Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:27:02 +0000
Front Page

by Elena Vance -

Rex Heuermann pleads guilty, admits killing eight women in Gilgo Beach case

Riverhead, New York — Rex Heuermann changed his plea to guilty in Suffolk County court on April 8, 2026, admitting to murders connected with the Gilgo Beach killings. Heuermann pleaded guilty to charges covering seven women and acknowledged in court that he also killed an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, whose death was not included in the indictment.

Prosecutors and officials said Heuermann admitted strangling and dismembering some victims and dumping remains along stretches of Long Island coastline associated with the Gilgo Beach investigation. The admissions were made as part of the plea entered in Suffolk County court.

Heuermann was arrested in July 2023. He had previously been charged with seven murders dating from the 1990s through 2010 before changing his plea on April 8, 2026.

The Gilgo Beach investigation began after human remains were found along Ocean Parkway and Gilgo Beach on Long Island starting in 2010; investigators later connected additional remains and earlier discoveries, including partial remains of Karen Vergata found in 1996, to the case. Suffolk County prosecutors said, “This defendant walked among us play-acting as a normal suburban dad when in reality, all along, he was obsessively targeting innocent women for death.”