What We Know About the Gilgo Beach Victims

The three women that Rex Heuermann is accused of killing — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello — were discovered wrapped in burlap near Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s South Shore in December 2010.

A fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, was found in the same spot, alongside the other victims, and Mr. Heuermann is also the prime suspect her death, according to the bail application from the Suffolk County District attorney’s office on Friday.

The investigation into her death “is continuing and is expected to be resolved soon,” the prosecutors wrote.

Mr. Heuermann, an architect who has lived most of his life in Nassau County and worked in Manhattan, on Friday pleaded not guilty to murder in the case of the first three victims and was ordered held without bail.

The four women were found when investigators began looking for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old from Jersey City, N.J., who worked as an escort and was reported missing on Long Island in May of 2010. She disappeared while visiting a client in Oak Beach, three miles from Gilgo Beach.

Ms. Barthelemy was the first one discovered on Dec. 11, 2010, when a police officer, John Malia, was conducting a training exercise with his K9 partner, Blue, according to prosecutors. Blue discovered human remains.

Two days later, the police returned to the stretch of beach where the remains were found and recovered three more bodies within a quarter-mile of where Ms. Barthelemy was discovered, prosecutors said.

The four women, all in their mid-20s, were later identified by DNA evidence in 2011. Here is what we know about the victims.

Melissa Barthelemy

Last seen alive: July 12, 2009

Date Found: Dec. 11, 2010

Location: Ocean Parkway

Melissa Barthelemy was 24 years old and lived in the Bronx when she went missing. Ms. Barthelemy worked as an escort and advertised on sites like Adult Friend Finder, the police said.

She was last seen at her home, in a basement apartment, on July 12, 2009. On the night she disappeared, Ms. Barthelemy told a friend that she was going to see a man and would return, according to the police. Her mother reported her missing on July 18, after not hearing from her.

After Ms. Barthelemy was reported missing, her younger sister, Amanda, began receiving calls, never lasting more than three minutes, from an unidentified male caller, the police said. The caller would repeatedly taunt her and in one call confessed to Ms. Barthelemy’s killing, according to reporting in The New York Times in 2011.

Ms. Barthelemy’s remains were discovered on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, on Dec. 11, 2010. Although the first of the four to be found, the police said she was likely the second of the women to be killed.

Amber Lynn Costello

Last seen alive: Sept. 2, 2010

Date Found: Dec. 13, 2010

Location Found: Ocean Parkway

Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old and lived in West Babylon, Long Island, when she went missing. She was last seen on Sept. 2, 2010. Ms. Costello and her roommates, a woman and two men, were addicted to heroin, according to the Suffolk County police. To support their addiction, Ms. Costello and her female roommate worked as an escort and advertised on Craigslist and Backpage, a classified advertising website that was taken down by federal authorities in 2018.

According to the police, Ms. Costello was last seen leaving her home on foot, without her cellphone, to meet a client. She was never reported missing. Her remains were found on Dec. 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, according to the police.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes

Last heard from: July 9, 2007

Date Found: Dec. 13, 2010

Location Found: Ocean Parkway

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old and lived in Norwich, Conn., when she disappeared. Ms. Brainard-Barnes was reported missing by a friend to the Norwich Police Department on July 14, 2007, about nine days after the police believe she took an Amtrak train to Manhattan.

Ms. Brainard-Barnes worked as an escort and advertised on Craigslist, Backpage and other advertising websites, according to the police, and had likely traveled to Manhattan for work. She was last heard from on July 9, 2007, when she told a friend that she was leaving her motel room to meet someone for an “out-call,” they said.

Ms. Brainard-Barnes was found on Dec. 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. She is believed to have been the first victim, according to the police.

Megan Waterman

Last seen alive: June 6, 2010

Date Found: Dec. 13, 2010

Location Found: Ocean Parkway

Megan Waterman was 22 years old and lived in Scarborough, Maine, when she went missing. Ms. Waterman worked as an escort and advertised on Craigslist and Backpage, according to the police. She was last seen on June 6, 2010, in Maine, the police said. Relatives saw her boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus.

Ms. Waterman was staying at a Holiday Inn Express in Long Island and left the location at 1:30 a.m. to meet a client, the police said. She was reported missing to the Scarborough Police Department two days later by family members who said it was “unlike her not to call them to check on her then-3-year-old daughter,” the police reported.

Ms. Waterman’s remains were found on Dec. 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.