By Joseph Ax
NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - A Long Island architect admitted in court on Wednesday to killing eight women in attacks dating to the 1990s, ending a notorious serial killer case that stymied investigators until DNA evidence helped lead to the arrest of Rex Heuermann in 2023.
Heuermann, 62, told a judge in Riverhead, New York, that he had strangled the women, most of whom were in their 20s, and dismembered some of them before discarding their bodies wrapped in burlap, the Suffolk County district attorney's office said in a statement.
He had been charged with seven murders, which took place between 1993 and 2010, and had been set for trial in the fall. During his appearance on Wednesday, he admitted to an eighth killing that was not among the charges.
He is expected to receive a sentence of life without parole when he returns to court in June, prosecutors said.
The "Gilgo Beach murders" drew national attention after police found numerous sets of human remains in 2010 and 2011 along an isolated stretch of Gilgo Beach, about 30 miles (48 km) east of New York City and a short drive from Heuermann's home. The investigation, which failed to identify a suspect for years, inspired movies and documentaries.
Investigators were able to tie Heuermann to the case in part by using DNA they collected from a pizza crust that a surveillance team saw him throw away while tailing him in Manhattan.
Heuermann's attorney, Michael Brown, told reporters after the court session that Heuermann's decision to plead guilty was to spare both the victims' families as well as his own from having to endure a trial. The guilty plea includes an agreement to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit.
"I think that this today have hopefully some peace and some closure to the family members," Brown said.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
