Serial killer who murdered eight women in US imprisoned for life

Police arrested Heuermann, a married father of two living in the suburb of Massapequa Park, in 2023. The 62-year-old architect was taken into custody by Suffolk County police who swarmed his Midtown Manhattan office after tying him to the murders with DNA from a pizza box.

Heuermann was first charged in the murders of seven women, but in April, he pleaded guilty to an additional killing in 1996. Though many of his victims were missing for years, the case came to light in 2010 when investigators found four sets of remains within a quarter mile of each other on Gilgo Beach.

"Mr Heuermann, you have done horrendous things to Valerie's earthly body, but you have not touched the real Valerie," said Mack's father.

"I can only imagine when my day comes and I stand before Jesus, Valerie will be at his side."

Heuermann's victims are all believed to be sex workers at the time of their death, some of them contacted by him through their advertisements on Craigslist.

At the time, some of them had young children - now adults - who the court heard from during the hearing.

Nicolette Brainard-Barnes, daughter of Maureen, acknowledged that her mother was a sex worker, which she said led her name to be "slandered".

"Like every sex worker, my mother was an entire human being," she said.

She said she was only 7 when her mother disappeared. "I had to wonder where she was," she said. "I was a little girl and I needed my mom."

Her whole life has been shaped by her mother's absence, she said.

"She was young at heart, but she was also just young," she said. "Now I'm nearly two years older than she will never be."

Liliana Waterman, Megan's daughter, was 4 when her mother's body was found. She said she learned details of the crime on the internet when she was 9.

"I remember asking my grandparents what the words 'prostitute' and 'pimp' meant," she said.

She wondered if her mother was scared or if it was her fault, she said.

The sister of Maureen Brainard-Barnes broke down into sobs as she talked about how much she missed her.

"Nothing could have prepared me for the day Maureen didn't come home," she told the court Wednesday. "This was not only a destruction of life, this has become a lifelong devastation of a family."

Police investigated the deaths for over a decade, and had been sitting on a tip that - once acted upon - led to the killer within weeks.

The Suffolk County Police Department did not involve federal investigators in the probe at first, and leaders of the investigation faced separate obstruction scandals. In 2022, with new leadership, Suffolk County Police created a task force to investigate the murders - bringing together federal and local law enforcement - which led them to Heuermann in six weeks.

The police acted on a description given to police in 2010 by the roommate of Costello, after she had a run-in with a client. The roommate described a large man he described as looking like "an ogre" who drove a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, an unusual vehicle.

Family members of the victims have alleged police investigations were not aggressive enough because the victims were sex workers. Some Long Island residents agreed, saying they were horrified by how long it took to get justice.