Alert – Gilgo Beach case bombshell as judge issues ruling on using DNA evidence at accused serial killer’s trial

Damning DNA evidence tying Rex Heuermann to the murders of multiple women whose remains were found close to Gilgo Beach will be allowed in his trial. 

In a brief court hearing in Riverhead Wednesday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei ruled that critical evidence using new DNA technology is admissible in the case, marking a major blow to the suspected serial killer’s defense.

The ruling comes following a string of Frye hearings where the prosecution and the defense sparred over the new method which was used to link the 61-year-old architect and married father to the murders of seven women between 1993 and 2011. 

The advanced nuclear DNA testing carried out by California-based lab Astrea Forensics identified hairs on six of the seven victims as belonging to Heuermann’s now ex-wife Asa Ellerup, their daughter Victoria Heuermann and another individual connected to the suspected serial killer. 

The defense argued the technique should be excluded because it had never been used before in a New York court, while the prosecution argued it was already widely accepted by the scientific community.

Heuermann, who was handcuffed and sporting a shorter haircut, gave no visible reaction inside the courtroom to the judge’s decision.

Ellerup – who continues to insist her husband is innocent – supported her husband, sitting in the public gallery flanked by her attorneys. She quickly left the courtroom when the minutes-long hearing came to an end.

The couple’s daughter Victoria was notably absent. Victoria attended some of the Frye hearings in recent months after her hairs were found on some of her father’s alleged victims. 

Rex Heuermann, a 61-year-old architect, returned to a courtroom in Riverhead, Long Island, Wednesday

In the brief court hearing in Riverhead Wednesday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei ruled that critical evidence using new DNA technology is admissible in the case

But in a bombshell Peacock documentary released in June, she revealed she now believes her dad ‘most likely’ is the Gilgo Beach serial killer.

Ellerup, meanwhile, denied her ‘hero’ husband could be connected to the murders in the show.

The accused serial killer is currently charged with seven murders over a two-decade reign of horror running from 1993 to 2011.

The Gilgo Beach serial killer case had haunted the Long Island community for more than a decade, ever since the first of multiple bodies were discovered along Ocean Parkway in December 2010.

No arrests were made for more than a decade.

Then, in July 2023, the Massapequa Park local was dramatically arrested as he left his office in midtown Manhattan.

Heuermann was initially charged with the murders of three women: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman.

Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.

All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished after going to meet a client.

Their bodies were found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and other remote spots on Long Island. 

Some of the victims had been bound, others had been dismembered and their remains discarded in multiple locations.

Melissa Barthelemy (top left), Amber Costello (top right), Megan Waterman (bottom left), and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (bottom right) became known as the ‘Gilgo Four’

Sandra Costilla (left) was murdered in 1993, making her the earliest known victim. Karen Vergata’s (right) remains were identified in 2023. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to her death

Valerie Mack (left) disappeared in 2000 and parts of her body were discovered in Long Island that November. Jessica Taylor (right) vanished in 2003 with some of her remains being found in Manorville that year

The 61-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Mazzei said that – after hearing testimony from both state and defense expert witnesses during the Frye hearings – he has concluded that the DNA testing in question is ‘reliable and generally accepted by the scientific community’.

Astrea Forensics uses whole genome sequencing to develop a DNA profile – in this case, the source of rootless hairs found on the victims’ bodies.

Whole genome sequencing involves extracting all the fragments of DNA from the hairs and then assembling them on a human genome like a puzzle, to come up with a DNA profile.

A software called IBDGem is then used to compare that DNA profile with the DNA profile of a known suspect or individual. 

Dr Richard Green, the owner of Astrea Forensics, testified during the Frye hearings that his company specializes in DNA extraction from old or difficult samples – such as ancient bones that are tens of thousands of years old or rootless hairs.

He pointed to other examples where his DNA lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, or his company Astrea Forensics had helped to solve cold cases and unsolved murders including once being enlisted to assist in the Zodiac killer investigation.

