In one of the most disturbing revelations yet from the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, Rex Heuermann confessed to his ex-wife Asa Ellerup that he murdered eight women — and that seven of those killings occurred inside their seemingly ordinary family home in Massapequa Park, Long Island. The 62-year-old former architect made the admission in a private conversation captured in the final episode of the Peacock docuseries “The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,” titled “The Confession.”

According to Ellerup, she confronted Heuermann through her lawyer with a direct question: “So Mr. Heuermann, I understand that you are confessing to me on these murders — can you please tell me how many of these women did you kill?” Without hesitation, he replied, “Eight.” When she pressed further about the location, Heuermann confirmed that the victims were killed “in his room downstairs. All except one.”

Ellerup, who had already begun the process of divorcing him, reacted with stunned disbelief, repeating “Eight?” She noted that he was only charged with seven murders at the time and asked about the eighth victim. Heuermann reportedly responded, “I didn’t ask,” but made it clear that seven women met their end in the downstairs room of the home they shared for nearly three decades. He also assured her that she and their daughter were not home during any of the killings.

This confession adds a terrifying new dimension to a case that has haunted Long Island since the discovery of the “Gilgo Four” in 2010 and 2011. Heuermann had long proclaimed his innocence after his arrest in 2023, but on April 8, 2026, he stood in Suffolk County court and pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women. He additionally admitted to causing the death of an eighth victim, Karen Vergata (also referred to as Karen Vergeta), whose remains were found in separate locations years apart.

The eight victims Heuermann confessed to killing are:

Sandra Costilla, 28 (killed in 1993, strangled and dumped near Southampton)
Karen Vergata, 34 (killed in 1996, strangled and butchered)
Valerie Mack, 24 (vanished late 2000, dismembered and left in Manorville woods)
Jessica Taylor, 20 (killed July 2003, strangled and dismembered)
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
Megan Waterman, 22
Amber Lynn Costello, 27 (the “Gilgo Four,” whose bodies were found wrapped in burlap along Ocean Parkway)

Many of the women were sex workers lured through arranged meetings. Heuermann is believed to have strangled them, with some tied up and dismembered before their remains were discarded in remote areas. The fact that seven were allegedly killed in the basement room of a suburban home — a place where he lived as a devoted husband and father — has sent shockwaves through the community and across the country.

The docuseries explores how Ellerup and their adult daughter Victoria processed the horrifying admission in the days leading up to Heuermann’s guilty plea. In the teaser clip, Ellerup addresses him formally as “Mr. Heuermann,” refusing to use his first name, highlighting the emotional distance she created. The family home, complete with a secured downstairs room behind a metal door, has now become the focal point of public horror.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney described the double life Heuermann led: “This defendant walked among us playacting as a normal suburban dad when all along he was targeting these women for death. He thought that by killing them he could silence them forever and get away with murder. But he was wrong.”

Heuermann is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17, 2026. His guilty plea is expected to spare the victims’ families and his own relatives the trauma of a lengthy trial. Yet the confession raises haunting questions that may never be fully answered: How did these crimes go undetected for so long inside a family residence? Were there subtle signs that were missed by those closest to him? And what drove a man who appeared ordinary on the surface to commit such calculated atrocities over nearly two decades?

For the families of the victims, many of whom were vulnerable women whose disappearances were initially under-investigated, the plea brings a form of closure after years of pain. Their loved ones were not forgotten numbers — they were daughters, sisters, and friends whose lives were brutally cut short.

As the final episode of the docuseries airs, viewers are forced to confront an unsettling truth: monsters don’t always lurk in the shadows. Sometimes they live in the house next door, smiling at neighbors while hiding unimaginable evil behind closed doors. The quiet streets of Massapequa Park now carry a darker legacy — one where a suburban home became the site of multiple murders.

Heuermann’s calm, matter-of-fact confession to the woman who once shared his life stands as a chilling reminder of how deception can thrive in plain sight. Seven women took their last breaths in that downstairs room, their voices silenced forever. One victim was spared that particular fate, killed elsewhere, but the details of that exception remain part of the ongoing investigation.

In the end, the Gilgo Beach case closes with a guilty plea, but the revelations from Heuermann’s own mouth ensure the horror will linger. A man who posed as a loving father admitted to turning his family basement into a killing ground. Justice may be served on sentencing day, yet the echoes of those eight lost lives — and the betrayal felt by those who trusted him — will resonate far beyond the courtroom.