Rex Heuermann charged with killing Valerie Mack as family member’s hair & violent porn images ‘link him to 7th murder’
ACCUSED Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has emphatically proclaimed his innocence after being charged with the murder of a seventh victim.
Heuermann, 61, appeared in a Long Island courtroom on Tuesday after prosecutors filed a superseding indictment charging him with the 2000 killing of Valerie Mack.
The alleged serial killer, who is already facing six counts of murder, loudly pleaded not guilty after being indicted on second-degree murder in connection with Mack’s killing, which investigators believe occurred sometime between September 1 and November 19, 2000.
“Your honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges,” Heuermann, who was shackled with his hands behind his back, said in court.
Suffolk County prosecutors had previously linked Heuermann to Mack’s death but, up until now, had never formally charged him with her murder.
Hairs found on the dismembered remains of Mack, an escort who disappeared in 2000, matched that of Heuermann’s estranged wife and their daughter, according to an unsealed superseding indictment.
Mack, a sex worker from New Jersey who went by the alias “Melissa Taylor,” was last seen alive in the spring of 2000, but her family did not report her missing.
Hikers first discovered parts of Mack’s remains in a black plastic bag, wrapped in duct tape in November 2000 in the Long Island Pine Barren near Mill Road in Manorville.
Investigators said both of Mack’s hands had been severed from her body, above the wrists, and her right leg had also been cut off from her body at the mid-calf.
Mack’s torso, legs, and arms were also bound with rope. The rest of Mack’s remains were uncovered on April 4, 2011, near Gilgo Beach.
An indictment unsealed on Tuesday said hairs found near Mack’s wrist and inside garbage bags were linked to Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter, Victoria.
Prosecutors said the DNA found on Mack that linked to Victoria and Ellerup “exclude 99.65% of the North American population.”
Investigators noted that at the time of Mack’s disappearance and murder, Heuermann’s daughter would have been between 3 and 4 years old.
Pornographic images of sexual torture recovered from over 350 electronic devices at Heuermann’s home showed similar breast mutilation injuries and rope ligatures found on Mack’s remains.
“More specifically, during the month of September 2000, investigators observed a large uptick in downloads of pornographic images depicting Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, and Masochism (“BDSM”),” the indictment read.
“These pornographic downloads were discovered on a compact disc located in Heuermann’s home office.”
Between May and July 2020, Heuermann allegedly accessed Gilgonews.com, a website Suffolk County police previously used to share information regarding the Gilgo Beach murders investigation.
“Notably, on May 23, 2020, at approximately 11:30 p.m., at the time Rex Heuermann’s home IP address visited Gilgonews.com, the web page highlighted the upcoming identification of ‘Manorville
Jane Doe,’ who would, five days later, be identified as Valerie Mack,” read the indictment.
‘HK PLANNING DOCUMENT’
An extensive planning document created by Heuermann showed he referenced a dump site as Mill Road, the indictment read.
Investigators believe the Microsoft Word Document “HK2002-04” was utilized by Heuermann to “methodically blueprint and plan out his kills.”
The document, created in 2000 and modified between 2001 and 2002, contained four category sections, underlined with the headings “PROBLEMS,” “SUPPLIES,” “DS,” and “TFG.”
Prosecutors believe the “DS” heading was an acronym for “dump site.”
The section referenced two separate “dump sites” connected to Mack’s murder, one being Mill Road, which was listed as “DS-1, Mill Rd,” the indictment said.
“As detailed previously, ‘TRG’ appears to be a reference to target or victim,” the document read.
“It is important to note that, at the time of Ms. Mack’s disappearance and murder, she was approximately 5’0′ tall and weighed less than 110 pounds, fitting the ‘SMALL IS GOOD’ note in the HK Planning Document regarding the type of victims targeted by the Defendant.
“The ‘SUPPLIES’ section also includes notes to utilize ‘ROPE/CORD’ and
‘BAGS/TAPE,’ each of which were recovered with the remains of the victim.”
A separate file with a list of bullet points under the section “BODY PREP” included a note to “remove ID marks and tattoos.”
