Police in Las Vegas are testing Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann’s DNA to see whether there is a connection to the unsolved murder of a young mother — with one official pointing to “scary” similarities between the cases.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s lab is performing the “direct comparison” of Heuermann’s DNA and evidence linked to the 2003 slaying of 17-year-old Victoria Camara, according to News12.
The results are expected in six to eight weeks, the outlet added.
The LVMPD did not immediately respond to The Post’s request to confirm this report.
Camara’s remains were found in the early hours of Aug. 11, 2003, by a gravel truck driver in the desert just off a haul road in Boulder City, about 26 miles outside Las Vegas, per the LVMPD’s open cases page.
Her body was identified a few weeks later, and police determined that she was likely killed in Las Vegas proper.
Victoria Camara, 17, was found dead outside Las Vegas in August 2003.
“Somebody took my mom’s life without regard,” Camara’s daughter, Savanah, told News12 this week.
Savanah was barely a year old when her mother was killed, she said.
At the time of her death, Camara was doing sex work to provide for herself and her daughter.
Rex Heuermann was arrested outside his office last month. via REUTERS“I just hope it gets us the answers we’ve all been looking for. Honestly, it will definitely help a lot,” Savanah said of the potential link to Heuermann, who was arrested last month and charged with killing three young sex workers on Long Island.
In an interview last month, Camara’s cousin, Kaila Donaldson, told News12 that the family struggled to get attention for the 20-year-old case because of the stigma attached to sex work.
“It’s usually the same runaround of information as soon as you bring up ‘Yes, she’s doing sex work.’ It’s like ‘Well, let us put her to the bottom of the list,’ you know?” Donaldson said.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009. Heuermann was charged for Barthelemy’s murder in July 2023.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
- Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007. Her remains were found in December 2010. Heuermann was charged for Brainard-Barnes’ murder in January 2024.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found on December 13, 2010, after having been last seen leaving her home September 2, 2010. Heuermann was charged for Costello’s murder in July 2023.
Megan Waterman, 22
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. Heuermann was charged for Waterman’s murder in July 2023.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Valerie Mack, 24
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.” More bones were found on April 4, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
- An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”
Karen Vergata
- A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996; two months later, her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort. Two sets of Vergata’s remains were identified in August 2023.
Shannan Gilbert, 23
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Sandra Costilla
- Costilla was murdered in 1993 but had not been included among the so-called Gilgo Beach victims — until now. Investigators suspected convicted serial killer John Bittrolff in Costilla’s death, but he was never charged in her slaying — which remains one of several unsolved Long Island murders.
“She just was thrown like a piece of trash in the desert. It’s terrible. It’s kind of like when you first hear it, it’s unbelievable. It feels like a Lifetime movie.”
Camara, Donaldson added, often spent time at her cousin’s Bergen County home to avoid the chaos of her own, where her father was absent and her mother was gripped by drug addiction.
“She didn’t have any stable environment from day one. But outside of that, she was a super sensitive, humble, generous, just a very sweet soul,” the grieving relative recalled.
Victoria Camara’s duaghter, Savanah, was barely 1 year old when her mother was killed. Deborah McClain“She just did what she had to do to survive, and unfortunately that’s what she was doing,” she added of Camara’s decision to enter the sex work industry.
Shortly after Heuermann’s bombshell Manhattan arrest in July, Las Vegas authorities confirmed they were “aware” and possibly reviewing the architect’s link to similar slayings in Sin City.
Heuermann, 59, owned a timeshare in Las Vegas since around 2004, and traveled to the area semi-frequently, records indicated.
Rex Heuermann has been charged in three murders, and is the prime suspect in a fourth.
The father of two is suspected of murdering three young women and leaving their bodies in the marshes off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach between 2008 and 2010.
He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of a fourth victim.
“I do feel that there’s similarities, it’s very scary,” Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. told News12 this week of the parallels between the Gilgo killings and Camara’s case.
Victoria Camara (circled) is remembered by her New Jersey-based family.
“When you see the deaths, the type of women that were killed, the occupation that they were in … it all resonates to this one particular person.
