Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was unable to attend his Tuesday morning court appearance – where the judge adjourned the matter until April 8 – due to health issues, his attorney said.
Michael Brown, Heuermann’s lead defense attorney, confirmed that Heuermann has been walking on crutches “for a month or so.”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss [why],” Brown said. “He has some health issues, so that’s what we’re dealing with. So, at this point in time, I thought it was probably better for him to just stay at the jail.”
Neither Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney nor Judge Timothy Mazzei took issue with Heuermann’s absence, as Tuesday’s hearing for Heuermann lasted less than two minutes at criminal court in Riverhead. Mazzei will rule on motions by the defense to exclude DNA evidence on the basis of privacy laws at the next pre-trial conference date.
“None of us would ever expect that when we throw something away, we discard an object, that we’re then giving our whole genetic makeup,” Brown said of discarded pizza crust that allegedly connected Heuermann to the murders. “It’s just not feasible.”
Tierney did not appear rattled by the motions put forward by the defense, as the prosecution recently filed a memo to the judge opposing motions that Heuermann’s attorneys filed asking the judge to exclude DNA evidence because investigators didn’t get a warrant to test the DNA in the saliva on the crust, among other issues.
“There were a lot of motions,” Tierney said. “I think New York State law is such with regard to DNA and the abandonment sample that we are in good standing with regard to manner in which we retained all our evidence.”
Heuermann currently stands charged with the murders of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, and Megan Waterman, all of whom were found on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He is also charged with the murders of Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor, who were partially found in Manorville in 2000 and 2003, respectively, before additional remains were found on Gilgo Beach in 2011. He is also charged with the murder of Sandra Costilla, who was found in North Sea in 1993 and who, until 2024, was thought to be a victim of convicted double murderer John Bittrolff. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to all seven murders and has been held without jail since his July 2023 arrest.
A second alleged killer, Andrew Dykes, was arrested in December and charged in Nassau County with the murder of Tanya Denise Jackson, formerly known as “Peaches,” whose remains were found at Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997 and along Ocean Parkway in 2011. Dykes is the father of the victim’s daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes, formerly known as “Baby Doe,” who was found along Ocean Parkway in 2011, just over 200 feet away from Valerie Mack. Although he has not been charged for her murder, Nassau authorities have stated they believe he murdered the child as well. Dykes pleaded not guilty.
Charges have not been filed against the killer or killers of two victims in the Gilgo case: Asian Doe, an unidentified biological male who was found on Gilgo Beach in 2011, and Karen Vergata, formerly known as “Fire Island Jane Doe,” whose remains were found partially on Fire Island in 1996 and along Ocean Parkway in 2011.
Mazzei has said that Heuermann’s trial will begin shortly after Labor Day “come hell or high water.”
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