u/CatchLISK

"Two masked people banged on the door of Gilgo serial killer Rex A. Heuermann's Massapequa Park home Tuesday night before being scared off by a dog, according to police and the family's attorney.

A nine-second Ring doorbell camera video, obtained by Newsday, shows two people clad in black masks, T-shirts and shorts running from the porch of the First Avenue home as the family's dog, a black Lab mix named Stewie, is heard barking loudly from the inside. 

Asa Ellerup, Heuermann's ex-wife, and her two children, Victoria and Christopher, were home at the time of the incident, said Robert Macedonio, the family's attorney."

The fact that this isn't even the Robyn Fishkin case is exceptionally alarming.

Nassau County has two pivotal cases currently happening:
1- Richard Bilodeau, charged with the murder of Theresa Fusco in 1984
2- Andrew Dykes, charged with the murder of Tanya Denise Jackson in 1997.

We know there was some sort of funny business going on with Theresa's case- hair evidence found (placed) at the scene convicted 3 men and sent them to jail for decades. Nassau County had to pay tens of millions for their wrongful convictions and incarcerations.

With Andrew Dykes, we have already seen a motion that was granted for another buccal swab collection so that it may be tested under a "more controlled environment".

How can the DNA lab, its management and efficacy be in question when critical cases are on the line?

Try using a paywall jumper to access the article- sorry..

Jessica Taylor

Jessica is rarely far from my thoughts.

Before I knew Jessica, I knew what the public knew about her case. I knew the headlines. I knew the injustice. But because of her Family, I came to know Jess, to know about her laugh, her faith, her loves, hopes and dreams. I came to care about Jess.

Now Jess is all around her Family and they will live their lives with her love flowing within them. They share stories, they laugh, they cry, they struggle at times but they have love, they have support and they have their faith too.

So say a prayer for Jessica Taylor, she will hear it.

It is important that people understand the intent behind the proposed Gilgo Law amendment.

This proposal does not seek to restrict anyone's First Amendment rights. It does not ban books, documentaries, interviews, podcasts, or public discussion. Instead, it expands the existing framework of New York's No Profit From Notoriety Laws by broadening potential accountability to include certain family members or third parties who profit from a violent offender's notoriety. The proposal leaves it to victims, survivors, and families, not the government, to decide whether to pursue relief through the civil courts.

It is equally important to understand that this is not an attack on any one individual. This proposal is not about a specific person; it is about creating a legal framework that would apply equally in future cases. If someone chooses to monetize the notoriety surrounding a violent crime or sell certain life rights connected to that notoriety, the amendment would simply allow victims and families the opportunity to ask a court to determine whether those profits should be subject to the same accountability principles reflected in New York's existing Son of Sam Law.

"Our goal is not censorship. Our goal is accountability. We believe that victims and their families deserve the opportunity to seek justice when others financially benefit from the tragedy that forever changed their lives." - Gilgo Families

[ Removed by Reddit in response to a copyright notice. ]

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to serve life sentence at Elmira Correctional Facility, records show..

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann will serve his life sentence at Elmira Correctional Facility, according to a listing added to the state Department of Corrections database Friday.

It was not immediately clear if Heuermann, 62, has been transferred to the facility yet. He was moved June 18 from Suffolk County to Green Haven Correctional Facility for admission procession, a DOC spokesperson said last week.

Authorities at Green Haven were to evaluate his criminal history, security risk, medical status, mental health and program needs, and then use that information to determine which state prison is the best fit for the serial killer.
Elmira Correctional Facility, often referred to as “The Hill,” is a maximum security facility in upstate Elmira, about 60 miles west of Binghamton and more than 270 miles from Heuermann’s hometown of Massapequa Park.

Heuermann was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last Wednesday. He admitted April 8 to strangling eight women — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack and Karen Vergata — and dumping their bodies across Suffolk County, including near Gilgo Beach. The killing spree began in 1993 and continued until 2010.

The Gilgo Families have created an official Facebook page dedicated exclusively to raising awareness and advancing their unified support for legislation that will close the loopholes in New York's current Son of Sam Law.

This page is administered by the families themselves, and from time to time they may share updates, reflections, and advocacy in their own words. A moderator will help ensure that discussions remain respectful and focused on the mission of supporting victims and promoting meaningful reform.

