Gilgo Beach search for missing woman uncovers serial killer case

A frantic 911 call from Shannan Gilbert in 2010 set off a search that exposed far more than one missing person case. What began on Long Island as a hunt for a 23-year-old woman soon turned into one of the most consequential homicide investigations in the region, with bodies found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and across multiple locations on Long Island.

Gilbert disappeared on May 1, 2010, after calling police and saying people were trying to kill her. By December, officers searching near Gilgo Beach found human remains, and Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly warned on Dec. 14, 2010 that a serial killer might be responsible. The first victim identified in that area was Melissa Barthelemy, one of four women whose remains were found in close proximity and later became known as the Gilgo Four: Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello.

As the investigation widened, the timeline pushed back well beyond 2010. Public accounts tied remains to at least 1993, when Sandra Costilla was found in North Sea, New York, and investigators later linked additional victims through DNA and re-examination of evidence. The scope suggested a case that stretched over decades, not months, and reached from Fire Island to Riverhead and other parts of Long Island. For years, however, the inquiry moved slowly, with the pattern visible only in hindsight.

The case broke open in March 2022, when a Suffolk County Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force review identified Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann as a suspect. Investigators spent 16 months building the case before arresting him in July 2023 outside his Manhattan office. Prosecutors said surveillance officers recovered a pizza box Heuermann threw into a garbage can on Fifth Avenue, and DNA from a pizza crust helped connect him to the murders. A later cheek swab matched that evidence, prosecutors said, turning an old file into a modern forensic prosecution.

The case kept expanding after the arrest. Suffolk County prosecutors brought additional murder charges in January 2024 and again in June 2024. By June 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted in court that he killed an eighth. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 100 years without parole. Victims’ families filled the courtroom and delivered emotional statements, while Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said, “This is the opportunity for the victims to speak in court.”

Even with that sentence, the case has not fully closed. Some remains found on Long Island still have not been linked to Heuermann, a reminder that the search that began for one missing woman uncovered a much larger, still-unfinished record of violence.