Gilgo Beach Suspect Rex Heuermann's Wife Says Their Adult Kids 'Cry Themselves To Sleep'
Rex A. Heuermann, an architect who is accused of the Gilgo Beach murders, appears in "selfie" photographs provided by prosecutors.
Rex Heuermann’s wife and family are still reeling from allegations that the New York architect killed at least three women in a string of grisly murders.
Heuermann, 59, was arrested last month in connection with the notorious Gilgo Beach murders. He was charged with three counts each of first- and second-degree murder and is suspected of killing a fourth woman. The victims’ remains were found near the Long Island beach between 2010 and 2011.
In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, his wife, Asa Ellerup, said the family is still in shock.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering,” she told the newspaper. “My children cry themselves to sleep. 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.”
“He’s so distraught and doesn’t understand,” she later added. “And as a mother, I have no answers for him. But I said, ‘We’re together.’”
Ellerup filed for divorce after Heuermann’s arrest and was prohibited from entering their Massapequa Park home as investigators searched for “trophies” of her husband’s alleged killings.
She was reportedly seen outside their home as it was being searched. The 59-year-old said once she was allowed to enter, she “might have had a few steps of walking space” amid the forensic ransacking.
Asa Ellerup said her kids “cry themselves to sleep” and that her son “doesn't understand.”
“I had three cats,” she told the New York Post. “Litter boxes were a strew, thrown on top of everything. My pictures were thrown all over the place. My couch was completely shredded. I don’t even know if there’s any parts to the couch.”
She described having to remove the foam from a Pelican travel case so she could have a place to lie down, as well as authorities removing a greenhouse from the backyard, where they’ve been digging for evidence.
Her daughter, Victoria Heuermann, said the way she’s been treated felt “not human.” Ellerup’s lawyer Bob Macedonio — who previously said the family is “enduring a profound and indescribable catastrophe” — said Victoria meant authorities “treated them like animals.”
Rex Heuermann is accused of killing Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Costello, 27, and suspected of killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. They were among the skeletal remains of at least 10 people, most of whom were sex workers, found on Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty to all charges and is being held on suicide watch at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility. The county sheriff told WABC in New York that when he visited Heuermann, he showed “no emotion.”