We encourage anyone who believes in putting victims before profits to follow the page, stay informed, and join the effort to advance A6730. Together, our voices can help ensure that notoriety is never allowed to become a business built upon human suffering.

facebook.com/share/1GXpSS7j…

The Gilgo Families have created an official Facebook page dedicated exclusively to raising awareness and advancing their unified support for legislation that will close the loopholes in New York's current Son of Sam Law.

This page is administered by the families themselves, and from time to time they may share updates, reflections, and advocacy in their own words. A moderator will help ensure that discussions remain respectful and focused on the mission of supporting victims and promoting meaningful reform.

We encourage anyone who believes in putting victims before profits to follow the page, stay informed, and join the effort to advance A6730. Together, our voices can help ensure that notoriety is never allowed to become a business built upon human suffering.

Gilgo Beach killings: Investigators renewing efforts to identify remains of Asian victim found in 2011..

Prosecutors are renewing their push to identify an Asian man whose remains are considered part of the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

In the aftermath of convicted Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann’s sentencing last week to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Tierney told Newsday that investigators plan to visit Asian communities in the New York City region, seeking DNA samples to help identify the man whose skeletal remains were discovered near Ocean Parkway in 2011.

"We're trying to identify that individual through investigative genetic genealogy, which means we’ve got to get more information about the gene pool," Tierney told Newsday in an interview following the Wednesday sentencing. "Once you know who the person is, you could go back to their life at the last point, just before them disappearing, and develop leads from there."

Search to ID 'Asian Doe'
Remains of the man, who prosecutors refer to as "Asian Doe," were found east of Gilgo Beach on April 4, 2011, although he is believed to have been dumped there at least five years earlier.

Investigators have said the man, who died of blunt force trauma, was clad in women's clothing, an indication that he might have been a sex worker.

In 2024, Suffolk investigators published two reconstructions of his face — one showing him with long hair and the other with shorter cropped hair.

Despite wide publicity of the sketches, particularly in Asian media, the leads investigators received weren’t successful and to date prosecutors haven't been able to identify him or locate relatives, Tierney said.

"We're going to go into Asian communities and ask them, ‘Will you give us a DNA sample? Will you participate in this study, so we can get more genetic profiles to allow us to hopefully locate relatives of this individual?’ ” said Tierney, who previously told Newsday that the man may have come from the city's Asian immigrant community rather than Long Island.

Tierney's office said the identification campaign will commence in the coming weeks, with investigators fanning out to Chinatown in Manhattan, Flushing in Queens, and Sunset Park, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights, all three in Brooklyn. They’ll be joined by members of the NYPD’s Community Affairs Division, the Asian Jade Society and by staff from local police precincts, officials said.

Flyers will be distributed in various translations, and investigators, with the help of translators, will speak to residents, said Tania Lopez, a spokeswoman for Tierney's office. Investigators, she said, will have DNA kits on hand for individuals who consent to contribute their samples.

"We hope these efforts will assist law enforcement in not only identifying Asian Doe, but any Asian unidentified human remains," Lopez said.

Challenging endeavor
The identification effort is considered more challenging because Asian populations have their own genealogy system and don't contribute in large numbers to public DNA search sites, hurting the chances of getting a good genetic comparison, said Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nationally known genealogist with Identifinders in California.

"I think there'll be plenty of people that will be cooperative [with the effort] and there's going to be some people that just don't trust the whole thing," Fitzpatrick said. "It's not really mistrust though. It's more that some people are just not familiar with what they're trying to do. The younger people might not care and would be willing to help, and the older people might not understand the whole DNA system."

Asian Doe is believed to be between 17 and 23 years old and between 5-3 and 5-9 in height. He was found wearing all women’s clothing including a bra, a large Chrysantheme gray ribbed short-sleeve crew neck shirt, a size 10 Rafaella shirt and Bill Blass blue jeans, investigators previously said.

When the sketches were first publicized in September 2024, Tierney said Asian Doe's ancestry was traced through DNA analysis to southern China, specifically to the Han ethnic group, which makes up more than 90% of the Chinese population in China and 97% of the Chinese population in Taiwan, records show.

The use of genetic genealogy led Gilgo Beach homicide investigators to identify the remains in 2020 of Gilgo Beach victim Valerie Mack.

And in 2023, Gilgo investigators revealed that genetic genealogy also was used to confirm the identity of Gilgo victim Karen Vergata, whose remains were found on Fire Island in 1996.

