December 17, 2024
JMP/Abaca; Sipa USA
Rex Heuermann, the New York architect accused of killing several women and disposing their bodies along Gilgo Beach on Long Island, has been charged with killing Valerie Mack, 24, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia when she disappeared in 2000.
New York prosecutors have charged Rex Heuermann — the suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings — with the murder of Valerie Mack, a Philadelphia woman who disappeared over 20 years ago. He will now stand trial for the murders of seven women.
Mack was working as an escort when her family lost touch with her in the area of Port Republic in the spring of 2000. Her last known address was in Philadelphia, where she sometimes used the name Melissa Taylor. Her dismembered torso was found months later in woods of Manorville, New York. Police discovered the rest of her remains in 2011 along Ocean Parkway, Long Island, where other victims in the Gilgo Beach killings were dumped.
Mack's case was not officially linked to those crimes, however, until 2020, when Suffolk County investigators identified pieces of her body with genetic genealogy testing. Now, prosecutors said, the team has uncovered DNA evidence implicating Heuermann in the 24-year-old's death.
"As I've previously stated, the work of the Gilgo task force is ongoing and continuing," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a Tuesday news conference. "... We are not limiting this investigation to Gilgo Beach. We've moved off the beach."
Tierney said the task force had analyzed the DNA from a hair on Mack's body and matched it to Heuermann's family members. Other evidence includes the location of her body, which the DA called a "dump site" for the perpetrator, and the defendant's demonstrable interest in the Gilgo Beach killings. Heurmann allegedly saved articles related to the crimes and conducted over 200 Google searches on the investigation.
Heuermann, a 60-year-old architect, was initially charged with three murders upon his arrest in 2023. His list of alleged victims has since grown to include Mack, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla.
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