NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The so-called Gilgo Beach serial killer, accused of strangling and dismembering women and scattering their remains around a coastal community near New York, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

Rex Heuermann, 62, in April pleaded guilty to seven murders, plus an eighth that he had not yet been charged with, in a crime spree spanning 1993 to 2010 around Long Island, near New York City.

The Gilgo Beach case had stumped investigators for years with no suspects identified, and was featured in a number of true crime documentaries.