Natasha Jugo only popped out to buy some milk and pick up her father’s prescription from the Rite Aid down the block.

The 31-year-old had stuffed a $100 bill in her pocket, headed out the door of her parents’ home in Queens, New York, and got into her car.

In all, it was a round trip that should have taken less than 10 minutes.

But Jugo never returned that night – or over the coming days or weeks. 

Three months later, her body was found washed up 30 miles away on the very same Long Island beach that had become a depraved serial killer’s ‘human graveyard’.

While police were quick to rule out any connection between Jugo’s death and the haunting crimes, new details about a mystery vehicle spotted the night she vanished have now suggested a potential link to Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann.

Now, prominent attorney and former assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County DA’s office Raymond Zuppa is voicing fears that Jugo could in fact be another victim of the suspected serial killer – and is calling for a new investigation into her death.

‘I can’t rule Rex out,’ he tells DailyMail.com. ‘But we can’t rule anybody out right now.’

Natasha Jugo (pictured) vanished in March 2013. Her body washed up on Gilgo Beach three months later

Aerial view of Ocean Parkway where the bodies of multiple victims were dumped by a suspected serial killer 

As far as he is concerned, Jugo’s death being ruled as suicide is ‘just phantastic’.

‘It doesn’t make sense,’ he says.

It was March 16, 2013, when Jugo was last seen leaving the home she shared with her family in Bayside, Queens, to head to the Rite Aid.

According to the store workers – who knew Jugo well – she never made it to the store and her dad’s prescription was never collected.

Fearful for the safety of the 31-year-old – who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia – Jugo’s parents reported her missing that night.

The following morning, a local resident of West Gilgo Beach came across Jugo’s wallet and driver’s license more than 30 miles from her home in Bayside, on the shore near Tobay Beach, on the south side of Ocean Parkway.

Officers from multiple agencies rushed to the scene, returning to the Long Island dumping ground of a depraved serial killer or killers to launch a new search for a different missing woman. 

Suffolk County Police, the NYPD, New York State Troopers, the Suffolk Marine Bureau and the Nassau County Police Department all responded: it was a remarkable level of manpower for a missing persons case. 

Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann appears at a court hearing on March 28, 2025

Jugo’s car – a blue Toyota Prius – was soon found abandoned on the shoulder of Ocean Parkway.

According to police, footprints in the sand led from the car to the sea.

A robe and other clothing that appeared to match what Jugo was last seen wearing were also found close to the water. The $100 bill was still in one of the pockets.

From that very first day, police were quick to rule out any possible connection to the string of murders that had rocked the Long Island enclave – despite the serial killer case being nowhere close to being solved.

‘There is no association; the only common denominator is the beach,’ Nassau Police spokesperson Maureen Roach told Newsday at the time.

At that time, it had been two years since the first victims’ bodies were found along Gilgo Beach. 

No suspects were even on law enforcement’s radar in the Gilgo Beach killer case.

There was also no telling if the serial killer was still actively preying on more victims.

In fact, it would be another long decade before Massapequa Park local and Manhattan-based architect Heuermann was arrested in the summer of 2023 and charged with multiple murders.

Yet, by early May – with no sign of Jugo’s body – her death was ruled a suicide.

Despite the efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies, the search for the missing 31-year-old went cold.

The following month, on June 24, 2013, three friends were walking along Gilgo Beach when they noticed something floating in the water off the shore.

Jugo was the latest in a growing list of young women who had met their end along the south shore.

Her body was found around a mile from where her car and personal items had been found.

An autopsy found ‘no sign of trauma or injury that would indicate anything other than a drowning’.

But Zuppa has doubts that Jugo died by suicide.  

The backyard of Rex Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park during a search in June 2024

The location alone – as the dumping ground of the notorious suspected serial killer – means her death warrants further investigation, he says.

‘The area of the occurrence is infamous,’ Zuppa wrote in a petition filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in February seeking to get access to records about the case.

‘Given the geographical location, as well as current and historical events, there is a compelling public interest in information that illuminates and elucidates the competency of police investigations of missing or inexplicably deceased young women.’

