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Daily Mail
02-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Rex Heuermann 'murderabilia' sale hits a snag as Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect's ex-wife offloads his trash
'Murderabilia' owned by suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has been pulled from eBay for breaching the site's sale policies. Heuermann's ex-wife Asa Ellerup was allegedly trying to sell the accused killer's 1972 Jeep and trailer to the highest bidder through an anonymous family representative. The 61-year-old Heuermann is accused of murdering seven women - many of them sex workers - in a crime spree that gripped the nation for almost two decades between 1993 and 2010. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. But eBay pulled the listing for 'violating eBay policies.' A spokesperson told Newsweek 'eBay's Violence and Violent Criminal Policy prohibits listings that glorify violence or violent acts.' The listing stated the jeep and trailer were 'owned by ''LISK'' Rex Heuermann'. By 5.30pm, the listing had been viewed more than 1,640 times and received 35 bids. The bidding started at $1,000 and was as high as $7,600 by the time it was taken down. The item was described as 'vintage' and a 'unique model design and impeccable make.' It was being sold with all the features, including both soft and hard tops, and soft and hard doors. The listing stated the jeep and trailer were 'owned by ''LISK'' Rex Heuermann'. By 5.30pm, the listing had been viewed more than 1,640 times and received 35 bids 'The 1972 Jeep offers a nostalgic experience and is sure to turn heads on the road with its cool design and, if you are a true crime buff, this Jeep and trailer have quite a history,' the description read. 'The owner was none other than, The Long Island Serial Killer, Rex Heuermann.' The accountholder was allegedly selling on behalf of Ellerup and would have transferred the funds to her bank account. It is understood they are working with eBay to try to bring the advert in line with the website's terms and conditions. Heuermann owned the car during the period he allegedly committed six murders, but after a thorough investigation, the car was returned to the family as it was ruled it was never used in any of the alleged crimes. Separately, Heuermann's 1977 yearbook from McKenna Junior High School has been listed on eBay for $995. Heuermann's alleged crimes began in 1993. He is last accused of murdering a woman in 2010. Fears that a serial killer or killers were at large on Long Island began back in May 2010, after Shannan Gilbert vanished in bizarre circumstances. The 24-year-old, who was 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. Prosecutors allege in court documents that Heuermann lured victims to his house when his wife and children were away. It was during Ellerup's July 2009 visit to Iceland - and Heuermann's sudden surprise bathroom makeover - when Barthelemy went missing. The 24-year-old told a friend she was going to meet a client and was never seen alive again. In the days following her disappearance, Barthelemy's teenage sister received taunting calls from her sibling's phone. The male caller branded Barthelemy a 'whore' and gloated he had 'killed her'. The calls stopped when Heuermann flew out to join his family in Iceland. Victims' bodies were all 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. 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 porn 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: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. 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. Ellerup is standing by Heuermann despite filing for divorce days after his arrest. The proceedings were finalized in March, but the family admits this was purely to protect their assets. Since then, Ellerup has continued to attend Heuermann's court hearings where the defense is trying to toss critical DNA evidence in the case. Heuermann's legal team is also trying to break up his upcoming trial into five separate trials.
