EXCLUSIVE Gilgo Beach suspect's wife's very intimate reason she went back to live in spine-chilling 'murder house'
The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann has revealed her romantic reason for wanting to return to the home where he allegedly murdered seven women.
In a clip from the new Peacock docuseries 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,' exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, Heuermann's family members are seen coming back to the Massapequa Park property in the aftermath of the police raid.
The 61-year-old suspect was arrested in July 2023 on suspicion of being the depraved serial killer who had terrorized Long Island and evaded capture for more than a decade.
Following his arrest, the family's home was transformed into a crime scene, with law enforcement descending on the property for evidence linked to the murders.
In the exclusive clip, the accused killer's wife Asa Ellerup and their adult children Victoria and Christopher are seen surveying the chaos and damage left behind.
Victoria, who worked with her father at his Midtown Manhattan architecture firm, complains that the mess feels like cops are 'trying to leave us for dead.'
'When we got back home after they raided it, it was not recognizable,' she says.
'No beds, no clothes, our bathroom sink was broken. They should have actually deemed our house uninhabitable.'
She adds: 'It was as if they were trying to leave us for dead.'
But, despite the mess - and the haunting secrets the house may hold - Ellerup reveals why she wanted to move back in.
'We needed to come home. We have a lot of sentimental stuff in the house,' she says.
'And I still feel Rex is here,' she adds.
Ellerup's sentimental view of her husband of two decades comes as she refuses to believe he could be the infamous Gilgo Beach serial killer.
Elsewhere in the new docuseries, she gushes over her husband, calling him 'my hero' and 'wonderful' and describing the first time she visited him in prison as like going 'on a first date.'
She insists authorities have 'the wrong man' for the heinous crimes.
'I know what bad men are capable of doing,' she says.
'I've seen it, and I've heard it from other men. Not my husband. You have the wrong man.'
The series marks the first on-camera interviews the family has done - and the first footage from inside the home where the killings are alleged to have taken place.
In the exclusive clip obtained by DailyMail.com, the footage shows the family members among piles of their belongings as they discuss some items being broken and another being 'pulled out of the wall.'
At one point, the camera hones in on an old doll in a display case, a Satanic poster and a mug emblazoned with 'Rex.'
Photos also show mountains of boxes and household items strewn around the home and a panel cut out of the bathtub.
'The kids they were crying themselves to sleep before we actually got into the house,' Ellerup says.
'We were all doing it. Fear anxiety, guilt, all of those emotions are going like a rollercoaster, rolling, rolling and rolling and rolling.'
Heuermann has lived in the home in Massapequa Park his whole life, with Ellerup moving in when the couple wed in 1995.
He is now charged with the murders of seven women over a two-decade reign of horror running from 1993 to 2011.
All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished.
Their bodies were then found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach as well as other remote spots on Long Island.
Some of the victims had been bound, while others had been dismembered and their remains discarded across multiple locations.
Since Heuermann's arrest, prosecutors have unveiled a trove of evidence against him, including hairs belonging to him and his family members found on some of the victims, cellphone data placing him in contact with some victims, and a chilling 'planning document' where he allegedly intricately detailed his kills.
He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Fears that a serial killer or killers were at large on Long Island began back in May 2010, when Shannan Gilbert vanished in bizarre circumstances one night.
The 24-year-old, who was working as a sex worker, had gone to see a client in the Oak Beach Association community when she made a terrifying 911 call, saying that someone was trying to kill her.
During a search for Gilbert in December 2010, officers came across the body of Melissa Barthelemy in the marshes by Gilgo Beach.
Within days, three more women's bodies - Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman - had been found.
The four victims, who became known as the Gilgo Four, had been dumped within a quarter mile of each other, some of them bound and wrapped in burlap.
Over the following months, the remains of seven other victims were found.
Gilbert's body was found last. Investigators maintain that she was not a victim, but died by accidental drowning after she fled into the dense thicket that night.
The Gilgo Beach serial killer case went unsolved for more than a decade - hampered by a corrupt police chief, James Burke, who was ultimately jailed for beating a man who stole sex toys from his police cruiser.
In July 2023 - following the launch of a new taskforce - Heuermann was dramatically arrested as he left his office in midtown Manhattan.
He was initially charged with the murders of three women: Costello, Barthelemy and Waterman.
Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
Costilla had never been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case until Heuermann was hit with charges for her murder in 2024.
Her murder expands the timeline that the accused serial killer is alleged to have been actively preying on victims to more than 30 years ago.