Zuppa tells DailyMail.com that he has visited the scene multiple times and learned that Jugo’s personal belongings were found close to the remains of suspected victim Karen Vergata.

Her body then washed ashore close to where the ‘Gilgo Four’ victims were found, he says.

Two years earlier – between December 2010 and December 2011 – the remains of 11 victims were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

Natasha Jugo’s death was ruled a suicide but attorney Raymond Zuppa is calling for an investigation 

The human graveyard was unearthed during a search for Shannon Gilbert – an escort who disappeared in May 2010 after making a terrified 911 call saying someone was trying to kill her while visiting a client in the Oak Beach Association gated community.

That December, a K-9 officer looking for Gilbert came across the remains of Melissa Barthelemy.

Within days, three more victims – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello – were found close by, together becoming known as the ‘Gilgo Four.’

By April 2011, 10 victims had been found.

Most were petite women who had gone missing while working as sex workers. A toddler and a biological Asian male dressed in women’s clothing were also found.

Gilbert was the last to be found in December 2011. Unlike the others, her death was ruled as accidental drowning – a ruling fiercely contested by her family.

The chilling discoveries were clear: a serial killer or killers were at large.

Following his arrest in July 2023, Heuermann – a married father to two adult children – has been charged with the murders of seven victims: Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman, Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla (whose remains were found in a different location in Southampton).

The 61-year-old is accused of committing these murders over a two-decade period between 1993 and 2011.

He has not been charged in connection to the deaths of Gilbert, Vergata or the unidentified victims known as ‘Asian Doe,’ ‘Peaches’ and the toddler.

Rex Heuermann in selfies submitted as evidence in the case. The accused serial killer is charged with murders dating from 1993 to 2011

This belt, with the monogram ‘WH’ or ‘HM’ was tied around one of the victims’ bodies 

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has long made it clear there could be more victims out there – and that more charges could still be brought against the suspected serial killer.

Heuermann has lived his entire life in Massapequa Park and would commute to his architecture job in Midtown Manhattan, where some of the victims worked and were last seen alive.

He was especially familiar with Ocean Parkway, where the victims’ bodies were dumped, thanks to a job he had at Jones Beach in his 20s, according to prosecutors.

When Heuermann was arrested in the case in 2023, Zuppa says Jugo’s death instantly sprung to mind and he began looking further into the case.

For the top attorney, it doesn’t make sense that Jugo would have driven around 30 miles from her home in Queens to Gilgo Beach for the purpose of killing herself.

‘Travelling to the vicinity of West Gilgo Beach from Jugo’s home required a large amount of deliberation and intention. She did not just end up there accidentally,’ he wrote in the petition.

‘Further young women from Queens and indeed all parts of New York City have little idea that Gilgo Beach even exists.’

Zuppa points out that Jugo lived just five minutes from a bay which, if the sole purpose was to drown herself, would have made more sense.

Melissa Barthelemy (top left), Amber Costello (top right), Megan Waterman (bottom left), and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (bottom right) became known as the ‘Gilgo Four’

‘So what the hell is she doing in Gilgo?’ he says, adding that he has not been able to find any connection Jugo may have to the area.

He also believes the method of suicide is unlikely.

‘Walking into the Gilgo Surf up to her head and then inhaling the ocean water would have been an excruciatingly painful way for Ms. Jugo to commit suicide. And quite improbable,’ he wrote.

‘Such suicidal mechanisms are simply unheard of in science.’

No suicide note was found at the scene and Zuppa says it would not have been possible to find footprints in the sand from the car to the surf.

He explains that there is a thick area of bramble between Ocean Parkway where her car was found abandoned and the beach, rendering footprints unlikely.

A maritime expert also revealed that the tidal patterns in the hours she went missing means Jugo’s footprints and items of clothing would not have been found by the water’s edge.

Besides the disturbing history of the location, Zuppa has found other eerie similarities between Jugo’s disappearance and death and some of the Gilgo Beach victims.