Fox News
28-06-2025
- Fox News
Ex-wife of alleged Gilgo Beach killer still defends him, but daughter says he ‘most likely' did it
Asa Ellerup is grappling with the reality that the man she was married to for nearly 30 years is suspected of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer. Rex Heuermann, a hulking New York City architect, has been charged with killing seven women, most of them sex workers, and dumping their bodies on a desolate parkway not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Island. He has pleaded not guilty. Ellerup, 61, filed for divorce in 2023, just days after the 59-year-old was arrested for the murders of three of the victims. She and her children are now speaking out for the first time in a new Peacock docuseries, "The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets." "She's a very damaged soul from all of this," director Jared P. Scott told Fox News Digital. "You can see the scars of her life story. . . . We often think of denial as maybe a place you get stuck in. But to me, it seemed like denial was this search. It was constantly thinking about certain moments, replaying things back in her head, trying to reconcile 27 years of marriage to this man who ostensibly was living this double life." "I think she's trying to make sense of the unimaginable within the familiar," he shared. "She's walking through her house. She's looking at pictures. She's reliving moments. . . . She's searching for the familiar, the day-to-day, the routine." Fox News Digital reached out to Heuermann's attorney for comment. Although the divorce was finalized in April, Ellerup still believes Heuermann is "not capable" of committing the crimes he's accused of. "My husband was home here – he is a family man," Ellerup told the cameras. "They are telling me he has been soliciting sex from sex workers. What? I don't have sex with my husband? I don't satisfy him? He comes home and he eats my dinner. It isn't good enough? No. I don't believe my husband did this." "Nobody deserves what they got," she said. "But Rex was not seeing [sex workers]. He's a family man. He didn't do this. I would need to hear it from Rex face to face that he killed these girls for me to believe it. My husband never kept me out of anything." While Ellerup defended her ex-husband's innocence, their daughter, Victoria Heuermann, later said off-camera that she believes the patriarch "most likely" committed the killings. The 28-year-old's admissions were made through a statement from producers. "She told us several times throughout filming that she was 'on the fence,'" Scott said. "A lot of it has to do with the fact that this all happened when she was much younger. And as prosecutors have laid out in every indictment, the family was out of town every time one of these alleged crimes happened. So she just didn't know. She didn't see it. She was too young to remember any of this, so she didn't see any signs." Scott said that after filming, it was Victoria who reached out to the producers. "She said, 'I want to have a conversation about where I'm at now,'" he said. "She now wanted to express that she now felt that, based on what's been presented and explained to her, she now believes her dad is most likely the Gilgo Beach killer. And that 'most likely' – that's important. You can still see that hesitation. You can still see she's wrestling with what that means." Looking back, the family described Heuermann as a doting father and husband. Ellerup met the "talk, dark and handsome" Heuermann when they were both teenagers on Long Island. They quickly formed a close-knit friendship. And when she later left her tumultuous first marriage, it was Heuermann who stepped in as a "hero," taking her and her son, Christopher, in. She married Heuermann in 1996, and they welcomed a daughter a year later. "I was madly in love with the man," said Ellerup. "There's no doubt about that." Ellerup maintained that she saw no "abnormal behavior" in their nearly three decades of marriage. At the same time, she revealed that in July 2009, around the time one of his alleged victims went missing, Heuermann suddenly renovated a bathroom while she and their two children visited her family in Iceland. She noted that her former husband eventually joined the family for their final week of the trip. "She does mention that she's in denial," said Scott. "She told me several times, 'People are saying I'm in denial. Well, OK, I'm in denial, but what would you do? What would anyone do if they were in my shoes?' . . . Asa is having a really hard time with the weight of this. "She's put out through her lawyer that she is still reserving her right for judgment if there's a trial. She still, I think, wants to give her husband the benefit of the doubt. But also, who would want to believe this? Who would want to believe that their husband of 27 years was capable of this?" GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB "Rex Heuermann, from our understanding, based on the facts that are publicly presented to us, seemed to be a master manipulator," Scott continued. ". . . Asa's journey is now one of constantly searching for answers, searching for memories, almost being stuck inside that house." "We spent a lot of time with the family in that house where the alleged crimes were allegedly orchestrated," he reflected. "She's walking through these rooms, and she has memories in that basement that are radically different from what we can infer from reading these very public indictments about what prosecutors believed happened down there." "She's in this constant loop of trying to figure out just what the hell happened," Scott added. In the documentary, Victoria said her father was around the family "90% of the time" and was never violent toward any of them. However, she also acknowledged there were times when he stayed home while the family went on vacation. She was around 10 to 13 years old when the killings happened. Prosecutors claim Heuermann committed some of the killings in the basement while his family was out of town. Ellerup maintains investigators have the wrong man. She dismissed a computer file prosecutors claim is a "blueprint" of his crimes, calling it "absurd," The Associated Press reported. According to the outlet, prosecutors say the document features a series of checklists for before, during and after a killing, such as a "body prep" checklist that includes, among other items, a note to "remove head and hands." The outlet also noted that Ellerup also shrugged off other evidence prosecutors have enumerated in court documents, including a vast collection of bondage and torture pornography found on electronic devices seized from their home, and hairs linked to Heuermann that were recovered on most of the victims' bodies. At one point in the documentary, the filmmakers captured Ellerup speaking to Heuermann on the phone from jail. Ellerup and her daughter have been regularly attending court hearings with their attorney. "She has been looking at everything through the lens of her memories," said Scott. "Not everything that we have seen in the media, not through the indictments that have been put out by the prosecution, but through her memories. And in that, I was struck by how ordinary it all seemed. And I don't mean that in a dismissive way, but in the sense that it felt like she could be any of us." The family is now planning to move to South Carolina. In the documentary, Victoria said the separation was for financial reasons, to protect the family's assets. "The family of an accused serial killer is often met with, and understandably, with suspicion, revulsion, cruelty – they become collateral damage," said Scott. ". . . They inherit the shame, the scrutiny, the guilt. And we've all heard of the stages of grief. I think they're going through that as well." One thing is certain for Scott – many lives were destroyed over the years. "I ultimately hope that justice is served," said Scott. "It's important that we remember the victims in the story – all the victims. The women who lost their lives were more than how they were labeled. And the family that Rex Heuermann left behind, who are now experiencing a different kind of trauma, one they didn't choose." "This is a tragic tale," said Scott. "And it's all the direct result of being in the blast radius of Rex Heuermann's alleged crimes."
