NEW YORK: The so-called Gilgo Beach serial killer, accused of strangling and dismembering women and scattering their remains around a coastal community near New York, was sentenced Wednesday (Jun 17) to life in prison.
Rex Heuermann, 62, in April pleaded guilty to seven murders, plus an eighth that he had not yet been charged with, in a crime spree spanning 1993 to 2010 around Long Island, near New York City.
The Gilgo Beach case had stumped investigators for years with no suspects identified, and was featured in a number of true crime documentaries.
US media reported that family members delivered emotional victim impact statements during sentencing Wednesday, in which Heuermann received three consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole.
Heuermann, an architect arrested in July 2023 outside his Manhattan office, reportedly also addressed the Long Island court, saying “I am responsible for all that was said in this room.”
Most of the women’s remains were found in 2010 and 2011 near Gilgo Beach, an Atlantic Ocean barrier beach on Long Island’s south shore. One victim’s body was discovered some 70 miles (110 kilometres) away in 1993.