This idyllic US town was full of police families - and a serial killer in their midst

For years, rumours swirled about who could be behind the bodies that washed up on the shores of Gilgo Beach.

The Gilgo Beach killings investigation began in 2010 after a police search for missing woman Shannan Gilbert led to the discovery of multiple human remains near New York’s Gilgo Beach, triggering fears of a serial killer. Over the years, authorities identified multiple victims through DNA evidence—many of them sex workers—and linked several remains found in other parts of Long Island. The timeline spans decades, starting with a 1993 murder and includes various critical discoveries into the 2000s.

In a major development in the decades-long Gilgo Beach case, Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect from Long Island, pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women and admitted to killing an eighth. The Gilgo Beach killings, which began in 1993 and involved the remains of multiple sex workers found along New York’s South Shore starting in 2010, remained unsolved for over 30 years until Heuermann’s arrest in 2023.