40°
Here’s a closer look at the seven victims named in the indictment:
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
Described by family as a talented hair stylist from the Bronx, she dreamed of opening her own salon. She was last seen alive on July 10, 2009, in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue.
Barthelemy’s body was discovered near Gilgo Beach during a police training exercise in December 2010. Police said she was working as a sex worker at the time of her death.
Megan Waterman, 22
Mother to a young daughter, she was living in Scarborough, Maine, and working as an escort when she disappeared on June 6, 2010, after traveling to New York on a Concord Trailways bus.
Waterman’s remains were found in December 2010 along Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. In an interview with Portland Press Herald, her friend Lashonda Gregory remembered Waterman as having “the best heart of just about anybody I’ve ever met in my life.”
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
Costello, a West Babylon resident, was a sex worker struggling with heroin addiction, according to police. She supported herself and her roommates by advertising escort services on sites like Craigslist and Backpage.
Costello disappeared on Sept. 2, 2010 while planning to meet a client. Her body was discovered months later on December 13, 2010.
Costello’s sister, Kim Overstreet, told CNN in 2011 that she took out an ad hoping to catch the killer, and that finding out what happened to her sister “eats at me every day.”
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
A resident of Norwich, Connecticut, Brainard-Barnes had most recently worked as a dealer at Foxwood’s Resort & Casino, according to her obituary. She vanished after traveling by Amtrak to Manhattan on July 6, 2007. Her remains were found in December 2010.
Sandra Costilla, 28
Costilla, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, was working as an escort when she was murdered on Nov. 19 or 20, 1993. Her remains were discovered by hunters in a wooded area of North Sea days later. Costilla is the earliest known victim in the set of murder charges against Heuermann.
Jessica Taylor, 20
Taylor had been working as an escort in New York City before her partial remains were discovered in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Additional remains belonging to the young woman were later discovered along Ocean Parkway in March 2011.
Writing on Facebook, relatives remembered how Taylor “always loved to sing and dance.”
Valerie Mack, 24
Mack had most recently lived in Wildwood, New Jersey, but was known to spend time as an escort in Philadelphia and Atlantic City. She gave birth to a son at the age of 17 after spending a childhood being shuffled through the foster care system, People reports.
In November 2000, a group of hunters discovered her skeletal remains wrapped in a plastic bag in a wooded area of Manorville. She had been decapitated, and both of her hands and her right leg had been severed.
Eleven years would go by before Mack’s head, hands, and right foot were discovered near Gilgo Beach in April 2011.
In all, Heuermann is charged with seven counts of second-degree murder and three counts of first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and remains locked up at the Suffolk County jail without bail.
Earlier Coverage:
NY Serial Murders: Pizza Crust Helped Nab Suspect Who Allegedly Taunted Victim's Family
Heuermann Used 'Planning Doc' For Gilgo Beach Murders: DA
'The Hunted': New Documentary Follows Gilgo Beach Serial Murder Case
Click here to follow Daily Voice Norwich and receive free news updates.
