Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect’s contact with wife revealed
Asa Ellerup filed for divorce just days after the architect’s bombshell arrest for the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello
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The wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann has stayed in contact with him since his bombshell arrest for the murders of at least three women, it has been revealed.
Asa Ellerup – who has been married to the accused serial killer for more than 20 years and shares two adult children with him – has spoken to her husband in “personal” jailhouse phone calls while he remains behind bars in Suffolk County jail, her attorney Robert Macedonio told CNN on Tuesday.
“I believe there has [been contact] but you have to realise any phone calls are recorded out of the facility,” he said, declining to detail the contents of those conversations.
As jailhouse calls are recorded, he said that he had advised Ms Ellerup not to discuss any details of the case with her husband by phone.
“So she’s been [on] very basic phone calls. Everything’s recorded. She’s not to discuss anything, and nor does his attorneys want him discussing anything about the allegations,” he said.
Ms Ellerup filed for divorce just days after the architect’s bombshell arrest for the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello, which had gone unsolved for more than a decade.
Her attorney told CNN that the divorce proceedings were largely procedural to protect Ms Ellerup from future potential lawsuits arising from her husband’s alleged crimes.
“It just means you anticipate there may be lawsuits, there may be financial situations she arises in. She needs to focus on herself and her children moving forward,” he said.
“This criminal trial could take two to three years to play out. And she sees it on moving on with her life and her children’s life. And however that works out, she’ll deal with that at the time,” he said.
This week, Ms Ellerup broke her silence in her first interview since her husband’s arrest where she revealed that she has been left filled with “anxiety” and their two children “cry themselves to sleep” over the horror.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering... anxiety,” she told The New York Post.
“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.”
Their daughter Victoria has been left feeling “not human”, with Ms Ellerup’s lawyer Bob Macedonio explaining that the family had been treated “like animals”.
Ms Ellerup spoke out as she said that the family’s home in Massapequa Park had been left in tatters by investigators who spent almost two weeks combing through the property for evidence connected to the murders or for trophies the accused killer took from his victims.
Images show the bathtub with holes cut out and possessions strewn everywhere.
Mr Macedonio told the Post that he is making an itemised list of the damage to send to the DA’s office.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said last week that a “massive amount of evidence” had been recovered from the home which Mr Heuermann grew up in as a child – and which he went on to share with his family up until his sudden arrest.
No human remains were discovered, but a trove of around 270 guns were seized from the home.
The DA previously revealed that they believe at least some of the murders may have taken place inside the home.
Mr Heuermann’s wife and children were out of town at the time of each of the three murders he is charged with, according to court records.
The 59-year-old professional architect Mr Heuermann appeared in court for a brief hearing on Tuesday where prosecutors handed over eight gigabytes of evidence in the case.
The suspect was taken into custody on 13 July, almost 13 years after the bodies of at least 11 victims were discovered along the shores of Gilgo Beach on Long Island.
He was charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.
He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes – who was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City and who, with the three other women, is known as the “Gilgo Four”.
All four women worked as sex workers and disappeared after going to meet a client. They were all found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, bound by belts or tape and some wrapped in burlap – their bodies dumped along Gilgo Beach.
They are among 11 victims whose remains were found along the shores of Long Island in 2010 and 2011, sparking fears of one or more serial killers.
As well as looking into his connection to the murder of Brainard-Barnes and the other Gilgo Beach victims, law enforcement agencies are now also looking into unsolved murders and missing persons cases all across the country.
Police in Las Vegas and South Carolina – where Mr Heuermann owns properties – and Atlantic City – where several sex workers have been found murdered – have confirmed they are eyeing the suspect in cold cases.
Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the “Gilgo Four” murders through a tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, “sadistic” online searches, phone calls taunting victims’ families, his wife’s hair found on the victims’ bodies – and a pizza crust.
The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive.
Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.
Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costello’s disappearance. He also matched the witness’ description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white “ogre”-like male in his mid-40s, around 6’4’ to 6’6” tall, with “dark bushy hair,” and “big oval style 1970’s type eyeglasses”.
The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings.
Among this was Mr Heuermann’s alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing.
He also allegedly took two of the victims’ cellphones – and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state.
Mr Heuermann’s DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wife’s hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.
His arrest comes after the horrific serial killer case has captured the nation’s attention for more than a decade.
The Gilgo Beach murders had long stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.
The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot near Gilgo Beach.
She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.
During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.
Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.
By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler. Police have long thought that it could be the work of one or more serial killers.
Gilbert’s body was then found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the client’s home.
However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.
Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers, while some are yet to be identified.