Melissa Barthelemy (top left), Amber Costello (top right), Megan Waterman (bottom left), and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (bottom right) became known as the 'Gilgo Four'
Sandra Costilla (left) was murdered in 1993, making her the earliest known victim. Karen Vergata's (right) remains were identified in 2023. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to her death
Valerie Mack (left) disappeared in 2000 and parts of her body were discovered in Long Island that November. Jessica Taylor (right) vanished in 2003 with some of her remains being found in Manorville that year
Heuermann had been linked to the murders following a tip about a pickup truck.
According to a witness, Costello had disappeared after going to see a client who drove a green Chevy Avalanche in September 2010.
He also matched the description of the client seen by the witness.
Hairs belonging to Heuermann, Ellerup and Victoria were found on some of the victims, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said investigators have also found a chilling 'planning document' on a hard drive in the basement of Heuermann's family home including a section detailed 'PREP' and noting that 'small' women were preferred.
Heuermann has not been charged in connection to the deaths of the other four victims found along Ocean Parkway: Karen Vergata, Tanya Jackson and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Dykes, and an unidentified victim, known only as 'Asian Doe.'
Jackson - a US Army veteran - and her infant daughter were finally identified this April, having for years been known only as 'Peaches' and 'Baby Doe.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump's hush money case is back in court. These judges could decide what happens next
The appeals process begins in earnest on Wednesday, after a New York City jury last year convicted Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to silence an adult film star, whose story about having sex with Trump threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign. That unanimous conviction on May 30 — and a judge's sentencing on January 10 that preserved the historic verdict — ensured that Trump would return to the White House as the first-ever criminally convicted president. The conviction carried no consequences for the president. Still, it left an indelible stain he has so far failed to remove despite successfully fighting off federal indictments that consumed his 2024 campaign. But his legal battle isn't over. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Manhattan will hear oral arguments as his attorneys attempt to transfer the case from New York criminal court to federal jurisdiction, a process known as 'removal.' The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg opposes the move, arguing such a case cannot be removed to federal court after a conviction. But attorneys for the president claim that his 'unprecedented prosecution 'belongs there. If the case is moved to federal court, Justice Department lawyers could theoretically dismiss it. In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, Trump's then-attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 for the rights to her story, one of several so-called hush money schemes the president arranged with tabloid publishers to prevent embarrassing stories from being published anywhere. Trump then reimbursed Cohen in a series of checks, some of which were cut from the White House. Those reimbursements were falsely recorded in accounting records as 'legal expenses,' fulfilling what prosecutors called a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election unlawfully. A weeks-long trial in Manhattan criminal court last year included blockbuster testimony from Cohen, Daniels, White House aides, and Trump's allies. At the same time, emails, phone records, text messages, invoices, checks with Trump's Sharpie-inked signature, and other documents — including a handwritten note from his accountants that outlined the math for Cohen's checks — gave jurors the paper trail. Days before Trump's inauguration, and more than seven months after the jury's decision, New York Justice Juan Merchan handed Trump a sentence that preserved the verdict without any criminal consequences. Manhattan prosecutors and Judge Merchan agreed that the only remaining option for the conclusion of the case — navigating a landmark Supreme Court decision on 'immunity' and the potential interference with his second term — meant abandoning a typical sentence of jail, fines or probation. 'The only lawful sentence' that remained for Trump's crimes is that of an 'unconditional discharge,' Merchan told Trump during his sentencing hearing on January 10. Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing. His attorneys, whom the president has appointed to top roles at the Department of Justice, argued that certain evidence used at trial should have been withheld from jurors under the Supreme Court's 'immunity' decision, which shields the president from criminal prosecution for 'official' acts in office. However, those arguments were rejected by Judge Merchan, the New York appeals court, and the Supreme Court, which stated that Trump's challenges to 'alleged evidentiary violations' could be addressed through the normal course of appeal. Meanwhile, Trump's long-simmering fight to move the case entirely out of the hands of state courts will be heard before a panel of federal appeals court judges. The president has hired the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to support his federal appeal. Last month, Justice Department lawyers filed a supporting brief in the case, arguing that the judges should throw it out entirely. Trump is simultaneously appealing an $83 million verdict in a defamation case from E. Jean Carroll as well as a massive judgment against him in a sprawling civil fraud case, with interest growing to more than half a billion dollars owed to the state of New York after the president and his top associates defrauded banks and investors to benefit his real-estate empire.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Weinstein jury deliberations scrutinize one accuser's account