Valerie Mack (left) disappeared in 2000 and parts of her body were discovered in Long Island that November. Jessica Taylor (right) vanished in 2003 with some of her remains being found in Manorville that year

Sandra Costilla (left) was murdered in 1993, making her the earliest known victim. Karen Vergata’s (right) remains were identified in 2023. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to her death

He tells DailyMail.com he has learned about an eyewitness account from the night she went missing.

A couple driving along Ocean Parkway around midnight had noticed a car – later identified as Jugo’s – parked up on the eastbound lane, which was closed for construction, he says.

‘Right next to her car, parked at an angle, is a hybrid SUV pickup truck,’ Zuppa says.

‘It’s a long stretch of roadway closed for construction. Why would a hybrid SUV pickup truck be right next to her car? There is so much highway to park on.’

Heuermann was linked to the murders following a tip about a pickup truck.

According to a witness, Costello had disappeared after going to see a client who drove a green Chevy Avalanche in September 2010.

Following the launch of a new taskforce, investigators learned that Heuermann drove that same type of vehicle at the time of the murders, prosecutors say.

He also matched the description of the client seen by the witness.

Police search a marsh in Oak Beach for the remains of Shannan Gilbert in December 2011

The search for Gilbert (pictured) after she made a terrifying 911 call led cops to the accused killer’s graveyard 

Following Heuermann’s arrest, the truck was located and seized from his brother’s home in South Carolina.

In another parallel, Zuppa points out that Costello also left her cell phone behind the day she disappeared – a move that limits the ability to track an individual’s movements.

‘What are the chances?’ Zuppa asks. ‘He had the SUV truck and her cell phone was left home. I spoke to Natasha’s friend who said that she wouldn’t leave her cell phones home.’

The length of time Jugo was missing before her body washed ashore also doesn’t seem to add up, he says.

‘The interactions between currents, waves, and the seabed creates a large amount of visible trauma to a human body when the body is on the seabed for a prolonged period. Decapitations and amputations are common,’ he wrote in the petition.

‘Furthermore, sea creatures such as fish and crabs feed on human bodies turning said bodies into bones. In addition, the reaction of a body to prolonged saltwater exposure is dramatic. It literally causes layers of skin to peel off rendering the body further unrecognizable.’

Yet, there were no obvious signs of trauma on her body and she was able to be quickly identified as the missing 31-year-old.

This, Zuppa says, means it’s unlikely her body was in the ocean for more than three months – and raises questions as to whether she was being held for some time.

Prosecutors allege Heuermann held his victims in the basement of his home, torturing and killing them while his family was out of town.

Massapequa Park local and Manhattan-based architect Rex Heuermann (center in court in February 2025) was arrested in the summer of 2023 and charged with multiple murder

A chilling ‘planning document’ found on a hard drive in his home allegedly detailed his ‘prep’ for preying on victims, including setting up an area to detain them.

Several of the victims were also found with bindings, belts or ligatures around their remains.

In Zuppa’s petition, he wrote that scene photos of Jugo’s body reveal a rope was tied around either her legs, waist, or neck.

‘There is no explanation. And I will not engage in sinister speculation,’ Zuppa wrote.

Yet there are several differences in the cases too. There has never been any suggestion that Jugo was engaged in sex work and there is no evidence she had any connection to or plans to meet Heuermann or anyone else that day.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Jugo’s family for comment.

Zuppa believes there are enough unanswered questions in the case that mean the Gilgo Beach task force needs to investigate her death.

Law enforcement search for Shannan Gilbert in the marshes of Oak Beach in December 2011

‘I’m trying to gather enough evidence together to have the task force actually look at her case,’ he tells DailyMail.com.

A spokesperson for DA Tierney’s Office tells DailyMail.com ‘we do not confirm or deny that we are launching investigations’ when asked if the task force is looking into Jugo’s case. 

So whether or not Jugo is another victim of the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer remains a mystery.

But, either way, Zuppa fears there’s no doubt that the accused serial killer has more victims out there.

‘The first murder [he is charged with] was in 1993. They don’t catch him until 2023,’ he says.

‘So God knows how many there are. God knows.’