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Amber Lynn Costello was a 27-year-old living on Long Island, New York State when she vanished in September 2010. She worked as an escort and was on her way to meet a potential client when she disappeared. According to a report by Netflix Tudum, Amber left her house without her purse or phone the night she went missing.
Amber Lynn Costello's remains were found near Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, in a burlap sack. It is worth noting that her remains were found along with those of three other women, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, and Melissa Barthelemy.
Newsweek reported that local police found the remains of the four women while they were looking for another missing woman, Shannan Gilbert. Her remains were found on Oak Beach in December 2011.
Amber, Maureen, Megan, and Melissa became known in the media as The Gilgo Beach Four, and their deaths were also linked to the Gilgo Beach murders.
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CNN reported that the case generated renewed interest in 2022, after a multi-agency task force was set up. The task force was formed in an attempt to reexamine cold cases that involved human remains found on Long Island's South Shore between 2010 and 2011.
The task force's investigation led to Rex Heuermann, an architect from New York. Heuermann, who was 60 at the time, was arrested in connection with human remains found on Long Island's Gilgo Beach.
Us Weekly reported that Rex Heuermann was charged in connection with the murders of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Lynn Costello. Rex, who was dubbed the Long Island Serial Killer before his identity was revealed, was later also charged with the deaths of Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor.
Netflix's latest true crime docuseries, Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer, was released on March 31, 2025. The series looked at the deaths of the Gilgo Beach Four as well as Shannan Gilbert, and the investigation that led police to Rex Heuermann.
The official synopsis for the three-part docuseries reads:
"A look back at the women who disappeared from New York City and Long Island before the 2010 discovery of female remains found in the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island, which lead authorities to believe the deaths were all connected."
All about Amber Lynn Costello's murder explored
Amber Lynn Costello was born on February 10, 1983, in North Carolina but lived in Pinellas County, Florida, for several years before moving to New York, according to wfla.com. She was also addicted to heroin but had previously attended a 28-day rehabilitation program in Clearwater, Florida.
The New York Times cited the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department, stating that after Amber Lynn Costello moved to New York, she relapsed and began using again. Amber, who worked as an escort, reportedly met clients through Craigslist and Backlist.
Tudum reported that Amber Lynn Costello lived with two roommates in West Babylon, Long Island, at the time of her disappearance. When she left her home on September 2, 2010, she had reportedly received a call from a client who offered her more money than she usually charged. She was last seen alive leaving her house without her phone or purse to meet the client.
After she was reported missing, Amber Lynn Costello's sister, Kim Overstreet, took out an ad in hopes of catching the killer, according to CNN US. Amber's remains were found in a burlap sack on December 13, 2010, near Gilgo Beach, Long Island.
An autopsy on Amber's remains found that she had been strangled to death. Investigators also found some hair samples at the crime scene, but they were unable to identify them.
The Capture of Rex Heuerman: A Breakthrough in the Gilgo Beach Murders
In 2022, a new task force was formed by Rodney Harrison, a new commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department. The task force began digitally organizing evidence from the past 12 years and were looking into cold cases in Long Island's South Shore.
As they looked into the murders of Amber Lynn Costello and the Gilgo Beach Four, they discovered that the Long Island Serial Killer, had used burner phones when he was active. They also found that the phones were mostly active around Massapequa Park and Midtown Manhattan.
Police identified Rex Heuermann as the suspect in the Gilgo Beach Murders on March 12, 2022. They began tracking his movements and discovered that he lived in Massapequa Park with his wife and two children.
After they checked his phone records, police discovered that the location of all the burner phones used to contact the victims matched Heuermann's address. They arrested Rex Heuermann in July 2023 and charged him with the murders of Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, and Melissa Barthelemy.
He was later charged with the murders of Maurine Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor, and Valerie Mack. Although he was charged with the murders of seven women, he has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The tragic murder of Amber Lynn Costello was a pivotal case in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, which remained unsolved for over a decade.
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer is available for streaming on Netflix and takes a deeper look into the case of the Gilgo Beach Killer aka the Long Island Serial Killer.