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Gilgo Beach suspect's loyal ex-wife skips key hearing as expert raises serious questions about DNA evidence
The loyal ex-wife of the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer has skipped a key hearing - as an expert raises serious questions about DNA evidence being used in the case. Asa Ellerup has continued to attend her ex-husband Rex Heuermann's court hearings despite their divorce in April. But on Tuesday the mother of two was nowhere in sight. Ellerup's attorney Robert Macedonio said there was 'no specific reason' why she was not present at court, and did not want to comment further. Ellerup, who was married to Heuermann for 27 years and shared two children - Victoria, 27 and Christopher, 35, before she filed for divorce after his arrest in July 2023. On Tuesday, Suffolk County Criminal court heard from Nathaniel Adams, a systems engineer with Forensics Bioinformantics Services, a biotechnology company based in Fairborn, Ohio. Adams told the court that the IBDGem software that was used by the prosecution's star witness Richard 'Ed' Green, Phd, a biomolecular engineer and co-founder of Astrea Labs, who testified in April, did not appear to follow a formal discipline that would confirm if the software was dependable or not. Using a powerpoint presentation, Adams spoke about the 'zone of chaos' when defects occur in the early or mid-development stages, but explained aren't caught until late development or post -release. 'All of these defects can exist and can manifest in serious problems and not be apparent to the users. They may not know that there is an error occurring.' He noted that the IBDGem software used by Astrea Labs followed 'no quailty control framework.' One operational concern he spoke about was when the Astrea team had a reed sample in the lab that returned challenging results. Adams concluded that if the team had a standardized processes in place that would not have taken place. 'You don't want bad software getting involved in the process,' he said. 'Formal and regular inspections of software prevents the zone of chaos from taking place.' He further testified that there were 65 total edits - also known as commits - made on the IBDGem software since June 2020, 15 edits and four new updated versions, also called 'releases' since March 2023. He explained that IBDGem software is not the same one that tested the data sample used in the case, and said Green's team adjusted the code after they did testing on the case adding that 'the (software) release was done after the testing.' When defense attorney Danielle Coyosh asked Adams if these tests are not completed right can the system still be considered valid and verified, he responded, 'No, by definition it is unreliable.' The defense witness also pointed that Green's team are scientists and don't use the same type of validity in developing code and software to do the scientific analysis as a systems engineer would. The 38-year-old Adams who has an associate's degree in systems engineering and bachelors in computer science said he was still working on obtaining his Master's degree and working towards his master's thesis. However, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney appeared to mock Adams and questioned his credibility during his grueling two hour cross-examination. Tierney took apart his 10-page CV asking him why it took nearly 10 years for him to obtain his college degrees. At one point, Judge Timothy Mazzei intervened and asked Adams' what was going on between 2004 to 2011?' His response to the judge was that he had 'various jobs' but didn't elaborate. During the cross-examination, the DA asked the witness why he only listed 12 cases on is his CV if he was acted as an expert witness for the defense in 30 cases. He also asked if he graduated with honors, and if had any other industry experience besides working for his current employer. He also inquired about the journals and publication Adams had published in and the conferences he presented at. 'You're supposed to be an expert, but you don't even know who your adviser was or if you graduated summa cum laude or not,' Tierney said. The expert witness will return to the stand on Wednesday for day two of the hearing. Tuesday's hearing comes exactly one week after the three-part Peacock documentary The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets first aired. The documentary reveals never-before-heard admissions from Heuermann's family and of a man accused of living a double life. In a bombshell twist, Victoria admits to producers that she believes her father 'most likely' committed the murders though her mother steadfastly defends her ex-husband's innocence. She came to her own conclusion after she reviewed the facts that were available on the case and what was explained to her. She shared the revelation with producers, a week before the series launch. Though she did not speak about in the documentary, it was revealed in a statement at the end of the final episode. Melissa Barthelemy (top left), Amber Costello (top right), Megan Waterman (bottom left), and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (bottom right) became known as the 'Gilgo Four' 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 Sandra Costilla (left) was murdered in 1993, making her the earliest known alleged victim. Karen Vergata's (right) remains were identified in 2023. