Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann admitted to killing eight women on Wednesday, April 8
Credit: James Carbone/Newsday RM via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Rex Heuermann admitted to killing eight women on Wednesday, April 8
- Since July 2023, Heuermann has been housed at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead, N.Y.
- Heuermann is “expressionless, emotionless” behind bars, says Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr.
Since July 2023, Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has called the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead, N.Y., home.
Over nearly three years, Heuermann, who recently admitted to murdering eight women, has led a “totally compliant” life in his own six-by-nine foot cell, with a stainless steel toilet with no lid. He lives in a unit where there are just two or three other inmates, according to Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr.
The former architect is an avid reader — he's currently reading The Devil's Banker by Christopher Reich and the espionage thriller Westwind by Ian Rankin. He receives regular visits from Catholic clergy. Since his incarceration, he has had about 150 visits, mostly from family, friends and his attorney.
Because of his notoriety, when he is allowed time for recreation, all movement in the jail stops “to prevent any justice from being served in our jails, because we prefer it served in the courts,” says Toulon.
Credit: James Carbone/Newsday RM via Getty
Heuermann, Toulon tells PEOPLE, mostly keeps to himself and is polite with guards. Toulon describes the killer's demeanor as "expressionless, emotionless."
"He just took a plea of murdering eight women, and not a change in his facial expression, not a change in his gait when he walks, his demeanor, nothing. Nothing has changed with this guy.”
Toulon doesn't believe Heuermann has shown any remorse for his crimes.
“Some of these high-profile individuals, when I worked on Rikers Island, their heads were in their hands, or they're leaning up against the cell bars or leaning against the four walls in the cell,” Toulon says. “Every time I've walked by, [Heuermann is] either sitting on his bunk or lying down on his bunk. I've never seen any type of facial expressions that have changed. I think he's just a sociopath."
Toulon says Heuermann “looks down on people, and it's not because he's taller than most people,” he says. “It just seems the smirk on his face is almost like he can't believe he got caught. When he's moving throughout the jail, you can see by the way he's looking at other people. He does like the attention — which you can see — but it's just something about him that is extremely disturbing, how he feels, like grandiose, [compared] to everyone else.”
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On April 8, Rex Heuermann admitted to killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla and Karen Vergata.
Credit: findagrave.com; Barthelemy family; Suffolk County Police Department/Handout
Credit: Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office; Netflix; Suffolk County Police Department
The remains of the women were found between 1993 and 2011.
His murder spree went unsolved for more than a decade until he was arrested outside his Manhattan office in 2023.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17 and will then be sent to a state prison.
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