How a renowned expert in human remains joined the Long Island serial killer case

Bradley Adams was the top forensic anthropologist for the New York City Chief Medical Examiner's Office when he got what he thought was a routine call in early December 2010 from his colleagues in Suffolk County. It was about the body of woman discovered in the brush along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

Police in Suffolk believed the remains might be those of Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker who went missing in the area in May after meeting with a client in the nearby private gated community of Oak Beach.

Adams, 58, a native of Kansas, had carved out a renowned career in forensic anthropology with an expertise on in human remains, and his services were in wide demand from New York City and other metropolitan area police. He played a major role in identifying Sept. 11 victims in the years following the 2001 terror attacks. He would do the same in Suffolk as investigators hunted for years for the Gilgo Beach serial killer.

Adams' work was highlighted recently when Rex A. Heuermann, a 62-year-old Manhattan architect from Massapequa Park, pleaded guilty in April to murdering seven Gilgo Beach victims and admitted strangling an eighth during a killing spree investigators believe spread over 17 years.

"There was a lot of forensic work all at once and to have a person of his background and experience was critical,” Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said in an interview about Adams, as well as Mark Desire, his colleague at the medical examiner's office, who did DNA analysis of the Gilgo Beach victims. "When we were doing our investigation he was available and helpful and professional."

Now that Heuermann has confessed to being the killer and awaits sentencing next month, Adams talked exclusively with Newsday about how that body on the beach quickly turned from a single homicide investigation into the hunt for an elusive serial killer who evaded police for more than a decade.

Back in 2010, when Adams arrived on the Ocean Parkway site to examine the woman's remains on that cold winter day, he was told Gilbert had suffered a broken jaw that had required surgery. But as Adams examined the woman’s skeletonized body, he found no evidence of a broken jaw, he said.

The remains weren’t Gilbert's, he concluded. But he did notice that the skeleton lacked an arm bone.

At the search site, Adams was approached by detectives who said, "Doc, we got some more.”

"At first, I thought they were referring to the missing arm bone," Adams recalled. "But then it quickly became clear that they were referring to more bodies."

In a matter of days, police had stumbled upon the remains of three other women, wrapped in burlap in the brush off Ocean Parkway. While investigators had not found Gilbert, they had instead uncovered something that had the earmarks of a serial-killing case. 

"I was very surprised and realized this had become a much bigger project,” Adams, who retired last year, said in a series of telephone and email interviews with Newsday.

The four sets of remains became known as the Gilgo Four and included those of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy. All had been sex workers and had disappeared between 2007 and 2010. The remains of Gilbert Gilbert's remains wouldn’t be found until December 2011, a few miles farther east.

Adams became deeply involved in the Gilgo investigation, assisting his counterparts in Suffolk, prosecutors and police in trying to determine what had happened to the victims as their bodies were discovered in the following months. His examination of the bones identified the sex and approximate age of the unknown victims, while his DNA analysis ultimately identified them.

The medical examiner's office had earlier received a special federal grant to help other jurisdictions with forensic work and DNA analysis, so Adams was easily able to play a key role in the investigation that ultimately led to Heuermann’s arrest in 2023 and guilty plea. Police maintain that Gilbert's death in marshland was accidental and not murder, an assertion her attorney and family members reject.

While the remains of the Gilgo Four showed no immediate signs of trauma — Heuermann admitted strangling all his victims — those of a still unidentified Asian man dressed in women's clothing found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011 showed he had suffered blunt head trauma, Adams said. Heuermann has not been charged in the man’s death.

Things turned more gruesome with the discovery of two sets of dismembered remains, found in 2003 in Manorville and in 2011 along Ocean Parkway. The remains of Jessica Taylor were closely examined to determine what had happened to her, Adams recalled.

He said it was clear the killer had used a saw to dismember and scatter her remains.

"We were able to tell it was consistent with a hand-powered saw with a straight blade,” Adams said. "From this information we would be able to tell you if a certain type of saw was consistent/inconsistent with the marks on the bone."

Tierney said that some hacksaws were found during police searches of Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park but none contained forensic evidence linked to any human remains.

But pieces of sawed bone found in the investigation were able to be fitted together, much like pieces in a puzzle, an indication that the remains found in Manorville and separately along Ocean Parkway were from the same person, Adams said.

Another dismembered victim was Karen Vergata, whose legs were found in 1996 on Fire Island her skull along Ocean Parkway years later. 

Gilgo investigators were further distressed to find the remains of a 2-year-old child in 2011, later identified as Tatiana Dykes.

"Everyone was just shocked,” Adams recalled about the discovery of the toddler.

Initially, investigators thought the child’s death was the work of a single Gilgo killer, Adams recalled. Looking back, it seemed more possible that two killers had independently used Ocean Parkway as a dumping ground, he said.

In 2025, Andrew Dykes was charged by a Nassau County grand jury with killing the toddler’s mother, Tanya Denise Jackson, with whom he fathered Tatiana. While charged with the murder of Jackson, Dykes has not been charged with killing Tatiana. Neither killing is believed to be linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.

Adams said he is curious to learn what Heuermann, who is required under his plea to undergo clinical interviews with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, will tell investigators. Tierney said the non-investigative sessions aim to explore Heuermann's psychopathic traits and the "duality" of his life as a suburban architect and serial killer.

Now a teacher of forensic science at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, Adams said he would quiz Heuermann about why he changed the ways in which he disposed of his victims' bodies.

For instance, the body of Sandra Costilla was found intact in 1993, while the remains of Taylor, Valerie Mack and Vergata were dismembered, Adams noted.

"I shiver," said Edward Mack, father of victim Valerie Mack, when told of the use of the saw on some of the victims. " To take a saw to someone, is extremely difficult to comprehend."

It is a subject Adams has been pondering as well.

"What was going on with the mindset" of Heuermann? Adams said he has asked himself.

As with many law enforcement officials who have worked the Gilgo Beach investigation, Adams believes there are unanswered questions remaining about Heuermann.

"There are still bodies out there that haven’t been identified,” Adams said.