In April, Heuermann, a Massapequa Park resident and Manhattan architect, pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women and admitted killing an eighth, including Mack and Vergata.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office has not implicated Heuermann in the death of Asian Doe and members have declined to comment on whether they believe he committed that homicide.

Michael J. Brown, lawyer for Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann, talks about his client, the evidence and path to a plea..

For nearly three years, Michael J. Brown searched for weaknesses in the case against accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann.

In the end, the defense attorney said, his client no longer saw a path forward and directed his attorneys to negotiate a guilty plea.

In his first extensive interview with Newsday in the hours after Heuermann was sentenced Wednesday, Brown described the evidence as overwhelming and said a recovered planning document was among the most damaging pieces of proof prosecutors assembled.

"There's no way of winning this case," Brown said Heuermann ultimately realized. "He saw the writing on the wall."

This week's sentencing represented for many the final chapter of Suffolk County's most consequential criminal case in decades, one of the biggest fixations of the nation's current true crime craze. For Brown, the sentencing marked what appears to the end of his involvement in a case he built his career toward but never saw coming.

The case followed him around the courthouse — ever since his client was arrested — while also handling DWI and assault cases that keep his Central Islip law office busy. Strangers recognize him as the man sitting beside the Gilgo Beach serial killer.

"This is a worldwide case," Brown said. "I wasn't expecting that type of attention and that type of focus."

Ninety-minute decision
Brown followed the decadeslong investigation like most Long Islanders, but he said it never crossed his mind that he would represent the man often referred to as "the Long Island Serial Killer."

"I never thought they would catch him," said Brown, 59, who has practiced law in Suffolk County since 1993. "As time went on, I think it became less and less of a possibility."

That changed when he received a call from the county's assigned counsel program on July 14, 2023, telling him Heuermann was in custody and asking if he would handle the arraignment later that day.

The married father of four grown children, two of whom have followed him into the legal profession, had about 90 minutes to decide. Some fellow attorneys warned him it might be too much to take on, but his wife believed it was something he'd "thrive on." He believed that to be true.

"If you told me I would [one day defend] a serial killer with seven murder victims when I was in law school … I would love the opportunity," Brown said on the afternoon Heuermann was taken from the Suffolk County jail to Green Haven Correctional Facility, where he's awaiting prison assignment.

Attorney Daniel Russo, administrator of Suffolk's assigned counsel program, said Brown was only a handful of attorneys considered to defend Heuermann that morning.

"Mike was actually willing to put together a good team, which impressed me," Russo said.

That team would ultimately include co-counsel Danielle Coysh, while attorneys Sabato Caponi and Michael Fuchs assisted with legal challenges and Brown's son and law partner Chase Brown also lent a hand. Coysh said she also appreciated that Brown wanted to put together the best possible legal team.

The scrutiny surrounding the case was apparent from the very first day in court, Brown said. Dozens of cameras focused on him as he made his way to the courtroom to meet the Massapequa Park architect accused in the killings.

Longtime Suffolk County defense attorney William Keahon, who represented the next most recent serial killer convicted here, said Brown was the right choice to defend Heuermann. The Hauppauge-based attorney, who at 82 years old still maintains a steady caseload and observed much of the pretrial hearings in the Gilgo Beach case, was also impressed by the prosecution.

"You had the worst charges you could possibly defend and you had the best prosecutors and, I think, one of the best trial lawyers on Long Island defending with his group," Keahon said. "That's what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be fair."

Murder charges begin to add up
Brown said he heard the same question over and over again no matter where he went: What's it like to represent Heuermann?

"It was a challenge, and it was certainly the most challenging case of my career," Brown said. "The intensity, the amount of discovery, the scrutiny. You're under the microscope."

The intensity, the amount of discovery, the scrutiny. You're under the microscope.
— Attorney Michael J. Brown

Coysh also had the unique distinction of being the only woman at either attorney's table for each appearance by Heuermann, who she said was always respectful to her.

And as the murder charges began to add up with three women becoming four, then from six to seven and ultimately eight admitted victims, the discovery continued to pile up.

"Millions upon millions, and I have not gone through every single page," Brown said, acknowledging the work done by Coysh and others. "We had seven bodies in terms of victims in the indictment. Obviously, there's an eighth that he accepted responsibility for, and part of the investigation includes other [potential] victims … so just the discovery alone was mammoth."