“Recently, the Gilgo Homicide Task Force interviewed several witnesses, who confirmed Valerie Mack had a tattoo on her foot/ankle, which depicted her son’s name,” the indictment said.
“The examination of the victim’s body in 2000 revealed no tattoos on the victim’s left foot/ankle.
“Accordingly, the Gilgo Homicide Task Force members believe Ms. Mack’s tattoo, of her son’s name, was on her right foot/ankle.”
‘REX’S SOUVENIRS’
In July 2023, investigators executed search warrants at Heuermann’s Massapequa home in Nassau County, and his office in Manhattan uncovered magazines and newspapers related to the Gilgo Beach murders case.
A People magazine from November 2016, titled Bodies on the Beach: Hunt for the Long Island Serial Killer, was recovered at Heuermann’s work desk, according to the indictment.
A New York magazine, which was issued in June 2011 with the cover story A Serial Killer on Long Island, was found at the former architect’s home.
During a second search of Heuermann’s home in May, officials found a New York Post newspaper from July 2003, which featured an article titled Serial Killer Eyed in L.I. Slay.
The article contained details about the disappearances and murders of Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor.
In that same search, a Newsday newspaper from November 1993 was recovered, which included an article titled Body Discovered in the Woods.
Investigators believe the homicide discussed in the article relates to Sandra Costilla’s murder.
MURDER CHARGES PILING UP
Heuermann was initially charged with the murder of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 – also known as The Gilgo Four.
In June, prosecutors indicted Heuermann on two additional counts of murder in connection with the killings of Jessica Taylor, 20, and Sandra Costilla, 28.
Costilla’s remains were uncovered in the woods in Southampton on November 20, 1993.
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, she was strangled to death and left partially clothed, investigators said.
Taylor, who authorities say was a sex worker who worked out of Midtown Manhattan, went missing on July 19, 2003, after she failed to attend her mother’s birthday in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Her severed torso was first uncovered on July 26, 2003, in Manorville.
Taylor’s skull, hands, and forearm were eventually found eight years later on Gilgo Beach on March 29, 2011, on the same road where the Gilgo Four’s remains were located months prior.
Investigators said Taylor’s tattoo had been “obliterated by a sharp object.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said prosecutors are still working on linking Heuermann to other murders.
“[There’s a] number of cases. Karen Vergata is one of those victims. We will continue to work those cases,” Tierney told reporters after Heuermann’s court hearing.
“They’re separate investigations, separate crime scenes until we can speak to an indictment otherwise.”
Who was Valerie Mack?
VALERIE Mack was a foster child, mother, and sex worker, who was allegedly murdered by the Long Island serial killer around 2000, cops said in a bombshell indictment.
On December 17, 2024, prosecutors officially linked her death to suspect Rex Heuermann.
Mack was working as a sex worker in Philadelphia when she disappeared in 2000. Her family last saw her in New Jersey that same year.
She was born in Atlantic City and was placed in foster care at an early age. She moved around from several families before she was adopted by the Mack family.
In 1994, when she was 17, she gave birth to a son and moved in with her baby’s father in Wildwood, New Jersey. Soon after, she started traveling frequently to Philadelphia.
Police believe that Mack was a sex worker in Philadelphia and Atlantic City between 1996 and 2000.
She had a few run-ins with the law for prostitution charges at that time and was last arrested around June 2000.
Mack went by the alias Melissa Taylor and advertised her escort services online. She also walked the streets to pick up work.
On November 19, 2000, Mack’s partial remains were discovered in Manorville, New York, on Long Island, by hunters. At that time, she was just known as Manorville Jane Doe.
Her remains were decapitated, and she was missing both of her hands and part of her right leg, prosecutors said in an indictment. Her torso, legs, and arms were all bound with rope.
On April 4, 2011, the rest of Mack’s body was uncovered near Gilgo Beach, where 11 people’s remains have been found since 1996.
In 2020, genetic testing revealed Mack’s identity.
In December 2024, Mack was named as the seventh alleged victim of Heuermann – a disgraced architect who was first hit with murder charges on July 13, 2023.