Rex Heuermann, the Long Island serial killer recently sentenced to life in prison for murdering seven women, has lost certain prison privileges after he was found with drugs inside the facility.
The 62-year-old was caught with contraband concealed beneath his bed during a July 14 search at Clinton Correctional Facility, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to Newsday.
Heuermann is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty on April 8 to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder. A judge sentenced him on June 17 without the possibility of parole.
As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann admitted strangling Sandra Costilla, 28; Valerie Mack, 24; Jessica Taylor, 20; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Costello, 27.
He also made a shocking admission involving an eighth woman, 34-year-old Karen Vergata, who was killed in 1996. He has not been charged in connection with her death.
Only about three weeks after arriving at the prison, officers reportedly found a small piece of damp paper sealed inside plastic. Testing indicated that it contained synthetic marijuana, the outlet said.
Following the discovery, Heuermann was moved to an isolated housing unit, and his mail privileges were temporarily halted, according to the source.
A two-day disciplinary hearing related to the incident concluded on August 18. Under the resulting decision, Heuermann will forfeit access to the prison commissary for 75 days if he commits another violation, Newsday reported.
Rex Heuermann, 62, was found with contraband hidden beneath his bed during a July 14 search at Clinton Correctional Facility.
Prison officers found a small piece of paper wrapped in plastic roughly three weeks after Heuermann arrived; the item reportedly tested positive for synthetic marijuana.
Heuermann admitted strangling Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
Heuermann was arrested in 2023 after authorities said he had spent years presenting himself as a family man. He lived in Massapequa Park with his wife of 27 years, Asa Ellerup, and their children, Victoria Heuermann and Christopher Sheridan.
He worked as an architect in Midtown Manhattan. He lured young women who were working as sex workers to his home when his family went out of town on vacation. His victims were strangled and their bodies dumped in remote areas of Long Island.
With the exception of his first victim, Costilla, Heuermann killed the women inside the basement of his home – the same suburban ranch-style house where he spent his own childhood and then raised his family. He also dismembered Vergata, Mack and Taylor inside the home.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney told Our News Outlet that a ‘meticulous’ level of planning had gone into each of the murders, meeting the women in advance, selecting his chosen victim and then buying a designated ‘kill phone’ to use solely to contact her.
Heuermann’s killing spree was only discovered and appeared to come to an end when his dumping ground was found along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, in 2010.
But another 13 years would go by before the notorious serial killer was finally unmasked with Heuermann’s arrest.
The harrowing discovery came during a search for 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, who had made a chilling 911 call and then disappeared following a visit to a client’s house in nearby Oak Beach that May.
That December, Barthelemy’s remains were the first to be found. Within days, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman and Costello were all found within a quarter mile of each other.
Heuermann is currently serving a life-sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder on April 8. He was sentenced without the possibility of parole on June 17
Heuermann also admitted to the 1996 murder of an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, 34, for which he has never been charged
The serial killer used burner phones to contact some of the victims, with location data placing the user near both Heuermann’s family home in Massapequa Park (pictured)
Heuermann’s family went on vacation when he lured the young women, who were working as sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies in remote areas of Long Island
The four women, together known as the Gilgo Four, were all bound and wrapped in burlap.
By the spring of 2011, ten victims had been found in the area. The final victim found was Gilbert, who, to this day, investigators maintain died by accident and is not linked to the serial killer case.
The serial killer used a trove of different burner phones to contact some of the victims, with location data placing the user near both Heuermann’s family home in Massapequa Park and his office in Manhattan.
With a suspect in sight, investigators then obtained crucial DNA evidence from a discarded pizza crust, which proved Heuermann to be the source of a hair found on Waterman’s body.
It later emerged that hairs belonging to his wife, daughter and another individual close to him had been found on six of the seven victims for which he was charged.
A disturbing ‘planning document,’ found on a hard drive during a search of his home, then revealed what prosecutors described as his blueprint for selecting, killing and disposing of victims.
The document included sections titled ‘body prep’ detailing how to clean and dismember bodies and remove tattoos.
Other chilling evidence also emerged, including his sick porn searches for ‘autopsy photos of female,’ ‘tied up fat girl porn,’ ‘skinny white teen crying porn’ and ‘stories of rape audio’ – as well as his online obsession with the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.
With a suspect in sight, investigators then obtained crucial DNA evidence from a discarded pizza crust, which proved Heuermann to be the source of a hair found on Waterman’s body
Heuermann’s killing spree was only discovered and appeared to come to an end when his dumping ground was found along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, in 2010
Heuermann remains in custody in ‘Little Siberia’ alongside fellow Long Island serial killer Joel Rifkin and the notorious New York Zodiac killer Heriberto Seda
In the almost three years since his arrest, Heuermann’s ex-wife Ellerup visited him in prison regularly and attended almost every one of his court hearings.
While he will now spend the rest of his life in prison, he could still face further prosecution if tied to other murders across New York state – and even further afield.
The remains of three other victims were also found along Ocean Parkway close to the remains of Heuermann’s other victims and were long suspected of being linked to the Gilgo Beach case.
A separate suspect has now been charged with the murders of two of those victims – mother Tanya Jackson and her toddler daughter Tatiana Dykes.
The case of the third victim – who is yet to be identified and is known only as Asian Doe – remains unsolved.
Heuermann remains in custody in ‘Little Siberia’ alongside fellow Long Island serial killer Joel Rifkin and the notorious New York Zodiac killer Heriberto Seda.
Our News Outlet reached out to Heuermann’s lawyer and the Clinton Correctional Facility for comment.
