09 September 2023 , 10:27
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The wife of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has described what it was like in the days after the shocking arrest.
Prosecutors have charged the Long Island architect for the murder of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello after human remains were found along a desolate stretch of coastal road. Police say he is a suspect in a fourth killing.
In March, detectives tailing Heuermann recovered his DNA from pizza crust in a box that he’d discarded in a Manhattan trash can and matched it to DNA from a hair found on a restraint used in the killings, authorities said.
Before the arrest, he lived with his wife Asa Ellerup, 59, and their children at a home in Massapequa Park home for over two decades. Following the seismic development in the case, their home and the area became a circus as investigators and journalists descended.
Distraught wife Asa Ellerup filed for divorce following her husband's arrest (Asa Ellerup/ Facebook)Ms Ellerup and their two adult children, Christopher and Victoria, had to vacate their home so it could be searched. But months later, peace and quiet returned to the neighbourhood. Ms Ellerup was seen sitting on a lawn chair in front of the house with a hood up.
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She told a reporter from the Sun US about the shock and dissociation of those days immediately after her husband's arrest. Giving an exhausted shrug, she said: "I didn't know where I was."
The family were allowed to return after 12 days and came back to find the whole place turned upside down. Ms Ellerup said because of her "anxiety" she "woke up in the middle of the night, shivering". She is from prominent architect , 59, after he was outside his Manhattan office on July 13.
Investigators at their Long Island home (AP)"My children cry themselves to sleep," she said. "I mean, they're not children. They're grown adults but they're my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep."
She said her daughter, Victoria Heuermann, has expressed feeling "not human" in the wake of her father's arrest and the subsequent turmoil the family has faced. Ms Ellerup's lawyer, Bob Macedonio, further explained: "She meant what they've done to them and the family is not even human.
"They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals."
Gilgo Beach where the bodies were found (Getty Images)Ms Ellerup said that, despite the unlivable conditions her house has been left in, "It's the only thing I got. We did get another chair out from the basement and upstairs so me and my son can sit and talk.
"He's so distraught and doesn't understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him. But I said, 'We're together, that's what really matters right now. That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this'."
Ms Ellerup along with her son Christopher Sheridan, 33, who has developmental needs, and her 26-year-old daughter, Victoria Heuermann, were suddenly forced out of their home after Heuermann was arrested and charged on July 13 with the three cold-case killings.
Authorities work outside as they search the home of suspect Rex Heuermann, (AP)Heuermann is facing three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of three women whose bodies were discovered in December 2010, he is also the prime suspect in a fourth killing in the group of victims who became known as the 'Gilgo Four'. Heuermann has been charged with the murders of Ambler Lynn Costello, 27, from North Carolina, , 24, from New York state, and Megan Waterman, 22, from Maine. He is the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 24 from Connecticut.
The four women's bodies were discovered wrapped in burlap in the brush alongside Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach in Long Island, in December 2010 during a search for 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert, who was last seen at the nearby gated Oak Beach community. Melissa's body was discovered first, on December 11, 2010, with Megan, Maureen and Amber all found just two days later on December 13. All four women had been strangled, according to medical examiners.
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Mr Macedonio said Ms Ellerup was "blindsided" by her husband's arrest. He said: "She was in complete shock. Completely caught by surprise."