Rex Heuermann Misses Court as DNA Ruling Date Set

Rex Heuermann skipped his Tuesday morning court appearance in Riverhead, with his defense attorney citing health issues that have left the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer on crutches for roughly a month.

The hearing lasted under two minutes. Judge Timothy Mazzei and Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney accepted the absence without objection and set April 8 as the next pre-trial conference date. That April hearing will carry significant weight: Mazzei is expected to rule on defense motions seeking to exclude DNA evidence at the center of the prosecution’s case.

The DNA question cuts to the core of how investigators built their case against Heuermann. Prosecutors say saliva recovered from a discarded pizza crust linked Heuermann to the murders of multiple women whose remains were found along Gilgo Beach and in Manorville. Defense attorney Michael Brown argues that testing that discarded DNA without a warrant violated Heuermann’s privacy rights.

“None of us would ever expect that when we throw something away, we discard an object, that we’re then giving our whole genetic makeup,” Brown said Tuesday. “It’s just not feasible.”

Tierney pushed back on that framing. The prosecution filed a memo opposing the defense’s exclusion motions, arguing that New York State law on so-called abandonment samples puts investigators on solid legal footing.

“There were a lot of motions,” Tierney said. “I think New York State law is such with regard to DNA and the abandonment sample that we are in good standing with regard to the manner in which we retained all our evidence.”

As for Heuermann’s physical condition, Brown offered few details.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss [why],” Brown said. “He has some health issues, so that’s what we’re dealing with. So, at this point in time, I thought it was probably better for him to just stay at the jail.”

Heuermann has been held without bail since his arrest in July 2023. He pleaded not guilty to seven counts of murder. The victims in his case include Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, and Megan Waterman, all found on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He also faces charges in the deaths of Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor, whose remains were partially found in Manorville in 2000 and 2003, with additional remains discovered on Gilgo Beach in 2011. The seventh charge involves Sandra Costilla, found in North Sea in 1993. Costilla was long believed to be a victim of convicted double murderer John Bittrolff until investigators linked her case to Heuermann in 2024.

The case has grown broader over time. A second arrest connected to the Gilgo Beach investigation came in December, when Andrew Dykes was charged in Nassau County with the murder of Tanya Denise Jackson, formerly known as “Peaches.” Jackson’s remains were found at Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997 and along Ocean Parkway in 2011. Dykes is the father of Jackson’s daughter.

The April 8 ruling on DNA admissibility will be one of the most consequential pre-trial decisions in either case. If Mazzei sides with the defense and excludes the pizza crust evidence, prosecutors would face a significantly harder path to conviction. If the evidence stands, the case against Heuermann moves forward with what investigators have described as a direct biological link to multiple crime scenes.

Taxpayers across Suffolk County have watched this investigation consume years of law enforcement resources. The Gilgo Beach Task Force, reconstituted and expanded under Tierney’s office, has operated continuously since Heuermann’s arrest and generated hundreds of investigative leads. The full budget allocated to that task force has not been publicly itemized. Suffolk County residents deserve a clear accounting of those costs as the case moves toward trial.

For now, both sides wait for April 8 and a ruling that could reshape the entire prosecution.