As lead attorney on the Heuermann defense team, Brown was in a unique position of having examined all of the key evidence in the case.

Every tip, each far-fetched suspect, all the minor leads make their way to the defense under state discovery laws. It's not just the breakthroughs that happened late in the investigation and pointed to Heuermann that ended up in Brown's hands, but all the law enforcement missteps early on.

Closing the deal
Reviewing the case file reinforced Brown's belief that investigators failed to devote sufficient attention and resources to the killings. He said he believes the case file shows the victims' roles as sex workers and some of the people they associated with prevented them from getting "the attention they deserved" from investigators.

The early stages of the investigation date back to the murder of Sandra Costilla in 1993 and grew with the discovery of the "Gilgo Four" remains in 2010.

That changed, Brown said, following the election of Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney and the creation of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force, which brought Suffolk police and prosecutors together with state and federal investigators.

"It took somebody like the district attorney to actually close, seal the deal," Brown said.

Authorities during the time of the initial investigation disputed they were slow to give the case proper attention, noting they were swamped with thousands of tips and leads, many of which turned out to be dead ends.

Brown also credited State Police Investigator Tifini Atai's work to connect Heuermann to the suspect profile and said current Suffolk detectives, forensics investigators and FBI agents contributed strong police work to the investigation.

Tierney said it was important for the prosecution and defense to have a strong working relationship, and he credited Brown and Coysh with being professional and mounting strong legal challenges on behalf of their client. It was a challenging case to prosecute that could have been more difficult with another adversary.

"They did a really good job litigating the case until [Heuermann] said 'No more,'" the district attorney said.

'Blueprint for murder'
When Heuermann was arraigned for a third time in June 2024, investigators unveiled a long-deleted document they said allowed him to methodically plan out his kills and prepare to evade law enforcement. Sometimes referred to as a "blueprint for murder" or a "killing manifesto," the planning document he maintained in the early 2000s likely erased what little doubt of his guilt existed for most people following the case.

"That was a powerful piece of evidence," Brown said. "There's no getting around it."

That was a powerful piece of evidence. There's no getting around it.
— Attorney Michael J. Brown, on the killing planning document

The document, which prosecutors said was deleted but recovered using forensic software, listed "problems" a killer might face like DNA, witnesses, blood stains and material evidence. It also included an outline of supplies that might be used by someone looking to kill — rope, hair nets, acid — and referenced apparent dump sites and possible future targets.

Certain details in the document were particularly challenging for the defense.

"When you saw that document, and you saw step by step … the locality, the fact that when you're talking about locations on Long Island," Brown said, referencing the inclusion of a Manorville road near where partial remains of victims Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack were discovered.

Brown said as a defense attorney fighting for a client, you never see an obstacle as insurmountable.

"It's a challenge for me," the defense attorney said. "I find in my head, 'How do I overcome this challenge?' This was a difficult one, but you do your best."

The document, which prosecutors said was deleted but recovered using forensic software, listed "problems" a killer might face like DNA, witnesses, blood stains and material evidence. It also included an outline of supplies that might be used by someone looking to kill — rope, hair nets, acid — and referenced apparent dump sites and possible future targets.

Certain details in the document were particularly challenging for the defense.

"When you saw that document, and you saw step by step … the locality, the fact that when you're talking about locations on Long Island," Brown said, referencing the inclusion of a Manorville road near where partial remains of victims Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack were discovered.

Brown said as a defense attorney fighting for a client, you never see an obstacle as insurmountable.

"It's a challenge for me," the defense attorney said. "I find in my head, 'How do I overcome this challenge?' This was a difficult one, but you do your best."

Keahon applauded the efforts by Brown and Coysh in their unsuccessful attempt to have nuclear DNA evidence against Heuermann barred at trial. Prosecutors were up to the task in defending the evidence, he said.

Science's pivotal role
Brown and Coysh said their legal arguments regarding the modern techniques used to link Heuermann to hair found at the crime scenes were proper.

Coysh, 46, who is also a Long Island native and a graduate of Suffolk University Law School in Boston, called it a "challenging case" and said she is proud of the work they did "making headway on novel legal issues."

Keahon learned firsthand when he represented serial killer Robert Shulman at trial in 1996 just how difficult the task is.