Jurors in Harvey Weinstein 'ssex crimes retrial are drilling down on one of the three charges against him: a rape accusation from a woman who also said she had a consensual relationship with him. The seven female and five male jurors are poised to start their fifth day of deliberations Wednesday by re-hearing Jessica Mann's testimony that he raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. Mann's accusation was an apparent focus of Tuesday's deliberations, and the jury ended the day by asking to be re-read her testimony about what happened between her and Weinstein at the hotel. The group also indicated it wants to continue privately reviewing her emails with Weinstein and some 2017 medical records concerning her reaction to news accounts of other women's allegations against him. The former Hollywood powerbroker, 73, has pleaded not guilty to raping Mann and to forcing oral sex on two other women, Mimi Haley and Kaja Sokola. The Oscar-winning producer maintains that he never sexually assaulted or raped anyone, and his lawyers portrayed his accusers as opportunists who accepted his advances because they wanted a leg up in the entertainment world. While all three women stayed in contact with Weinstein despite what they say were assaults, Mann had a particularly complex history with him. During days on the witness stand, she testified that they had a consensual relationship that exploded into rape, yet continued afterward. Weinstein was one of the movie industry's most powerful figures until a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo movement and eventually leading to criminal charges. He originally was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann and forcing oral sex on Haley. Sokola's allegation was added last year, after New York state's highest court overturned the 2020 conviction and sent the case back for retrial. Meanwhile, Weinstein is appealing a 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles. After a couple of days of apparent interpersonal friction, the retrial jury worked through Tuesday with no further complaints. The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Harold Shipman: New Mail podcast explores the 'unusual' early life of Doctor Death and the missed warning signs that foreshadowed his killing spree
On the latest episode of the Mail's 'An Appointment with Murder', forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Johns and police surgeon Dr. Harry Brunjes interrogate the 'unusual' early life of serial killer Harold Shipman. They also examine how institutions failed to spot Shipman's increasingly erratic and suspicious behaviour, despite the trail of deaths that followed him from practice to practice. An Appointment with Murder is a brand-new true crime podcast that delves into the minds, methods, and motivations of medical murderers. Medical murderers are those who pervert their positions of trust, as doctors or nurses, to prey on the public. The season opens with a study of the infamous cases of doctors Harold Shipman and John Bodkin Adams. Shipman, a GP, is suspected of killing 215-250 patients between the years 1975 and 1998 by injecting them with lethal doses of diamorphine (medical heroin). Dr Andrew Johns, podcast co-host, was called to give expert testimony during the official inquiry into Shipman's murders. Adolescence Harold Shipman was born to a working-class family in Nottingham in 1946. He was the son of a lorry driver and the 'apple of his mother's eye', as Dr. Johns told the podcast. At 17, Shipman's mother, Vera, was diagnosed with lung cancer. At the time, there was no treatment for the illness apart from using opiates to manage pain. Dr Johns suspects that exposure to this class of drugs at a young age had a profound effect on the young man. He said: 'The GP would visit Vera at home and give her regular injections of morphine to relieve her pain. 'It's a highly addictive opiate that, in large doses, kills through respiratory depression. It simply stops you from breathing. 'Shipman witnesses the powerful effect of that drug on his mother and how it ultimately eases her passing. What impression did that doctor and needle have on him? ' When Vera succumbed to her cancer, it was Shipman who discovered her body coming home from school. To combat his grief, Shipman begins using Sloan's Liniment, a pain killer, recreationally. In high doses, the over-the-counter medication can produce a slight high. On the eve of moving to medical school, Dr John describes Shipman as an 'odd, reclusive chap'. Early Medical Career Shipman studies at Yorkshire's Pontefract General Infirmary and in 1971, is named House Officer of the hospital. Despite being only a Junior Doctor, Shipman certifies 133 deaths during his time at the hospital. As Dr Johns explains: 'As a Junior, Shipman is regarded as overconfident. The official inquiry conjectured that he started misusing the drug Pethidine around this time. 'Pethidine is also an opiate painkiller, but it's synthetic – it's prescribed for moderate to strong pain, unlike morphine, which is used for severe pain. 'At Pontefract, Shipman certifies 133 deaths. There's nothing particularly high about that number until you notice he was present at a third of all deaths. 'Junior Doctors are rarely present at the time of the death. Shipman was present at death 20 times more often than any other Junior Doctor.' After Pontefract, Shipman becomes a qualified GP and moves to Morton, a small town in Leeds, to work in a surgery. At this time, Shipman's judgment and general demeanour become more erratic with his addiction to opiates escalating. 'Shipman is dogmatic about his medical judgement. He's extremely critical of those he deems intellectually inferior', Dr Johns said. 'After several blackouts, including a collapse in front of patients, Shipman is found slumped over the wheel of his car. He claims he's epileptic. 'Following a routine audit, it is discovered that he has forged prescriptions for 30,000 milligrams of Pethidine. That is 600 normal doses.' Shipman admits to using the Pethidine recreationally and is fired and sent to a drug rehabilitation program in York. Despite a Magistrate's Court finding him guilty of forging prescriptions, the General Medical Council let Shipman off with a warning. He would then move to Hyde in Greater Manchester, again working as a GP, where the majority of his murders would take place.
