Long Island Serial Killer Admits Killing South Jersey Victim

The 25-year search for Valerie Mack's killer is finally over.

The 24-year old woman, who was last seen by her family around Port Republic, Atlantic County, in the spring or summer of 2000, was one of the eight people identified as a victim of a Long Island, New York area serial killer.

For years, she had been "Jane Doe No. 6" in the investigation.

Accused Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killer Rex Heuermann admitted to killing Mack and seven other people in court on Wednesday as he changed his plea to guilty.

Heuermann, a New York City architect, was arrested in 2023 and initially pleaded not guilty to killing seven women. Over 17 years, he targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies near Long Island's Gilgo Beach, prosecutors said.

Valerie Mack's Ties to South Jersey

Mack, who was originally born in Atlantic City with the name "Valerie Kyn Fulton," was placed into foster care at an early age and shuffled around foster homes until she was ultimately adopted by the Mack family, according to the unsealed indictment.

Valerie was born on July 2, 1976. She lost both of her parents when she was very young; subsequently ending up in foster care, but was adopted.

She had one son who is now in his early twenties.

Mack began living with her son's father in Wildwood in 1994 and traveled frequently between New Jersey and Philadelphia.

In 1996, she had her first run-in with law enforcement, resulting in the first of several prostitution-related arrests by Philadelphia police, according to court documents.

Police said Mack advertised her sex work online, primarily under the alias of "Melissa Taylor," but was also known to "street walk."

Valerie Mack's Body Was Found in Long Island

A hunter's dog discovered Mack's decapitated body in a wooded area of Manorville, on Long Island, on Nov. 19, 2000, court documents said.

Her remains were bound with a rope inside a black plastic bag, which was wrapped with duct tape, according to court documents.

Both of her hands had been severed from her body, and one of her legs was cut off, court documents said.

The rest of Mack's remains were found more than a decade later, in April 2011, along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach, authorities said.

Prosecutors said they were able to link Heuermann to Mack's death in part through a DNA analysis of a female hair found on Mack's body. It matched the profiles of Heuermann's wife and daughter, the bail application said.

At the time of Mack's murder, Heuermann's daughter would have been between 3 and 4 years old.