Where Is Rex Heuermann Now? All About the Long Island Serial Killer Suspect's Life in Jail as He Awaits Trial for Accusations of Murdering 7 Women

Rex Heuermann went from a seemingly average Long Island resident to the subject of countless headlines after he was accused of murdering seven women.

The alleged murderer is at the center of Netflix’s true crime docuseries, Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer, premiering March 31, which delves into one of Long Island’s most infamous cases.

From 2010 to 2011, the remains of nearly a dozen women, most of whom were sex workers, were found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island, N.Y. Investigators suspected a serial killer, but for over 10 years, no arrests were made. Then, a major break in the case led authorities to Heuermann, a New York City architect and father of two.

Heuermann was ultimately arrested in July 2023 and eventually charged with the murders of seven women, including the Gilgo Beach Four, whose remains were found within the same half-mile stretch of beach in December 2010, and three additional victims linked to cold cases.

For decades, Heuermann allegedly lived a double life, presenting himself as a devoted family man and a successful architect. However, the families of the Long Island Serial Killer’s victims never stopped fighting for justice, and thanks to advancements in DNA technology, he was indicted for their murders.

So where is Rex Heuermann now? Here’s everything to know about what evidence led to him being accused of being the Long Island Serial Killer and what his life looks like today.

Who is Rex Heuermann?

Heuermann was born and raised on Long Island where he attended Berner High School in Massapequa Park. His former classmates described him as “everybody’s punching bag” and somebody who “got picked on a lot,” per The New York Times.

He went on to become an architect and founded the New York City firm RH Consultants and Associates in 1994. His clients included Target, American Airlines and Foot Locker.

Heuermann was 59 years old at the time of his arrest and was living in Massapequa Park, just 20 minutes from Gilgo Beach, with his wife, Asa Ellerup, and their two children.

Several of Heuermann’s neighbors spoke to CBS after his arrest, expressing their shock and disbelief over the news.

“We’ve been here for about 30 years, and the guy’s been quiet, never really bothers anybody,” next-door neighbor Etienne DeVilliers told the outlet. “This is a very, very quiet neighborhood. Everybody knows each other, all of our neighbors, we’re all friendly. It’s never been a problem at all.”

What has Rex Heuermann been charged with?

In July 2023, Heuermann was arrested and charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Six months later, in January 2024, he was also charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. The women, known as the Gilgo Beach Four, were all escorts in their early to mid-20s who went missing between 2007 and 2010.

Their bodies were found close to one another in December 2010, bound with belts or tape and wrapped in burlap. The discovery of the Gilgo Beach Four sparked a larger investigation, which unearthed six other sets of remains.

Nearly a year after his arrest, Heuermann was also charged with the murder of Sandra Costilla, a 28-year-old whose remains were found by hunters in North Sea, Long Island, in 1993, and the murder of Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old who vanished in 2003 while working as an escort in New York City. Some of Taylor’s remains were discovered in Manorville that year, while the rest were found at Gilgo Beach in 2011.

Then, in December 2024, Heuermann was charged with a seventh murder, that of Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old from New Jersey who had been working as an escort in the Philadelphia area at the time of her disappearance in 2000.

Several of the other bodies found in the same area are believed to be connected to the Long Island Serial Killer, but no charges have been filed in those cases.

Meanwhile, Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

How was Rex Heuermann caught?

For over a decade, the police had no leads or suspects in their search for the Long Island Serial Killer. Then, in January 2022, a new task force was formed to take a fresh look at the case.

Shortly after, Heuermann was identified as a prime suspect through cell phone records and a previous eyewitness account of a woman who claimed she saw a Chevy Avalanche registered to Heuermann driving away from where Costello was the day before she disappeared.

The major break in the case came a year later when DNA from a pizza box that Heuermann discarded matched a male hair found on Waterman’s body. Heuermann was then arrested and taken into custody on July 13, 2023.

“He was using these burner phones and fictitious accounts to contact sex workers,” District Attorney Tierney told PEOPLE following the arrest. “We knew we had to take him down, and we thought it would be safer to do it [away from] his home, since he has 92 gun permits. I’d say he was pretty surprised, so we did our job well.”

He continued, “I think he lived this double life, and he used the anonymity of phones and computers to shield himself from the rest of society. Unfortunately for him — and fortunately for the rest of us — he wasn’t successful.”

After his arrest, police recovered a written document that allegedly outlined Heuermann’s methods for “packaging” bodies for transport, steps to evade apprehension and tips for removing trace DNA evidence, according to a bail application released in June 2024. The document also included one section with four columns labeled as “Problems,” “Supplies,” “DS” and “TRG.”

While “problems” referred to issues he might encounter while allegedly trying to get away with the murder — including “hair & fiber,” “DNA” and “finger prints in gloves” — under “supplies,” he allegedly wrote “saw / cutting tools,” “lie / acid” and “burn can.”

When is Rex Heuermann’s trial?

Heuermann’s case is still in its preliminary stages, but a special hearing was scheduled for March 28 to determine whether DNA evidence would be admissible in court, according to CBS News.

His legal team had also requested that DNA evidence be excluded from the case and that Heuermann be tried separately for the murders.

At the hearing, a scientist testified that the technique used for the DNA evidence was generally accepted within the scientific community, per ABC7.

Where is Rex Heuermann now?

The former architect is currently being held at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County, N.Y., as he awaits trial. In an exclusive May 2024 interview with PEOPLE, Suffolk County Sheriff Dr. Errol D. Toulon Jr.  explained that Heuermann has “become more acclimated with jail life.”

“For the most part, it just seems like this is a new way of life for [Heuermann],” he said. “In the beginning he was a little bit more starry-eyed as to his surroundings. Life has transformed over the last several months. He receives visits, he makes phone calls and he doesn’t congregate with the rest of the population because of the crimes he’s accused of.”

The sheriff added that Heuermann spends his days reading books and articles on his discovery as well as watching TV. “He’s been very compliant. There haven’t been any issues,” he said.

A week after his arrest, Heuermann’s wife filed for divorce, which was finalized on March 28. However, she started to visit him weekly around four months into his incarceration, Toulon said.

Her attorney, Bob Macedonio, told PEOPLE that Ellerup was still having a “very difficult time” believing the extent of Heuermann’s alleged crimes.

“A lot of that I think is therapeutic for her and to get whatever kind of grasp on the situation she possibly can,” he said of her weekly visits.

Like their mom, Heuermann’s children are also struggling to reconcile their image of their father with his alleged crimes.

“They’re two young adults that are caught in the cross hairs of this deeply unfortunate case that they have nothing to do with other than they are related to Mr. Heuermann … Very, very dark time in their lives,” their attorney, Vess Mitev, told Newsweek in June 2024.