Valerie Mack

Case background and investigation

Valerie Mack was 24 when she disappeared in 2000. According to Suffolk County police, she was living in Philadelphia, sometimes used the name Melissa Taylor, and was working as an escort. She was last seen in the spring or summer of that year in the area of Port Republic, New Jersey. She was the mother of a young son.

In November 2000, part of a woman's body was found in a wooded area off Halsey Manor Road in Manorville, in eastern Long Island. The remains could not be identified. More than ten years later, in April 2011, additional remains belonging to the same woman were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach during the search that uncovered a series of bodies there. She was catalogued for years as Jane Doe No. 6.

On May 28, 2020, Suffolk County police announced that the woman was Valerie Mack. ABC7 New York reported that the identification was made with the FBI's help using DNA techniques. Then Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said her family had spent two decades looking for answers.

Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect, was arrested in 2023 and initially charged in the deaths of other women whose remains were found at Gilgo Beach. On December 17, 2024, prosecutors added a charge for the murder of Valerie Mack, the seventh killing attributed to him. NBC News reported that court filings cited a hair recovered with her remains that was linked by DNA to a member of Heuermann's household, along with a document on his computer that discussed removing identifying marks such as tattoos. Mack had a tattoo of her son's name on her leg. Heuermann pleaded not guilty at that time.

In April 2026 Heuermann changed his plea and admitted to the murders of seven women: Mack, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. According to the Associated Press, he also admitted to killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, a death for which he was not charged.

He was sentenced on June 17, 2026, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Associated Press reported that Mack's mother, JoAnn Mack, addressed him in court and spoke of the future her daughter had been denied. With the plea and sentence, the criminal case concerning Valerie Mack's death is concluded, a little more than 25 years after her remains were first found.