Overview
- Rex Heuermann is expected to change his plea in a Riverhead court Wednesday at 11 a.m., with prosecutors also expecting him to admit to the 1996 killing of Karen Vergata, long known as “Fire Island Jane Doe,” and a 2 p.m. news conference is set to follow.
- Prosecutors built the case using mitochondrial DNA, cell‑site records, burner‑phone billing, and a DNA match to hair via a discarded pizza crust, along with digital files that investigators described as a planning blueprint.
- Heuermann, a 62‑year‑old architect from Massapequa Park, has been charged with killing seven women between 1993 and 2010, most of whom were sex workers, with remains recovered along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and at sites in Manorville, Fire Island, and North Sea.
- On Monday, Valerie Mack’s son, Benjamin Torres, filed a wrongful‑death suit naming Heuermann, his ex‑wife Asa Ellerup, and daughter Victoria; the family’s attorney said they had no knowledge of or role in the crimes and they have not been criminally charged.
- The judge must accept the plea and set sentencing, and while a September trial had been planned, a guilty plea would likely end the push for public testimony in criminal court even as civil claims continue.