The alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer previously charged in the deaths of six women on New York’s Long Island was charged on Tuesday with the murder of a seventh alleged victim.
Valerie Mack, 24, is the latest murder victim linked to Rex Heuermann.
Mack, of New Jersey, was for two decades known as Jane Doe No 6. Her torso was discovered in a wooded lot in Manorville in November 2000 – and the rest of her remains were found 11 years later near Gilgo Beach – before her identification through DNA in 2020.
The remains of Mack found on Gilgo Beach were alongside those of other women who authorities believe were also allegedly targeted by Heuermann, 61. He has been under arrest and jailed awaiting trial since July 2023.
Heuermann had pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges when he appeared on Tuesday on the charge connected to Mack’s death.
“I’m not guilty of any of these charges,” he said.
At a news conference with Mack’s parents, the local district attorney Ray Tierney said that victims’ relatives along with “the lives of these women matter” most.
“We, as investigators, understand that,” Tierney said. “No one understands that more than the families.”
According to court papers, female hair found on Mack’s remains was linked to Heuermann’s wife and daughter through DNA testing.
Prosecutors said that mitochondrial DNA tests on the head hair found near Mack’s left wrist excluded 99.65% of the North American population. Those not excluded: a daughter of Heuermann who was between three and four years old at the time Mack was killed – and his wife, Asa Ellerup.
Outside the court, Heuermann’s lawyer Michael Brown disputed the evidence presented in Mack’s death, noting that hair samples collected from her body were recovered more than a year ago. He said the DNA technology used to connect her and other victims to his client has never been deemed reliable in a New York case.
He also argued that Tierney’s office has yet to produce proof that any of the victims’ DNA was found in Heuermann’s home, including the many weapons and tools seized during recent searches of the property.
“There’s something a little weird about these allegations,” Brown said. “Something that doesn’t sit right.”
Prosecutors have said Mack’s breasts were mutilated and her remains tied with rope in a similar fashion to pornographic images on Heuermann’s electronic devices from around the time she was killed.
Prosecutors also said an alleged planning document found on his devices lists “foam drain cleaner” among supplies prosecutors believe he sought while trying to cover up his alleged killings.
Investigators also said they recovered a collection of physical copies of magazine and newspaper articles about the killing, including copies of Newsday, the New York Post, People and New York magazine that Heuermann kept at his Long Island home.
According to prosecutors, six of Heuermann’s alleged seven victims are linked to the defendant or his family by DNA evidence.
Prosecutors said that – in addition to dismemberment – “two continuous ragged defects” found on Mack’s breast were made after her death. The alleged serial killer also removed a tattoo of Mack’s son’s name from her left ankle, prosecutors suspect.
Heuermann became a suspect in Mack’s killing in June when prosecutors revealed a document they discovered that referred to Manorville – near gun clubs in which Heuermann was enrolled – as a potential “dump site”.
Mack was last seen by family in October 2000. She had been a sex worker like the six other victims – Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla.
The remains of four of the women were discovered intact along Gilgo Beach on southern Long Island. But two others had been separated – with some body parts in Gilgo Beach, Manorville and North Sea. Investigators have long believed the deaths were related.
Heuermann, a New York architect, was initially charged with the murders of Waterman, Barthelemy and Costello, who were killed between 2009 and 2010. He was later charged with the killings of Taylor, in 2003, and Costilla, in 1993.
Prosecutors have also named Heuermann a suspect in the death of Karen Vergata, whose remains were found in different locations in 2011 and in 1996, though he has not been charged with her death.
