Suffolk County police are expanding their investigation into accused serial killer Rex Heuermann to determine whether he may have been involved in the deaths of two additional female sex workers, whose remains were found scattered across Long Island.
Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison assigned two additional investigators to the Gilgo Beach task force to prioritize work on the backgrounds of suspected victims Valerie Mack and Karen Vergata, he told Newsday.
The additional officers are also working to vet “numerous” tips, while others try to identify the remains of three other bodies that were found near Gilgo Beach.
“I thought it was a good idea to grab some people from the outside to take a look at other things that maybe, potentially attach themselves to Rex Heuermann,” Harrison said.
“This is something I need — a dedicated team of investigators to prioritize, to come to work — not going to do anything, but looking to see if you can attach them to where they came from,” he added.
“Once we get that, then maybe we go forward with either [the bodies] being something that Rex Heuermann might have been involved in or identify another subject who might have been involved.”
Harrison said the two additional officers assigned to the task force are looking into sex workers Valerie Mack and Karen Vergata’s activities before their deaths.
Mack, 24, had disappeared from her New Jersey home in the summer of 2000, and her dismembered remains were found in two different locations across Long Island — including along Ocean Parkway, which abuts Gilgo Beach.
In recent weeks, Tricia Hazen, Mack’s half-sister, said task force detectives asked her about Mack’s family history, as she was adopted, and collected copies of letters Mack sent to different family members.
The investigators told her they were trying to construct a timeline showing where Mack was traveling, Hazen said.
“This is not going to be solved overnight,” she told Newsday, adding: “I am grateful for the deep dive into Valerie and the other women killed.”
Harrison also said the task force is trying to determine how the dismembered body of Vergata, 34, was found on Fire Island in April 1996.
Her skull would be found years later, in April 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Vergata’s two sets of remains were linked by DNA analysis in July 2011, and were subsequently identified definitively thanks to genetic genealogy and a relative buccal swab in October 2022, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said at an August press conference.
She is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996, but was never reported missing.
“We have to look at what happened on Fire Island and take a look at that investigation and how it went from Fire Island over to Ocean Parkway,” Harrison told Newday.
“We will continue to work hard to see if we can attach these other unidentified bodies that were discovered on Ocean Parkway, so it is a work in progress,” he added.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
- Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found in December 2010 after having been last seen leaving her home that September.
Megan Waterman, 22
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Valerie Mack, 24
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.”
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
- An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”
Karen Vergata
- A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996, two months later her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort.
Shannan Gilbert, 23
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
The three unidentified remains found near Gilgo Beach include a woman referred to as “Peaches” because of a tattoo she had, a toddler identified as her child, and an Asian man.
Officials said genetic genealogy is being used to identify the victims — particularly in the case of Peaches, who they said may have had relatives in Alabama.
The Post has reached out to Heuermann’s attorney for comment.
He has previously been arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of three women who were found dumped along Gilgo Beach in December 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
Heuermann, 59, is also considered a main suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
He pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors say that a DNA sample he was ordered to take matched DNA from a pizza crust found outside his Midtown Manhattan office in July — which, in turn, matched a hair found on the body of Waterman in 2010.
Heuermann is due back in court on November 15.
