A Long Island architect who lived a secret life as New York's Gilgo Beach serial killer is being sentenced Wednesday after admitting in court that he murdered eight women. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.

Rex Heuermann, 62, of Massapequa Park, faces the likelihood of a life prison sentence when he goes before a judge in Riverhead, New York. Family members of his victims are expected to address the court.

The sentencing caps an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York's most perplexing mysteries — one that began as a series of seemingly unconnected, and largely unmarked disappearances of young women, but became the focus of true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began discovering the victims' skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a coastal parkway.

Heuermann, who has remained largely silent through multiple court appearances since his 2023 arrest, will also have a chance to speak Wednesday, but it's not immediately clear if he will. His lawyers didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

Asa Ellerup, his ex-wife, and their two grown children have said through their lawyers that they won't be attending the sentencing out of respect for the victim's families.

Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla.

Though he was never charged in her death, he also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata. Heuermann said he strangled his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies.

Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and most of their remains were found on a desolate parkway not far from Long Island's Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Manhattan.

But two of the killings took place years earlier. Costilla's remains were found in 1993, more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away in the Hamptons, while Vergata's remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Gilgo Beach.

The case spilled into view in 2010, when investigators started to find remains along Ocean Parkway while looking into the disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, whose death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.