Why some victims of the Long Island serial killer may never receive justice

Vox

09-04-2025

writes about pop culture, media, and ethics. Before joining Vox in 2016, they were a staff reporter at the Daily Dot. A 2019 fellow of the National Critics Institute, they're considered an authority on fandom, the internet, and the culture wars.
The arrest of Rex Heuermann, allegedly the infamous Long Island serial killer, makes for riveting drama in Netflix's latest true crime docuseries Gone Girls — but while the series focuses on the victims and sheds light on Heuermann himself, viewers may find themselves more fascinated by another important facet of the investigation: just how close the case came to never being solved at all.
The new series from Liz Garbus spends time on LISK's first four located victims and the long search for justice their families undertook. These women — Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Megan Waterman — were originally known as the 'Gilgo Four' because they were all found along the same stretch of Long Island's Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2010 and 2011 during a search for another missing woman, Shannan Gilbert.
In 2023, Heuermann was arrested for the murders of the Gilgo Four. Since Gone Girls wrapped, he's been charged with three additional murders — those of Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and one woman, Sandra Costilla, who'd long been thought to be the victim of an entirely different serial killer. Because these arrests happened after or near the end of Gone Girls filming, the documentary doesn't spend much time at all on these three women. It spends even less time on LISK's four other probable victims, three of whom are currently still unidentified. With the investigations into the first seven murders wrapping up, it's uncertain what will happen to these final four cases.
Here's a look at the main new details we learned from the docuseries and more about what we didn't.
Local authorities could have solved the murders much, much earlier than they did
For years, the Suffolk County Police, under the leadership of longtime Chief James Burke, fielded criticism for botching the LISK case, even as the case became national news, an infamous true crime mystery, and a frequent topic of true crime docuseries— even a previous Netflix docudrama. But just how badly they botched it didn't become clear until the investigation was in new hands.
Once the old guard was no longer in the picture, the new investigation ramped up with remarkable speed. In 2018, a new police chief took over and promptly restarted the investigation. In 2020, authorities released the most famous piece of evidence in the case — the belt buckle found at the Brainard-Barnes crime scene. Then, in 2021, came yet another new police chief, Rodney Harrison. Shortly after assuming office, he announced a new task force dedicated to solving the crime.
Harrison's task force, working from an abundance of phone records tied to the suspect's trove of burner phones, identified Heuermann within just six weeks of starting to look for him.
Why, under Burke's tenure, in one of the highest-profile serial killer cases in American history, wouldn't police have done the bare minimum and traced the phone records of a suspect?
Gone Girls makes clear that the answer boils down to hubris and corruption. Between May 2010 and December 2011, the time between when Shannan Gilbert went missing and was ultimately found, authorities had actively investigated the case, repeatedly searching the marshlands along the shore and eventually locating the remains of 11 victims, including Gilbert. Yet progress stalled when Burke, a longtime protégé of the county prosecutor Thomas Spota, took office in 2012. Burke spent years refusing to work with the FBI, which, according to the documentary, had initially taken the lead on investigating the phone records. When communication between the feds and the cops broke down, so, too, it seemed, did the investigation itself.
But Burke had bigger problems. He spent most of his tenure as police chief attempting to cover up the brutal beating of a suspect after a bizarre 2012 incident. The suspect, Christopher Loeb, allegedly stole a gym bag full of sex toys and porn from Burke's SUV, not realizing it belonged to the police chief.
Burke reacted by sending a horde of officers to Loeb's residence to arrest him and locking him up for the next 48 hours. Burke visited Loeb's house himself and removed a litany of items, including sex toys. He and other officers physically assaulted Loeb repeatedly, denied him access to his attorney, threatened to arrest and sexually assault Loeb's mother, and choked him to unconsciousness, all while falsifying police reports about the arrest, according to court records.
Burke's efforts to obstruct the FBI's investigation into the beating ultimately led to criminal convictions for himself, longtime county prosecutor Thomas Spota, and the former anti-corruption bureau chief. Multiple members of the Suffolk police force were forced to resign and faced charges over the scandal.
The LISK investigation was clearly a casualty of Burke's corruption and the war between the police and FBI. After the investigation finally re-righted itself, however, results came fairly swiftly. Prosecutors are moving forward with the charges concerning the murders of seven of Heuermann's alleged victims, and the triumphant task force has recently expanded to tackle other unsolved cases.
Who were the LISK victims not examined closely in Gone Girls?
Gone Girls conducts interviews with the families and friends of many of LISK's known victims, but it mainly focuses on those of the Gilgo Four. Three additional women have been formally tied to Rex Heuermann: Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and Sandra Costilla, although currently no court date has been set. Also found in the Long Island marshes that Heuermann used as a dumping ground were four more people — all of whom haven't, as of yet, been served a chance for justice: 'Peaches' Doe and her daughter, 'Ocean Parkway Doe' (sometimes called 'Asian Doe'), and Karen Vergata. Here's what's known about these victims.
Jessica Taylor:
Jessica Taylor Remembering Jessica Taylor Facebook page