In Wednesday’s ruling, the judge said he found the technology ‘generally accepted as reliable within the scientific community’ based on the expert testimony of the state’s witnesses, numerous peer-reviewed articles about whole genome sequencing as well as its use in other states including Idaho and California.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters he was ‘satisfied’ with the judge’s decision.

‘We won. The evidence is admissible. Full speed ahead for trial,’ he said outside the courtroom. 

Heuermann’s defense attorney Michael Brown meanwhile announced he is appealing the judge’s decision. 

Map showing where the remains of victims were found along Ocean Parkway 

In a motion filed on Wednesday, the defense referred to Astrea Forensics as an ‘unaccredited’ lab and argued it does not have a New York state health department permit, is banned from accepting DNA specimen from the state and does not meet the state’s minimum accepted and approved standards of clinical labs.

‘Any evidence created by Astrea Forensics which was derived from the genetic examination of samples submitted from the State of New York must be precluded by this Court as patently unreliable and unlawfully procured,’ the motion alleges.

Heuermann’s legal team is also seeking to split the case into five separate trials. Judge Mazzei is yet to rule on that matter.

The two sides will return to court for a hearing on September 23. 

The admissibility of the DNA evidence had the potential to make or break the case against the suspected serial killer – tying him to the murders of multiple women and a case that has struck fear into Long Island for more than a decade. 

But the judge’s decision also has implications far beyond the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, paving the way for the use of the advanced DNA testing in other criminal cases across New York state.

Heuermann was first linked to the murders following a tip about a pickup truck.

According to a witness, Costello had disappeared after going to see a client who drove a green Chevy Avalanche in September 2010.

Following the launch of a new taskforce, investigators learned that Heuermann drove that same type of vehicle at the time of the murders, prosecutors say.

He also matched the description of the client seen by the witness.

Heuermann’s defense attorney Michael Brown (seen outside the courthouse Wednesday) announced he is appealing the judge’s decision about the DNA evidence

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters he was ‘satisfied’ with the judge’s decision around the DNA evidence

As well as the DNA evidence, prosecutors said investigators also found a chilling ‘planning document’ on a hard drive in the basement of Heuermann’s family home in Massapequa Park.

In the haunting document, he allegedly had a section detailed ‘PREP’ and noted that ‘small’ women were preferred.

Heuermann has lived his entire life in Massapequa Park and would commute to his architecture job in Midtown Manhattan, where some of the victims worked and were last seen alive.

He was especially familiar with Ocean Parkway, where the victims’ bodies were dumped, thanks to a job he had at Jones Beach in his 20s, according to prosecutors.

Fears that a serial killer or killers were at large on Long Island began back in May 2010, when Shannan Gilbert vanished in bizarre circumstances one night.

The 24-year-old, who was working as an escort, had gone to see a client in the Oak Beach Association community when she made a terrifying 911 call, saying that someone was trying to kill her.

During a search for Gilbert in December 2010, officers came across the body of Barthelemy in the marshes by Gilgo Beach.

The backyard of Rex Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park during a search in June 2024

Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup and her attorneys attending a court hearing in July 2024

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann and his wife Asa Ellerup together on their wedding day in 1995 

Within days, three more bodies – Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman – had been found.

The four victims, who became known as the Gilgo Four, had been dumped within a quarter mile of each other, some of them bound and wrapped in burlap.

Over the following months, the remains of seven other victims were found.

Gilbert’s body was found last. Investigators maintain that she was not a victim, but died by accidental drowning after she fled into the dense thicket that night.

Heuermann has not been charged in connection to the deaths of the other four victims: Karen Vergata and three still-unidentified victims, known only as ‘Asian Doe,’ ‘Peaches,’ and Peaches’ toddler daughter.

Costilla, meanwhile, had never been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case until Heuermann was hit with charges for her murder in 2024.

Her murder expands the timeline that the accused serial killer is alleged to have been actively preying on victims.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is next due in court on September 23.