Rex Heuermann Case Sparks Renewed Outrage Over Unsolved Gilgo Beach Victim Identities

The investigation that ultimately led authorities to identify Rex Heuermann as the suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings began with the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert.

Gilbert, a 23-year-old s*x worker, went missing in May 2010 after visiting a client in Oak Beach, a Long Island community near Gilgo Beach. At her mother’s urging, police launched a search that led to the discovery of the remains of nearly a dozen people, most of them young female s*x workers, scattered along Ocean Parkway.

Despite the case’s origins, Gilbert was not included among the victims prosecutors linked to Heuermann when he pleaded guilty earlier this month to killing eight women, according to CNN.

Her case is one of at least four deaths connected to remains found along the parkway that authorities have not linked to Heuermann. Detectives have tied a separate mother-daughter case to another suspect, while one victim, known as "Asian Doe," remains unidentified.

“Gilgo Beach can be described as a dumping ground,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said. “There are a number of bodies that are not connected to the Gilgo Beach killer. It’s a wasteland out there. It’s probably a good place to drop a body.”

Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole June 17. He admitted to killing eight women, including Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla and Karen Vergata.

Gilbert’s case remains unresolved. On May 1, 2010, she called 911 from a client’s home, saying, “There is somebody after me.” She fled, sought help from neighbors, and later disappeared into a nearby marsh. Her remains were found in December 2011. Officials ruled her cause of death “undetermined.”

An independent autopsy suggested possible strangulation, but Suffolk County police have maintained her death was likely accidental. “Based on the evidence, the facts, and the totality of circumstances, the prevailing opinion in Shannan’s death, while tragic, was not a murder, and was most likely non-criminal,” former commissioner Rodney Harrison said.

Meanwhile, another case involves a woman known as “Peaches” and her young daughter. First discovered in 1997, the remains were identified in 2025 through genetic genealogy as Tanya Jackson and her daughter, Tatiana Dykes. Authorities later arrested Andrew Dykes, the child’s father, in Florida.

“Tanya Jackson was not murdered by a serial killer, but allegedly by the man she loved, and the father of her child,” according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Dykes has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 25 years in prison. Authorities said there was not enough evidence to charge him in the child’s death.

In another case, the identity of “Asian Doe” remains unknown. The victim, believed to be a young Asian biological male who was wearing women’s clothing, was found in 2011. Investigators say the person may have identified as female and likely died from blunt force trauma years earlier.

“A huge step in moving that case forward would be to finally identify that individual,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

He further said, “It doesn’t matter what I believe, it matters what I can prove.”