In 2010, police searching for a missing woman found 10 sets of human remains in the bushes along a road on a barrier island, not far from the sands of New York’s remote Gilgo Beach. Police almost immediately feared some had been left by a serial killer.
Over the years, investigators have used DNA analysis and other clues to identify the victims. In some cases, they were able to connect them to remains found elsewhere on Long Island years earlier. Investigators concluded that an 11th person found dead – the initial subject of the missing persons search – accidentally drowned.
Prosecutors charged a Long Island architect, Rex Heuermann in four murders, but most of the murders remain unsolved.
Here is a timeline of the investigation:
April 20, 1996: The partial remains of Karen Vergata are discovered on Fire Island, a barrier beach on the south shore of Long Island. His name remains unknown to investigators until 2022, when a new DNA analysis helps them make the identification. Vergata, 34, last had contact with her family on February 14, 1996. She was involved in sex work when she disappeared.
June 28, 1997: The partial remains of a woman, nicknamed “Peaches” by investigators because of a tattoo on her body, are discovered inside a plastic bathtub in a state park in West Hempstead, New York. Her identity remains unknown.
September 2000: The partial remains of Valerie Mack, who worked as an escort in Philadelphia, are found in a wooded area in Manorville, New York. Mack, 24, was last seen by her family in the spring or summer of that year in Port Republic, New Jersey.
July 26, 2003: The partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor are discovered in a wooded area of Manorville. She was 20 years old when she disappeared and worked as an escort in New York City.
July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who traveled from her home in Norwich, Connecticut to New York City for sex work, was last heard from by a friend. She says she is leaving the hotel to meet a client. Investigators later said cellphone records showed her phone was last used on Long Island.
July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old sex worker, is last seen in her Bronx apartment. She tells a friend that she is going to see a man and that she would come back in the morning. Cell phone location data places her phone’s last known location on Long Island.
July 17, 2009: A man begins using Barthelemy’s cell phone to make insulting calls to his relatives. There are additional calls on July 23rd, August 5th, August 19th and August 26th. In one of them, a man says he killed her.
May 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker, disappears in the barrier island community of Oak Beach, New York, after running away from a client’s home and knocking on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 call, she tells a dispatcher that people are after her, but she can also be heard refusing offers of help. Her pimp, client and neighbor told police she appeared disoriented and ran into the night alone.
June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who traveled from Maine to Long Island for sex work, is last seen at a motel in Hauppauge, New York.
September 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, is last seen leaving her home in West Babylon to meet a sex work client. A friend later told investigators that he noticed a Chevrolet Avalanche, likely driven by the client.
December 11, 2010: A police officer and his dog discover Barthelemy’s remains while conducting a training exercise along Ocean Parkway.
December 13, 2010: Police find the bodies of Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman on the same quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway where Barthelemy’s remains were located.
December 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly announces the discovery of the bodies and says a serial killer may be to blame. Police expand the search, looking for additional remains or any sign of Gilbert.
March 29, 2011: Some of Taylor’s remains are discovered along Ocean Parkway.
April 4, 2011: Additional remains of Valerie Mack are found along Ocean Parkway. Near these remains, investigators also find the remains of an unidentified child, later identified by DNA as “Peaches’ daughter.” Elsewhere on the road, investigators discover the remains of an Asian man. Investigators estimate he died 5 to 10 years earlier and was in his late teens or early 20s. He has not yet been identified.
April 11, 2011: Additional remains of Vergata are discovered along Ocean Parkway, several miles west of Gilgo Beach. Police also find remains belonging to “Peaches” along the beach road.
December 13, 2011: Gilbert’s remains are discovered in a swamp near Oak Beach. Following an autopsy and further investigation, Suffolk Police say she likely drowned accidentally. Her family still suspects she was murdered. An expert hired by the family said it is possible her death was a homicide.
January 2022: The Suffolk County District Attorney convenes a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach murders.
July 13, 2023: Investigators arrest Heuermann and accuse him of murdering Costello, Waterman and Barthelemy. They say they also believe he killed Brainard-Barnes, but do not initially charge him with the murder.
January 16, 2024: Heuermann is charged in Brainard-Barnes’ death. Prosecutors say a hair found on his corpse is genetically similar to a DNA sample from Heuermann’s wife.
Late April 2024: Police conduct a new multi-day search of a wooded area in Manorville where Taylor and Mack’s remains were discovered more than a decade earlier.
May 20, 2024: Investigators begin a new search of Heuermann’s home. It lasts almost a week.
June 6, 2024: Prosecutors plan to announce a “significant development” in the investigation.
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