The man accused of being the Gilgo Beach killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the murders of several women.

Rex Heuermann was accused of killing the women, most of whom were sex workers, over 17 years, The Associated Press reported.

He initially pleaded not guilty and a trial had been scheduled for September, CNN reported.

The investigation into the murders started in 2010 after police found human remains scattered on a Long Island South Shore beach highway.

DNA and other evidence were used to identify the victims: Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Megan Waterman, who were found along Ocean Parkway. The seventh woman, Sandra Costilla, was found in the Hamptons, about 60 miles away, the AP reported.

An eighth woman, Karen Vergata, was also identified, but Heuermann was not initially charged in her case. Vergata’s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island and in 2011 near Gilgo Beach, according to the AP.

He admitted to killing her in court on Wednesday during his guilty plea hearing, CBS News reported.

Heuermann described how he killed the woman, some of whom he said he dismembered, and others he bound by their heads and legs, CNN reported.

A new police commissioner created the Gilgo Beach task force in 2022 and, within six weeks, named Heuermann a suspect in the women’s deaths. Police used a vehicle registration database connecting Heuermann to a pickup truck that a witness saw when one of the women disappeared in 2010.

A grand jury authorized more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants against Heuermann, who lived in Massapequa Park, 25 minutes away from where the women’s bodies were dumped.

The investigation determined that Heuermann had contacted some of the women before their disappearances. Police also got his DNA from discarded pizza crusts, matching the DNA to a man’s hair found on burlap used to restrain one of the women.

He was arrested in July 2023.

After the arrest, detectives searched his property for 12 days and found a vault in his basement that held 279 weapons and a “blueprint” for killings on his computer, the AP reported. determined that Heuermann had contacted some of the women before their disappearances.

Heuermann will be sentenced in June, CNN reported. The 62-year-old architect is expected to be behind bars for the rest of his life.

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