who had traveled to New York Metropolis from her house in Norwich, Connecticut, for intercourse work, is final heard from by a buddy. She says she is leaving her resort to satisfy a consumer. Investigators later say cellphone information confirmed her cellphone was final used on Lengthy Island.
July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old intercourse employee, is final seen at her house within the Bronx. She tells a buddy she goes to see a person and can be again within the morning. Cellphone location knowledge places her cellphone’s final identified location on Lengthy Island.
July 17, 2009: A person begins utilizing Barthelemy’s cell phone to make taunting cellphone calls to her family. There are further calls on July 23, Aug. 5, Aug. 19 and Aug. 26. In a single, a person says he killed her.
Might 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a intercourse employee, disappears within the barrier island group of Oak Seashore, New York, after fleeing the home of a consumer and banging on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 name, she tells a dispatcher individuals are after her, however she may also be heard refusing provides of assist. Her pimp, the consumer and his neighbor all inform police she appeared disoriented and bumped into the night time on her personal.
June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who had traveled to Lengthy Island from Maine for intercourse work, is final seen at a motel in Hauppauge, New York.
Sept. 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, is final seen leaving her house in West Babylon to satisfy with a intercourse work consumer. A male buddy later tells investigators he seen a Chevrolet Avalanche, presumably pushed by the consumer.
December 11, 2010: A police officer and his canine uncover Barthelemy’s stays whereas conducting a coaching train alongside Ocean Parkway.
Dec. 13, 2010: Police discover the our bodies of Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman on the identical quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway the place Barthelemy’s stays had been situated.
Dec. 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly proclaims the invention of the our bodies and says a serial killer may be in charge. Police develop the search, on the lookout for further stays or for any signal of Gilbert.
March 29, 2011: A few of Taylor’s stays are found alongside Ocean Parkway.
April 4, 2011: Extra stays of Valerie Mack are discovered alongside Ocean Parkway. Close to these stays, investigators additionally discover the stays of an unidentified feminine toddler, later recognized via DNA because the daughter of “Peaches.” Elsewhere on the parkway, investigators uncover the stays of an Asian male. Investigators estimate he died 5-10 years earlier and was in his late teenagers or early 20s. He nonetheless has not been recognized.
April 11, 2011: Extra stays of Vergata are found alongside Ocean Parkway, a number of miles west of Gilgo Seashore. Police additionally discover stays belonging to “Peaches” alongside the seashore parkway.
Dec. 13, 2011: Gilbert’s skeletal stays are found in a tidal marsh close to Oak Seashore. After an post-mortem and additional investigation, Suffolk Police say she most certainly unintentionally drowned. Her household nonetheless suspects she was murdered. One professional employed by the household mentioned it was potential her dying was a murder.
January, 2022: The Suffolk County district legal professional convenes a brand new process drive to research the Gilgo Seashore killings.
July 13, 2023: Investigators arrest Heuermann and cost him with murdering Costello, Waterman and Barthelemy. They are saying in addition they consider he killed Brainard-Barnes, however don’t initially cost him along with her killing.
Jan. 16, 2024: Heuermann is charged within the dying of Brainard-Barnes. Prosecutors say a hair discovered along with her corpse is genetically just like a DNA pattern from Heuermann’s spouse.
Late April, 2024: Police conduct a brand new, multiday search of a wooded space in Manorville the place Taylor and Mack’s stays had been found greater than a decade earlier.
Might 20, 2024: Investigators launch a brand new search of Heuermann’s house. It lasts almost per week.
June 6, 2024: Heuermann is charged with the deaths of two extra girls — Taylor and Sandra Costilla. Taylor disappeared within the early 2000s. Costilla was killed in 1993.
