New charges for alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer cast scrutiny on another man’s murder conviction

NEW YORK — For years, prosecutors saw a connection between the murders of three young women who disappeared in the winter of 1993 and 1994. Their naked bodies were strangled, beaten and left in similar poses in the bushes of Long Island.

In new costs Unveiled Thursday, prosecutors said Rex Heuermann – the man already charged in a series of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings – was responsible for the death of one of the women, Sanda Costilla. The findings indicate that Heuermann began hunting victims more than a decade earlier than previously thought.

That in turn has raised questions about the conviction of another manJohn Bittrolff, who is incarcerated for the murders of the other two women — Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee — and who prosecutors once considered a suspect in Costilla’s death.

Bittrolff’s attorneys have long accused prosecutors of relying on dubious forensics in their conviction. They say the new charges against Heuermann cast further doubt on the case against their client, who has maintained his innocence since being sentenced to 50 years to life in 2017.

“There were three women murdered in the same time frame and in the same manner on display, and now it is alleged that one was murdered by Rex Heuermann,” said attorney Lisa Marcoccia of the Legal Aid Society, which is handling the appeal. “The evidence points to one murderer, and the new indictment supports John Bittrolff’s claim of innocence.”

The trio of murders occurred approximately sixteen years before the murder discovery of the remains of 10 people – mostly female sex workers – along a highway near Gilgo Beach on the south coast of Long Island. Heuermann, an architect, has pleaded not guilty to five of these murders and is considered a suspect in a sixth, in addition to Costilla’s death.

In the new indictment, prosecutors said forensic examination of the hairs on Costilla’s body showed they likely belonged to Heuermann. The killing occurred shortly after Heuermann’s mother and another person left his home, giving him “unlimited time to carry out his plans,” prosecutors said.

Like the Gilgo Beach murders, the murders of the early 1990s baffled investigators for years. Then, in 2014, authorities caught a break: A DNA sample taken from Bittrolff’s brother turned out to be a partial genetic match to semen found on the bodies of Tangredi and McNamee.

That led them to Bittrolff, a carpenter and father of two living in Manorville, Long Island. His DNA was a complete match.

Shortly after the arrest, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota spoke publicly speculated that Bittrolff may also have been responsible for the death of Costilla, who disappeared weeks after Tangredi and two months before McNamee.

Although Bittrolff’s DNA was not found on Costilla, all three victims were shown in the same sexual manner and missing a single shoe, prosecutors said, and wood shavings were found at all three scenes. Both Tangredi and McNamee were known to have engaged in sex work, while Costilla “lived a similar lifestyle,” Spota said.

During the 2017 trial, Bittrolff’s attorney admitted that his client had sex with the two women, but said that did not mean he killed them. Multiple semen samples were found from the two women.

Prosecutors relied on the testimony of Dr. Suffolk County Medical Examiner Michael Caplan said he analyzed sperm density to conclude Bittrolff had sex with them shortly before their deaths.

Defense lawyers have not called in an expert to refute that. But in an appeal motion, they cited DNA analyst and molecular biologist Dr. Karl Reich, who described sperm density analysis as “pure junk science.”

“Dr. Caplan’s testimony on a timeline since intercourse is not based on any scientific basis,” Reich wrote in an affidavit, adding that such methods “have no precedent in forensic DNA practice.”

Jurors deliberated for seven days and repeatedly told a judge they were deadlocked before ultimately convicting Bittrolff. Afterward, someone said Caplan’s testimony was key to swaying undecided jurors, according to trial attorney Jonathan Manley.

Spota credited the “miracle of DNA evidence” for capturing and convicting Bittrolff.

Less than six months after the conviction, Spota was arrested for obstructing an investigation into the Suffolk County police chief, who was accused of beating an inmate. Both men were ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison.

As with the Gilgo Beach Surveythe case against Bittrolff was dogged by allegations of errors and misconduct by police and prosecutors. During the trial, the Suffolk County Police Department admitted to accidentally destroying the wood chips found on one of the women’s bodies, and separately from the wood chips discovered in a car used by a police sergeant who was a potential suspect.

Police were also accused of prematurely destroying the sergeant’s investigative file. In their appeal, the lawyers said the prosecutors did not surrender another internal file with allegations from a separate officer’s wife that her husband murdered one of the women. Prosecutors claim they turned over that document; a judge has yet to rule.

John Ray, an attorney who has represented the families of some of the Gilgo Beach victims, said he had concerns about the case against Bittrolff from the start.

“There were major flaws in the presentation of the testimony, incompetent counsel and the handling of the evidence was disgraceful,” he said. “Given what is now known, prosecutors have an ethical obligation to revisit and investigate the Bittrolff case.”

Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta, a former FBI violent crimes task force investigator, agreed. “It’s worth another look,” he said. “Nothing would surprise me in this province.”

A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service did not respond to a request for comment. Outside court Thursday, a lawyer for Heuermann, Michael Brown, said his client was “clearly in a bad position regarding the new charges.”

Court records indicate that in the months before his arrest, Heuermann may have been interested in the man whose high-profile murder charge was his. Among the hundreds of online searches that prosecutors say found on his computer was one that read: “John Bitroff.”