"No matter how good you are," Keahon said. "It's an incredible amount of work and you have to do it consistently."

The gruesome nature of the evidence was another troubling aspect of the case. Brown said crime scene and autopsy photos are never easy to look at, but in a case where human remains were severed, mutilated and left to decompose, you don't soon forget what you saw.

"Even if I've seen horrific things on one case, you got to multiply that by eight, 10, 12," Brown said. "It does strike a chord."

Rex was extremely careful. He strategized, and he was very deliberate and intentional. Nevertheless, as a victim's family member said, 'You weren't as smart as you thought you were. You did get caught.'— Attorney Michael J. Brown

The case ultimately highlights just how difficult it is to get away with a crime today, Brown said. Advancements in DNA, cellphone and surveillance technology are closing cases at a rapid rate.

"Rex was extremely careful," Brown said, "He strategized, and he was very deliberate and intentional. Nevertheless, as a victim's family member said [at sentencing], 'You weren't as smart as you thought you were. You did get caught.'"

The weight of the sins
At Wednesday's sentencing, Brown turned his body to look at each of the victim's family members as they gave impact statements to the court.

Their emotional pleas went mostly as he expected as they unleashed decades of loss, frustration and trauma on the man responsible for it all.

"They had to express themselves. I'm glad they did,"  Brown said. "It's so unique and different than the average murder case … These people have been waiting for this moment for so long."

They had to express themselves. I'm glad they did.— Attorney Michael J. Brown, on the victims' families
The totality of the impact of his client's crimes had really set in as the sentencing hearing went on.

First a father spoke, then a mother. Sisters and cousins, sons and daughters followed. One victim after the next.

"You realize the amount of havoc that was caused and wrecked by one individual," said Brown, who limited his own remarks at sentencing to telling those family members about the impact their words and loss had on him.

When it came time for Heuermann to speak, he never used the word "sorry." Instead he focused on how his words couldn't make a difference.

Brown agreed with his client's sentiments, saying "you're damned if you do, damned if you don't."

"The sentence is predetermined," Brown said of his advice to Heuermann. "What you say is not going to matter and it shouldn't matter to these people. They have a significant loss at his hands, and you can apologize until the end of time. It's not going to make a bit of difference. Just the same, if you don't say anything … public opinion is going to be you didn't show any remorse."

When Heuermann was ushered out of the courtroom, Brown wasn't surprised or upset by the loud applause from the victims' families, who reacted like a crowd at a sporting event, the final buzzer sounding on their grief.

"They're entitled to that," Brown said.

Coysh said she thinks there's now "a sense of closure" for the victims.

"This was justice," she said. "And I'm OK with that."

Didn't face a jury

For Brown, who spent two years as a prosecutor after graduating from Boston University Law School in 1992, representing a serial killer raised a sporting analogy. It was like a deciding game in a World Series or NBA Finals, he said on the afternoon the Knicks paraded down the Canyon of Heroes to City Hall less than 40 miles away.
For attorneys, wins and losses aren't as easy to measure. And the biggest case of Brown and Coysh's lives never went to a jury. Coysh said Heuermann thanked them for the hard work they did on the case.

Brown admitted feeling a sense of relief that the sentencing was behind him, but not necessarily that it ended in a plea. While Heuermann saw the writing on the wall, his attorneys are programmed not to.

"When I took this case, I took it to try this case," Brown said. "Going back to Game 7 of the World Series or the NBA Finals, I was looking forward to trying this case, so there wasn't a sense of relief when he said I wanted to take a plea."

There will be other murder cases for Brown to try. He'll still handle his share of misdemeanors and the occasional traffic ticket, too. Nothing will top this one, he said.

"I wanted to handle the most significant, serious cases," Brown said of going into private practice 31 years ago. "I want that type of challenge."

"For families like ours, the pain of violent crime does not end with an arrest or conviction. We continue to watch individuals, associates, and third parties attempt to profit from the notoriety surrounding these horrific acts through the sale of memorabilia, collectibles, and other items tied to infamous crimes and offenders. Existing Son of Sam protections were created to prevent criminals from benefiting from their crimes, yet loopholes still remain that allow notoriety itself to be monetized"

Elizabeth Meserve, Aunt of Megan Waterman, taken from her Victim Impact Statement June 17, 2026.

It is time to stand with the Gilgo Families and #CloseTheLoophole #A6730

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