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to her death Heuermann has been charged with the murders of seven women during a two-decade reign of horror from 1993 to 2011. All the victims were sex workers who vanished before their remains were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach as well as other remote spots on Long Island. Since his arrest, prosecutors have unveiled a trove of evidence, including hairs allegedly belonging to Heuermann and his family members found on some of the victims, cellphone data allegedly placing him in contact with them, and a chilling 'planning document' in which he allegedly outlines his killings in detail. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Fears that a serial killer or killers were operating on Long Island began in May 2010 when 24-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert disappeared in strange circumstances one night. During a search for Gilbert that December, officers found the body of Melissa Barthelemy, 22, in the marshes by Gilgo Beach. Within days, three more bodies - Amber Costello, 27, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, and Megan Waterman, 22 - had been found. They became known as the Gilgo Four. Over the following months, the remains of seven other victims were found. Earlier this year, Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, also known as Peaches, and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Marie Dykes were identified this year. Their deaths have not been linked to Heuermann.
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Inside Asa Ellerup and Gilgo Beach suspect husband Rex Heuermann's marriage, and why she still loves him
Asa Ellerup breaks into a smile as she remembers her husband Rex Heuermann revealing that he had a 'big surprise' waiting at home. It was July 2009 and Ellerup had gone to Iceland for five weeks to visit family with her two children, Victoria and Christopher. Heuermann stayed behind on Long Island, saying he was busy with work at his Midtown Manhattan architecture firm. 'He said to me: "I made a big mess,"' Ellerup beams fondly in the new Peacock docuseries 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets'. Heuermann had gutted the basement bathroom, totally remodeling it from the tiles to the toilet. 'That was Rex. He's a problem solver,' she says of her beloved husband of 27 years. To Ellerup, this was a romantic gesture from a doting family man, her 'tall, dark and handsome hero who had taken her and Christopher in when she was a young, single mother working at a 7-Eleven. But, according to authorities, it was something far darker: a calculated move by a suspected serial killer intent on covering his tracks and destroying forensic evidence of the murder of a young woman inside his own home. Another 14 years would pass before Heuermann, now 61, was arrested in July 2023 and later charged with murdering seven women - many of them sex workers -between 1993 and 2010. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors allege in court documents that he lured victims to his house when his wife and children were away. It was during Ellerup's July 2009 visit to Iceland - and Heuermann's sudden surprise bathroom makeover - when Melissa Barthelemy went missing. Barthelemy, 24, told a friend she was going to meet a client and was never seen alive again. Her remains were found in December 2010 wrapped in burlap along Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, beside three other victims. In the days following her disappearance, Barthelemy's teenage sister received taunting calls from her sibling's phone. The male caller branded Barthelemy a 'whore' and gloated he had 'killed her'. The calls stopped when Heuermann flew out to join his family in Iceland. Inside the remodeled bathroom, where Barthelemy may have died, Ellerup appears more upset at the state in which investigators left it than by the horrors that might have happened there. 'They took it - brand new,' she says in the show, gesturing to where the door used to be. 'They ripped it up looking for trace evidence of blood,' she adds, as the camera reveals a panel in the bathtub cut out during a police search. A family rift The docuseries marks the first time that Heuermann's relatives have spoken publicly since his arrest - and it exposes an explosive split at the home over his potential guilt. Throughout the episodes, Ellerup doesn't waver in her belief that the man she married could ever be a serial killer. She lights up when talking about their lives together, proudly referring to him as her 'hero' and takes issue with the suggestion that he used sex workers. 'They're telling me that he was soliciting sex with sex workers? I don't have sex with my husband? I don't satisfy him?' she asks incredulously. 