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RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Rex Heuermann , who will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to being the Gilgo Beach serial killer, had a "Dexter"-style kill room in his basement, according to the top prosecutor on the case.
"Very evocative of that, and I think when we realized what it was, you know, that was some of the comments that were made," said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who was personally part of the prosecution team that secured Heuermann's guilty plea. "We were actually able to recreate that, in the basement, in the exact location."
And that's the room where Heuermann's ex-wife now sleeps , according to a new docuseries, "The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets," where she said so herself.
Heuermann received the maximum possible sentence from Judge Timothy Mazzei Wednesday — three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, followed by four consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison.
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Gilgo serial killer Rex Heuermann appears inside a courtroom for sentencing at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on June 16, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday)
"You’re a disgusting and despicable small man, if you’re a man at all," Mazzei told the defendant. "And you’re a coward."
Moments later, he told the court officers to "get him out of here."
Heuermann is expected to be in state prison before the end of the week, Tierney said.
So he took that book, not to gain insight, but to become a better serial killer, specifically not to get caught.
In an interview with Fox News and Fox News Digital after the sentencing hearing , Tierney explained why investigators returned to Heuermann's basement long after they'd arrested him and spent days searching the house.
They recovered a deleted document that Heuermann labeled "HK," which Tierney said stood for "hunt-kill." Although Heuermann had made and deleted multiple versions of it over time, investigators could only recover one.
Prosecutors have described it as a planning document. He noted the locations of traffic cameras to and from the places he dumped victims' bodies. He wrote down supplies he'd need for the murders and reminded himself to be well rested and mindful of screams.
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Gilgo serial killer Rex Heuermann enters a courtroom for sentencing at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on June 16, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday)
He also discussed the merits of using tape vs. pins to hang drop cloths in the basement where he is believed to have killed seven of the eight victims.
"He was hanging plastic sheets from the ceiling and on the walls," the district attorney said. "That's what the document talks about, and then what he says is don't use push pins, because it ruins the ceiling. Use tape."
When detectives returned to the home with infrared and ultraviolet lights, they found more evidence.
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"We could see the adhesive stains on the wall," Tierney said. "And then what we are able to do is we were able to see that they made a perfect square — and that's where, we believe, the crimes occurred."
Heuermann, described as an "ogre" by the only eyewitness in the case, stands at about 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs close to 300 pounds. The victims were all around 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, and in the "HK" document, he noted that "small is good."
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The victims were Sandra Costilla, 28, found in North Sea; Karen Vergata, 34, found on Fire Island and near Tobay Beach; Valerie Mack, 24, found in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach; Jessica Taylor, 20, found in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway — and the so-called Gilgo Four, who were all found just east of Gilgo Beach in the brush north of Ocean Parkway. They were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
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Rex Heuermann appears in a booking photo released by authorities. The convicted Gilgo Beach serial killer was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to seven murders and confessing to an eighth killing. (Suffolk County District Attorney's Office)
Investigators believe Heuermann's known killings spanned from Costilla's 1993 murder through the 2010 disappearance of Costello.
Before Heuermann was sentenced, relatives of his victims delivered emotional statements about the decades of pain and loss left behind by the killings.
Mack's adoptive parents were among the first to address the court. Her father told Heuermann that despite the brutality of his crimes, "you ne…
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