Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann cruelly taunted victim’s sister with sick phone calls mocking her murder: Live updates

Melissa Barthelemy’s sister, Amanda Fundenburg, was just 15 years old when Rex Heuermann murdered her.

When she went missing, Heuermann called the teen from her sister’s cell phone, taunting her that he had murdered his sister.

At his sentencing, Fundenburg paused for a moment and said to Heuermann directly: ‘Look at me when I’m talking. I waited 17 years.’

Heuermann did not appear to do as she asked. He has continued to stare ahead throughout the statements, not looking at the victims’ families.

Fundenburg mentioned those calls and how he told her: ‘You said you raped her in the a** and that i should have seen the look on her face when you raped her in the a**. And that you let her body rot.’

Every time she got a phone call, she would fear it was him again.

‘You don’t care,’ she said to Heuermann. ‘I was just 15.’

Fundenburg said that she went missing one week before she was going to visit her in New York.

Pictured: Melissa Barthelemy

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, 62, stared blankly in a new mugshot released ahead of his sentencing.

He has been housed in the Suffolk County Jail since his arrest in July 2023, but will serve out his term in a state prison to be determined later.

Heuerman faces life in prison after he confessed to the murders of eight women in April.

Many of his victims’ family members will address the packed courtroom before a judge hands down his sentence.

Megan Waterman’s aunt Elizabeth Meserve addressed the court next.

She explained that her niece was working for a pimp at the time of her death and was a ‘young woman who had planned to build a life for her daughter.’

Waterman only referred to Heuermann as ‘the prisoner’ rather than naming him in her statement.

Reflecting on the long search for answers, she note that Megan’s remains were not found for seven months and ‘agonized’ over ‘when she would come back to us.

She described Heuermann as a ‘sick individual’ who simply wanted to torture and kill.

Looking toward the defendant, she contrasted his imposing size with what she viewed as his true character.

‘Some considered him an ogre when you look at him,’ she said. ‘But he is a cowardly opportunist.’

She heavily criticized former Suffolk County officials in her statement, arguing that corruption delayed justice in the case.

She also condemned 50 Cent’s production company working alongside Peacock to produce a docuseries on Heurmann’s ex-wife and daughter, claiming: ‘This is the kind of world we live in – a demon tortured our loved ones and his families get filthy rich from his crimes.’

Swager, who was soft-spoken and wore her long dark hair clipped back, touched on the detailed document that investigator’s found at Heuermann’s home, including a chilling blueprint for murder that included sections on preparation, supplies, DNA, and body disposal.

Violet mocked the meticulous planning that Heuermann appeared to pride himself on, arguing that despite all his preparations, he ultimately failed.

‘”Supplies, hair net” — well, so much for that,’ she said, referring to the killer’s hairs that investigators found on multiple victims.

‘”DNA” — you wrote it down twice and still didn’t get it. “Remove identifying marks” — well, we know you didn’t do that because she was identified by the tattoo you couldn’t remove,’ she said.

‘You were certainly sloppy. You made a whole planning document to kill my cousin, and you didn’t even do that right,’ she continued, questioning why anyone would find him fascinating.

‘You’re boring. You’re not prolific. You’re nobody. You chose small women because you are a weak, disgusting coward. She saw you as the huge freak that you are.’

Swager noted that June 17 would have been Jessica’s 43rd birthday, and expressed gratitude that justice had finally arrived, concluding her emotional statement with: ‘Happy Birthday, Jess.’

Melissa Cann, the sister of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, sobbed as she told the court about her feelings of survivor’s guilt.

‘The guilt is not mine to carry and never was,’ Cann said. ‘This burden belongs to Rex.’

‘When he took her life, he destroyed mine as I knew it. You are a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women.’

She added, ‘You are no longer the one in control of this story. While you tried to silence [Brainard-Barnes] you failed.’

Pictured: Maureen Brainard-Barnes

Jessica Taylor’s cousin Violet Swager raised her voice and looked directly at her cousin’s killer as she delivered an emotional victim impact statement to the courtroom.

She said she will never forget how she felt when she received the call that her cousin had been murdered.

‘I could never wrap my head around the word ‘torso,’ she said, as she explained the term meant her cousin had been found headless and handless. ‘Those words haunt me.’

She struggled to comprehend the extent of the mutilation, wondering what parts of her cousin were missing.

‘All of her,’ she said emphatically. ‘I just don’t understand.’

Valerie Mack’s adoptive sister, Danielle Mack, told Heuermann that he does not ‘have the humanity to feel remorse.’

‘He is a selfish, entitled man who felt like my sister and the others were his to destroy, she said.

‘Despite her struggles, Valerie Mack had a fire inside of her that lit up the world around her. The fires they lit roar inside each and every one of us.’

Jessica Taylor’s cousin Jasmine Robinson addressed Rex Heuermann directly on Tuesday as she began her victim impact statement.

Her voice was strong as she she spoke from the heart on behalf of her sister and the other victims.

‘A million years would not be enough, because you will never suffer for as long as the pain you’ve caused,’ she began. ‘Nothing will ever make this right.’

Taylor turned her body when speaking to Heuermann, but he looked straight ahead in a dead stare.

‘My heart broke even more when I learned there were additional victims. There are not enough words to express my sorrow for all of them. My heart also goes out to the victims who have not even been found yet.’

Pictured: Jessica Taylor

A statement was read on behalf of Valerie Mack’s son Benjamin Torres in court.

The impactful statement simply read: ‘You will reap what you have sewn and no one is exempt from that eternal truth.’

Joann Mack, Valerie Mack’s adoptive mother, was choked up with emotion as she confronted her daughter’s killer in court on Tuesday.

‘What you have done to our family is beyond what words can express,’ she said.

‘Even though justice has been served, it cannot replace what you have taken from us, nor can it give us back our beloved Valerie and the life she should have had.

‘While you were able to commit these horrific atrocities, and no matter what sense of power or control you believed you had over Valerie’s body, you were never able to touch her soul.

‘Unless you make yourself right before God, Valerie is the one who is truly free today,’ she continued.

Mack began to weep as she firmly told Heuermann: ‘You took away every chance she had over the past 26 years to achieve the goals she had set for herself. She had hopes, and she had dreams, and you took all of that from her.’

‘And you can never give it back, no matter how much remorse or regret you may feel.’

Pictured: Valerie Mack

Heuermann was led into court on Tuesday morning looking expressionless as he avoided making eye contact with the public gallery.

The six foot four architect was dressed in a yellow tie, pale blue shirt and dark suit after the judge permitted the killer to wear plain clothes to the sentencing hearing.

Heuermann’s attorney quietly noted something to him, to which he nodded before victim statements began.

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann struck up a brief correspondence with Keith Hunter Jesperson, the infamous Happy Face Killer who confessed to killing eight women across the country in the 1990s, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told the Associated Press.

The sheriff said it was Jesperson, who is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole in Oregon, who wrote first to Heuermann at the jail in Riverhead, New York, where he’s been held since his arrest in July 2023.

Heuermann wrote back, but hasn’t responded to several follow-up missives from Jesperson, according to Toulon.

Toulon said ‘other fanatics’ have also tried to reach out, but Heuermann has denied ‘all visits or any communication,’ including from news outlets seeking interviews.