'He comes home, he eats my dinner. It's not good enough? No, I don't believe my husband did this.' Even after Heuermann has spent two years behind bars, Ellerup describes seeing him at court hearings as 'comforting' and likens her prison visits to going 'on a first date'. When confronted with DNA, timelines, his chilling computer hard drive and cellphone data, she refuses to consider that the allegations are true. 'I would need to hear it from Rex, face-to-face, for me to believe he killed these girls,' she says. Meanwhile, their daughter Victoria, 28, is less certain. In a bombshell moment, after reviewing case files, she admits to having reached the gut-wrenching conclusion that her father is 'most likely' the notorious Gilgo Beach serial killer. Attorney Bob Macedonio, who represents Ellerup, tells the Daily Mail that 'time will only tell' if she will ever accept she may have been married to an alleged serial killer for almost three decades. 'After Victoria viewed the information and after it was explained to her, she was able to process and form her own opinion that her father most likely is the Gilgo beach serial killer,' Macedonio says. 'Asa, on the other hand, maintains the belief that Rex, the father of her children and her ex-husband of 27 years, is not capable of committing these horrific acts.' But attorney John Ray isn't convinced by Ellerup's denials. Ray represented some of the victims' families and, for years, kept attention on the case - loudly criticizing the investigation when it was being hampered by corrupt law enforcement. He tells the Daily Mail that he finds it hard to believe that mother and daughter are living under the same roof while being at odds over Heuermann's guilt. 'You mean to tell me that they are just happily getting along?' he questions. 'One person said my husband did not slaughter women and chop them up in that house or anywhere, and the other one says yes he did. 'They made it sound like an academic debate. It is impossible for those two people to live together and not have a completely dramatic falling out if they maintain those positions.' Ray also doubts Heuermann's family didn't know what the man they lived with was allegedly doing. 'It's a sham,' he says, adding that Ellerup's outright denial and Victoria's turmoil before reaching her conclusion is all about them 'creating [their] innocence' in the case. 'They are both very cleverly distancing themselves from any responsibility to what happened - and that is a consistent theme.' In the Peacock series, Ellerup and Victoria say they didn't notice any signs of Heuermann's alleged crimes and they have not been accused of having any information prior to his arrest. Horror in the family home But regardless of how much they may wish to distance themselves, the women in Heuermann's life have been thrust into the heart of the case. While his family is not suspected of any involvement in the crimes, the home where Ellerup, Heuermann, Victoria and Christopher shared so many family memories is also believed to be the place where other families' sisters, daughters and mothers took their last breaths. In the docuseries, the two women are seen in the basement where authorities believe victims were held, tortured and killed. As a child growing up in the home with his parents, the basement was a space where a young Heuermann had his bedroom. As an adult living there with his wife and children, it became the site of a large gun vault - and, inside that, a hidden room that no one else was ever allowed to enter. The vault - dubbed the 'kill room' - was a focal point in the police searches. A chilling planning document found on Heuermann's computer hard drive allegedly indicated it was where his victims died. Heuermann's wife and daughter have also been unwittingly allegedly linked to several of the murdered women through DNA evidence. Hairs found on six of the seven murdered women have allegedly been matched to Heuermann, Ellerup Victoria or a woman he lived with between 1990 and 1993. According to prosecutors, hairs belonging to Victoria were found on the bodies of victims Amber Costello and Valerie Mack. Victoria was just three years old when her father allegedly murdered and dismembered Mack in 2000. Despite DNA evidence thrusting Ellerup and Victoria into Heuermann's criminal case, according to criminal defense attorney Sam Bassett, the family's public comments could impact whether they are called as witnesses. While witnesses cannot testify about their 'general opinions', Bassett says - if he were Heuermann's defense attorney - he would be paying attention to what Victoria and Ellerup say about his innocence or guilt. 