The police would later discover they belonged to Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old from the Bronx who worked as a prostitute and was last seen in July 2009 when she told a friend she was going to meet a client. Two days later, the police found the remains of three other women -- Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Like Ms. Barthelemy, they were petite, in their 20s and worked as escorts.
The discovery of their bodies, bound at the feet or ankles and wrapped in burlap, terrified residents of Long Island, devastated the victims' families and led to a 12-year investigation marked by dysfunction and disarray. Six other bodies, including those of four women, a man who was never identified and a 2-year-old girl, were discovered in the following weeks.
In July, the police finally announced an arrest. Rex Heuermann, 59, was charged with first-degree and second-degree murder in the deaths of Ms. Costello, Ms. Waterman and Ms. Barthelemy. Six months later, Mr. Heuermann was also charged with murdering Ms. Brainard-Barnes, a conclusion delayed by pending DNA tests.
On Thursday, he was charged again with second-degree murder, accused of the killings of two more women: Jessica Taylor, whose partial remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2011, and Sandra Costilla, a 28-year-old New York woman whose remains were found in 1993 in the Hamptons.
Here is what we know about the case so far.
Ms. Taylor was 20 when she was last seen near Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan around July 19, 2003. She had been working as an escort around Midtown Manhattan when she disappeared.
Ms. Taylor spoke to her mother on the phone on July 21 and told her she would visit her in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on July 25 to celebrate her mother's birthday. When she did not show up on July 25 and did not answer calls to her phone, her mother called the police.
The next day, a dog walker found Ms. Taylor's dismembered body on a secluded road in Manorville, N.Y., just north of the Long Island Expressway in the Long Island Pine Barrens.
More of Ms. Taylor's remains were discovered near Gilgo Beach in 2011, along with the remains of three other women, a man and a toddler. Their deaths remain unsolved.
Ms. Costilla was not previously associated with the Gilgo Beach investigation. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago but had been living in New York before she disappeared.
On Nov. 20, 1993, two people hunting in the woods around Southampton found her body, facing upward with her arms outstretched over her head. Her shirt had been pulled up, exposing her chest, and her body and face were covered in stab wounds.
Her case went unsolved for years, until investigators matched the DNA from hairs that had been found on her body to DNA recovered from Mr. Heuermann as well as from a woman he had been living with at the time.
That woman, identified only as Witness 3 in a bail application filed by prosecutors, moved out of their home two months before Ms. Costilla was found dead. Investigators recently reached out to her about the case and she willingly submitted a DNA sample, according to the bail application.
For years, the Gilgo Beach investigation was hamstrung by dysfunction and even corruption. James Burke, a Suffolk police commissioner who at one point led the investigation, refused to work with the F.B.I., and years later the public learned he was being investigated by federal authorities for obstruction of justice in an unrelated case.
In February 2022, authorities announced the creation of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, bringing together local, state, and federal investigators.
The task force focused on cellphone records. Many of the women who were killed had been contacted by different burner phones, and investigators, using mapping technology, learned the calls came from two key locations that they would eventually connect to Mr. Heuermann: near his home on First Avenue in Massapequa Park and near his office at Fifth Avenue and 36th Street in Manhattan.
A break came in March 2022 when investigators discovered that Mr. Heuermann owned a Chevrolet Avalanche truck at the time of the killings. It was the same type of truck a witness had seen parked in a victim's driveway shortly before she disappeared.
In July 2022, a detective took 11 bottles from a trash can outside Mr. Heuermann's house. Investigators compared DNA from the bottles to DNA extracted from hairs found on some of the bodies.
In June 2023, the Suffolk County crime laboratory matched DNA from a hair found on Ms. Waterman’s body with the DNA swabbed from crusts recovered from a pizza box that Mr. Heuermann had thrown out.
On July 14, 2023, he was taken into custody in Midtown. The following day, he was ordered held without bail during a brief appearance at a Suffolk County courthouse. His lawyer said outside the courthouse that Mr. Heuermann denied committing the killings.
Mr. Heuermann, conscientious in his Manhattan job as an architect and architectural consultant, is married, has a daughter and was born and raised on Long Island, where he lived in his family home—a dilapidated one-story house with fading red paint and an unkempt yard.
He was respected by some in his field for his experience as a veteran architectural consultant and his deep knowledge of the intricacies of New York City’s building code—which made him effective at getting projects approved. Other clients found him too fastidious and combative.
In Massapequa Park—where he lived—neighbors considered him unpleasant; even menacing.
They said he would respond with silent glares when they said hello. Once, he was kicked out of a Whole Foods for stealing clementines meant for children.
The Suffolk district attorney Raymond A. Tierney has laid out evidence that authorities said connected Mr. Heuermann to crimes: he had licenses for 92 firearms; had set up false email account used to search violent pornography showing women children being sexually assaulted.
In weeks after Ms.Barthelemy ,Ms.Waterman ,Ms.Brainard-Barnes and Ms.Costello were found ,details emerged about their lives centered around work as escorts .They were described as vulnerable women whose profession put them in path of serial killer .
Their families have fought to make sure people knew they were more than escorts and victims .Ms.Brainard-Barnes’s sister described her as artistic ,daring free spirit ,who had worked as blackjack dealer ,then clerk at ShopRite .She was mother young girl boy and turned to work as escort six months before she vanished in July 2007 .
Two years later ,Ms.Barthelemy ,a hairdresser who had moved to New York from Buffalo ,disappeared after she left her basement apartment in Bronx and told friend that she was going see man .Shortly after ,her family received series calls from man who admitted killing her .He used Ms.Barthelemy’s phone to make “taunting” calls ,the police said .
Ms.Waterman was 22 and living Scarborough ,Maine ,when she went missing June 6 ,2010 .She boarded New York-bound Concord Trailways bus meet client .She reported missing two days later ,after did not call check on her 3-year-old daughter .
Ms.Costello was last go missing what authorities called “Gilgo Four.” She had been addicted heroin attended 28-day rehabilitation program Clearwater ,Fla., before moved New York where relapsed ,according Suffolk County sheriff’s department .
She had developed ruse two male roommates: Ms.Costello meet client home; after customer paid ,one men come claim he Ms.Costello’s boyfriend ,forcing client flee sex occurred.
Ms.Costello tried ruse Mr.Heuermann around Sept .2 ,2010 ,prosecutors said .A witness saw Chevrolet Avalanche parked driveway Ms.Costello had been staying West Babylon ,N.Y .The witness said tall man “dark bushy hair” looked like “ogre” came house said would call Ms.Costello later ,prosecutors said court filing .
On night Sept .2 ,Ms.Costello got call client left house .Soon after ,witness saw dark truck pass house .