A vibrant 20-year-old who loved singing, bike-riding, and working with inner-city children, Jessica Taylor went missing while working near Port Authority in Manhattan in July 2003. Because her partial remains were found in Manorville, Long Island, later that same month, she was long thought to be a possible victim of another area serial killer, John Bittrolff. It wasn't until 2011, when more of her remains were found near other LISK victims along Ocean Parkway, that police tied her to LISK.
Valerie Mack:
Valerie Mack Find a Grave page for Valerie Mack
24-year-old Valerie Mack lived and worked in Philadelphia before she went missing in October 2000, only for her remains to be found in Manorville a month later. Known for years as 'Jane Doe No. 6,' Mack, who also went by Melissa Taylor, spent time in the foster care system and bounced around homes in her teens. She eventually received her identification in 2020 via forensic genealogy. She had never been reported missing.
It's unclear where Mack was when she encountered LISK; at the least, her connection to Philadelphia suggests the possibility that he may have sought victims over a much wider geographic region than previously understood.
Sandra Costilla:
Sandra Costilla Remembering Sandra Costilla Facebook page
Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Costilla was 28 and living in New York City at the time of her murder in 1993. Her remains were discovered in Southampton that same year. In a reflection of an era when marginalized victims were treated with much less sensitivity than they are now, authorities described her as a 'drifter.' Costilla was thought to be one of Bittrolff's victims, so much so that in 2014, after his arrest, press reported him as a suspect in her case — but DNA and trace evidence eventually matched her to Heuermann.
Prior to Costilla being tied to LISK, the earliest known LISK murder was in 1996. Costilla's murder raises the possibility of more victims over a longer period.
'Peaches' and 'Baby Doe':
A tattoo of a bitten peach, from an unidentified woman Peaches Doe and Baby Doe Facebook page
It's not known when 'Peaches,' named for the tattoo she sported, went missing. Her remains were initially located in Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997. During the search for more LISK victims along Ocean Parkway in April 2011, more of her remains were found, along with those of her daughter, an unidentified toddler known as 'Baby Doe.' The relatives were matched through DNA evidence, and both mother and daughter are believed to be LISK victims.
Authorities have recently traced Peaches' possible roots to Alabama; she also may have ties to Forestville, Connecticut, via her tattoo.
Ocean Parkway Doe:
Facial reconstruction of 'Ocean Parkway Doe' as they might have looked at the time of their disappearance. Courtesy Gilgo Homicide Task Force
The fifth victim to be discovered, in April 2011, is an Asian person in their late teens or early 20s who was found wearing women's clothes and is believed by many people to have been trans. (Heuermann's internet searches revealed an interest in men as well as women, and in 'Asian twinks.') They're frequently referred to in information about the case as an Asian male, though more recently they've been referred to as 'Gilgo Beach Doe' or 'Ocean Parkway Doe.'
Authorities believe this victim is likely from Southern China, of Han descent, had a height of between 5'3 to 5'9, and was between 17 and 23 years old. They are believed to have been killed around 2006 or later by a blow to the head. Like most of the other LISK victims, they are believed to have been a sex worker. In 2024, authorities finally produced an updated reconstruction of this victim that represented her as she seemed to be presenting herself when she went missing: as a woman.
Karen Vergata:
Karen Vergata Remembering Karen Vergata FB page
Thirty-four-year-old Karen Vergata last spoke to her family on Valentine's Day 1996. Though her partial remains were discovered later that year on Fire Island, her family ran into repeated roadblocks in their quest to find her, even as 'Fire Island Jane Doe' remained unidentified. Like several of the other victims, it wasn't until more of her remains were discovered in April 2011 as part of the Gilgo Beach investigation that she was tied to LISK. She was eventually correctly identified. Authorities announced her identification in 2023, after using new DNA sampling.
Until Costilla was tied to LISK, Vergata was considered to be LISK's earliest known victim. Now, with more potential victims still to be identified as belonging to LISK or another killer, the possibility of these murders going unsolved seems to have increased. We don't know whether enough evidence will be found to tie Vergata to Heuermann or perhaps to another killer altogether.
The current phase of the LISK investigation has closed. From here, it may get harder.
At a March 12 press conference, Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney stated that the current phase of the LISK investigation, involving the first seven LISK victims, has closed. What happens to the remaining four associated victims now becomes uncertain.
'We'll continue to look at those other murders, but we're not going to ascribe them to one person or the other until we can prove it, and we're not at the point of charging anyone yet,' Tierney said. He also declined to say whether investigators had identified the other 'Doe' victims.
A spokesperson for the Suffolk County prosecutor's office clarified to Vox that even if a victim has been identified, prosecutors typically will not make an identification public before officials have notified family members. Timing is also a consideration; officials held off on announcing the identification of one LISK victim, Karen Vergata, previously known as 'Fire Island Jane Doe,' until after Heuermann's arrest because they didn't want to alert him to their activity in the case.
The task force responsible for identifying Heuermann has recently expanded to tackle other unsolved cases, including the remaining cases connected to LISK. However, as the spokesperson noted, older cases often have less evidence. Investigation is harder, too, when the victims are transient and/or vulnerable, as many of LISK's victims were.
A spokesperson for the Suffolk County prosecutor reiterated to Vox that they don't identify anyone as a possible perpetrator until they're ready to charge them. When, or if, prosecutors will ever be ready to charge Heuermann in these other murders remains unclear.