'It could impact their testimony on cross-examination for example if the daughter takes the stand and says: 'I think he's absolutely innocent.' Then they could be cross-examined on any contradictory statements they made in the documentary,' he tells the Daily Mail. However, while Victoria's belief may make her an unfavorable witness to the defense, Bassett believes she is unlikely to be called anyway, due to her age at the time of the killings. Ellerup, meanwhile, married Heuermann two years after he allegedly killed his first victim, Sandra Costilla. A fairytale love story Ellerup looks back fondly on her love story with the man now accused of being a serial killer. She was 18 and working in a 7-Eleven when she first met the 'tall, dark and handsome' college boy. Despite being 'madly in love', both Ellerup and Heuermann ended up marrying other people. Ellerup reveals her first marriage 'did not go well at all', and that her ex-husband 'became somebody completely different' after their son Christopher was born. When she tried to seek a divorce, she says he 'wasn't very nice about it' and made it clear he wouldn't accept her being happy with someone else. The way Ellerup tells it, Heuermann was something of a knight in shining armor, accompanying her to pick up her son and helping to take her ex-husband to court. 'So fast forward, I got my divorce. There was no reason to hold back. You know what I mean?' she says of her relationship with Heuermann, smiling. Following her divorce, Heuermann took her and Christopher into his home. Not long later, Ellerup became pregnant with Victoria and the couple married in 1995. 'There's a picture of me and I'm looking up going: "I finally got him. He's mine,"' she says, thinking back on their wedding day. Ellerup describes their love story like a fairytale - where Heuermann rescued her and they lived happily ever after. 'He's my hero,' she says. Choosing 'weak wives' Dr Gail Saltz, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, tells the Daily Mail that serial killers deliberately choose certain types of spouses - 'weak wives who are malleable, with low self esteem, who will believe or at least go along with what they say and can be controlled. 'Mostly they marry docile, passive, controllable partners. Partners who won't question them or push back,' she says. 'The wife may, for her own needs, feel her husband is good and decent because believing he is a murderer would make being with him intolerable and she needs him.' Besides a troubled first marriage and life as a young single mother, Ellerup - who was adopted from Iceland - had suffered other traumas at the hands of men. She was sexually assaulted by a classmate aged 16 and tried to kill herself. At 19, she narrowly escaped a kidnapping attempt by hiding in a dumpster for hours. As well as choosing someone who 'needs' him, Saltz says that serial killers also often marry 'to keep an appearance of normalcy to the outside world, to look non-suspicious, more than actually having a real relationship'. And, for 27 years, Heuermann appeared to do just that, keeping up the act of being a loving 'family man' as the couple lived something of a typical suburban family life on Long Island. They raised their children in the popular commuter town of Massapequa Park while he traveled into the city to work as an architect. How could you not know? Ellerup insists that she never saw any signs that her husband was leading a double life. '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.' Victoria also insists her dad was never violent. The biggest display of rage she ever saw was when he threw plates into the sink after what she believed were stressful days at work. Still, Ellerup faces skepticism about whether she truly knew nothing of her husband's alleged crimes. 'How could you not know? How could you not know that your husband was a serial killer?' Ellerup says. 'Know what? My husband was home. He is a family man,' she insists. It's a question Kerri Rawson, the daughter of BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, says she and her mother have heard a 'million times'. 'I understand having reasonable questions. Is she in denial? Is she lying? Is she disassociated?' Rawson says in the show. 'The thing is, when you're sitting in the cheap seats with the popcorn, you're in hindsight-land… you're not sitting in the everyday with a normal man.' She says that people underestimate 'the control' and 'manipulation' in such situations. While Rawson and her mother never saw signs of her father's double life, they accepted his guilt after he was arrested. 'No matter what' After sitting 'on the fence', Victoria appears to be doing the same - envisioning a future where she has a 'love-hate relationship' with the man who raised her. 'Whether I like it or not, he is my dad. I think if he was guilty, it would be a love-hate relationship. This is my dad and I love him as my dad,' she says. 'The hate is the other side of him that came out.' But Ellerup's seems to be still in a place of denial about the man she has known and loved since the age of 18. Professor Salz says that a wife may align with a suspected serial killer if she 'cannot accept this was their marriage, their partner and they feel overwhelming shame and guilt and so they deny to themselves this could be true.' Even if Ellerup's changes down the line, she shows little sign of wanting to let go of what she thinks of as their fairytale. To the man accused of slaughtering multiple women, she has an unwavering, romantic message: 'I love you, no matter what.'
