Architect's Decade-Long Killing Spree Unraveled

0:00It's April 8th. I'm Corey with The Story. This is Tampa Bay News today, driven by AI. A 62-year-old Long Island architect named Rex Hewerman just pleaded guilty to first degree murder in 7 Gilgo Beach Killings, and he, admitted off the record to offering an 8th woman. These crimes stretched over 17 years, targeting women mostly working in sex work. He's facing life in prison with no parole when sentenced in June. After grilling from the Suffolk County D.A., Hewerman confessed to strangling all 8 victims using burner phones to lure them, dismembering some, and wrapping bodies in burlap before dumping them near beaches and remote spots. The case kicked off in 2010, when remains turned up a long ocean parkway, sprocketing a massive hunt. Families wept in court, while the D.A. blasted hiremen as a fake suburban dad who hunted innocent women. He thanked victims' relatives, and the task force for cracking in, calling the killer a soulless monster. Even Hewerman's ex-wife spoke out, sending prayers to the families and begging privacy

1:01for her own as they deal with the shock, she and their daughter. Had zero clue. Here's how they got him. A fresh task force in 2022 linked his truck to a witness from a victim disappearance. They tracked burner phone bills, his creepy web searches on torture porn, and the case itself, plus cell data placing him near victims. Topps tailed him in Manhattan, snagged DNA from his tossed pizza crust that mashed a hair on one body, leading to his arrest last July. With searches turning up weapons and killed checklists in his home, this plea finally shuts the door on a nightmare that gripped the nation for over a decade. Heirman's now cooperating with the FBI's profilers, giving some peace to those left behind.