A US architect who led a secret life as a serial killer pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings.
Rex Heuermann, of Long Island, New York, entered the pleas on Wednesday in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives, some of whom wept as he detailed his crimes for the court.
The 62-year-old will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at a later date.
Heuermann’s guilty pleas — to three counts of first-degree murder and four of intentional murder — bring finality to a case that bedevilled investigators, agonised victims’ relatives and tantalised a true-crime obsessed public for years.
Although he was not charged in her death, he also admitted that he killed Karen Vergata in 1996.
Heuermann strangled the women, many of them sex workers, over a 17-year span and buried their remains in remote locations, including along an isolated beach highway across the bay from where he lived, authorities said.
Suffolk County district attorney Ray Tierney has scheduled a news conference for later on Wednesday.
He will be joined by victims’ family members and members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, which cracked the case with the help of clues that included DNA lifted from a discarded pizza crust.
The investigation began in earnest in 2010 after police found numerous sets of human remains while searching for a missing woman along Long Island’s South Shore, setting off a search for a potential serial killer that attracted global interest and spawned a Hollywood movie.
A message seeking comment was left on Tuesday for Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown.
There has been intense interest in the case, and reporters, investigators and members of the public packed the hearing.
Reporters and camera operators swarmed Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter as they walked into the building.
“It’s a difficult day,” said Robert Macedonio, a lawyer for Mrs Ellerup.
“No one can envision ever in their life standing here in a courthouse on a line surrounded by media having their ex-husband accused of seven, potentially eight homicides.
“It’s unimaginable. There’s no way to prepare for it.”
In the courtroom, about half of the seats were blocked off for victims’ family members and law enforcement officers.
Heuermann, wearing a black blazer and white button-down shirt, gave brief answers to Tierney, the prosecutor, when asked if he understood and agreed to the charges he was pleading guilty to.
He never looked back at the packed courtroom gallery, keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead.