New York Post
11-06-2025
- New York Post
Kin of accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann recall night their lives changed in new documentary: ‘This isn't happening'
The pounding on the door of the unkempt Massapequa Park house late on the night of July 13, 2023, changed the lives of Rex Heuermann's family forever. FBI agents and local cops forced their way in and upended the lives of the accused Long Island serial killer's wife and two grown children, just hours after the hulking architect was arrested outside his Manhattan office in the grisly cold-case murder of three women. Their beloved father is a monster. Advertisement 7 Rex Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, left, and her daughter, Victoria Heuerrmann, recall the 2023 FBI raid. Peacock 7 Rex Heuermann's Massapequa Park home has been mobbed by media and onlookers since his 2023 arrest. James Keivom 'And I just hear banging: 'FBI, open up!'' Victoria Heuermann, the accused killer's daughter, said in her first public interviews in the new Peacock docu-series, 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets.' 'This isn't happening. This isn't happening. Advertisement 'I knew my dad had stuff with the IRS, Dept. of Labor. But the FBI?' she said. 'And they said we have evidence your dad murdered all these women and your home is now a crime scene. I never would imagine I'd hear that in my life.' Rex Heuermann, 61, now stands charged with the murder and mutilation of seven sex workers who disappeared more than 30 years and were dumped in desolate stretches of Long Island. 7 Rex Heuermann is charged with the murder and mutilation of seven Long Island sex workers since 1993. Newsday 7 Rex Heuermann is charged with killing seven sex workers since 1993. He has not been linked to the death of Karen Vergata, who is shown at bottom right. Suffolk County Police Department Advertisement Suffolk County prosecutors maintain that the accused killer kept a detailed 'how-to' document on his computer to plan the gruesome slayings — and may have slaughtered the women in the family basement while his wife and daughters were away. They suggested the murders could have happened inside a concrete gun vault in the family's basement, where Heuermann, a gun enthusiast, stored as many as 300 weapons. To his wife and children, news of his alleged exploits shattered their lives in one night. Asa Ellerup, Rex Heuermann's wife, recalled waiting up for her husband to return from his Midtown office on the day of the FBI raid, when the knock on the door came around 11 p.m. Advertisement 'I was waiting for my husband, but he didn't come home. And then suddenly I see them come on the front porch,' she said. 'They push their way in and they asked me, do you know why we're here. And I said, my husband's guns? 7 Peacock's new docu-series, 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,' includes first-ever interviews. AP 'And the woman investigator says to me, 'Have you heard about the murders on Gilgo Beach?' And I said, 'I heard of them, but I don't know anything. And she said, 'Your husband, he knows all about it,'' Ellerup recalled. 'They're telling me that my husband is alleged to be some horrific serial killer 'And then the investigator says to me my husband will be charged in the morning with murdering three women,' she said in the documentary. 'And I told her she's crazy.' Ellerup, Victoria and her half-brother Christopher Sheridan were all kicked out of the house and into a nearby hotel with little more than the clothes on their backs — but only after being grilled by the feds. 'They started asking about if my dad was ever sexually advancive towards mem or touched me, and I said no, I cannot really recall any time he was like that,' Victoria Heuermann said. 7 Victoria Heuermann, left, and her mother, Asa Ellerup, said the FBI barged into their home on July 13, 2023. Peacock 'For the first time in my life, I'm not waking up in the morning and going to work. I actually don't even know what tomorrow was even gonna look like.' Advertisement What followed was the first of two intrusive and thorough searches of the house that saw local, state and federal authorities rummage inside and dig out the backyard in a hunt for evidence. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said DNA evidence from hairs found on the bodies of all seven victims linked back to the Heuermanns — including a sample found on a pizza box outside the Manhattan office and a sample snatched from a soft drink Victoria tossed into a trash can. Heuermann, 61, stands accused of killing seven sex workers since 1993 and dumping them along Ocean Parkway — with the remains found between 2010 and 2011. 7 Rex Heuermann and Asa Ellerup met when they were 18 and eventually married in 1995 in Sweden. Peacock Advertisement The murders remained unsolved until his 2023 arrest in the deaths of Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. In January 2024 he was also charged with killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes, with the four women collectively known as the 'Gilgo Four' among locals. Tierney ultimately charged Heuermann with three other murders — Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, the first victim, who was killed in 1993. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to all of the charges lodged against him. His lawyer, Michael Brown, has asked the judge to separate at least some of the murder cases to have them tried separately, and has raised doubts about the DNA evidence.
