In a ruling that could reshape the future of forensic science, a New York state judge declared Wednesday that DNA evidence tying accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to victims found along Long Island’s shores can be shown to a jury. It is the first time whole genome sequencing has cleared New York’s rigorous legal admissibility standards.
Justice Timothy P. Mazzei of Suffolk County issued a 29-page opinion affirming that Astrea Forensics, the lab hired by prosecutors, used methods “generally accepted as reliable within the scientific community.”
The Science Behind the Evidence
Investigators had only five rootless hairs from the victims—too degraded for standard DNA tests. Instead, prosecutors turned to Astrea Forensics, which applied “shotgun sequencing” to analyze fragmented genetic material. Using a program called IBDGem, they compared that DNA to Heuermann’s.
Defense experts attacked IBDGem as “unproven,” but Mazzei sided with prosecutors, writing that while the software is relatively new, the underlying mathematics and principles are widely accepted.
District Attorney Raymond Tierney hailed the ruling: “The science was on our side and that’s why we won.”
