Asa Ererup, the estranged wife of architect and suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuerman, said in a statement Wednesday night that she does not believe her husband is “able to carry out” the charges against him. revealed.
“We will listen to all the evidence and reserve judgment until after the trial,” she said through her attorneys Bob Macedonio and George Duncan. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve.”
Heuerman is charged with first- and second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of four women whose bodies were found in brush along Ocean Parkway, about 80 miles east of New York City. ing. The victim was Melissa Barthelemy (24). Megan Waterman, 22 years old. Amber Costello, 27 years old. and Maureen Brainard Burns (25).
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Asa Ellerup attends a press conference at the Suffolk County Courthouse on January 16, 2024 in Riverhead, New York. Ellerup is the estranged wife of serial killer Rex Heuerman, and she appeared in court that day on an additional murder charge. Death of Maureen Brainard-Burns. (Robert Miller, Fox News Digital)
“Ms. Ellerup visits Mr. Heuerman weekly and continues to maintain that Rex is incapable of committing the crimes he is accused of,” her attorney said in a statement.
After Heuerman was arrested in July, Ellerup, who filed for divorce, began visiting him regularly at the Suffolk County Jail.
Visitation records show Ellerup first visited him in November and stopped by seven times, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said. She claimed in her statement that she attends every week.
Her attorney said she began seeing her husband more frequently after he was charged in January with Brainard Burns’ death. This comes months after prosecutors filed charges in three other cases.
“Gilgo Four”, clockwise from top left: Maureen Brainard Burns, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello. In the background, a wooden cross is shown in a swamp adjacent to Gilgo Beach, New York, where their bodies were discovered in the brush just a few meters from Ocean Parkway. (Suffolk County Police Department/Fox News Digital Mega)
Macedonio told Fox News Digital that the divorce process is still ongoing and that the couple had been having problems before Heuerman’s arrest. Prosecutors have argued that Mr. Heuerman continued to regularly patronize sex workers until his arrest, with women in the industry testifying to encounters with him in places as far away as Atlantic City, Las Vegas and San Francisco. ing.
Her lawyer said he would like to send his “heartfelt sympathies” to the victim and her family.
“No one deserves to die like that,” she said.
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Now, although she has gotten over the initial shock of learning that her husband is accused of one of the area’s most notorious unsolved murders, she remains skeptical of the charges but has decided to let due process take its course. Macedonio added that he had decided.
Rex Heuerman, the alleged Gilgo serial killer, appears in Judge Tim Mazzei’s courtroom in Suffolk County, New York, on February 6, 2024. Heuerman is accused of murdering four women whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach in 2010. (James Carbone/Newsday via Pool)
Heuerman is accused of murdering a group of women known as the Gilgo Four. Their bodies were all discovered at close range during the search for Shanann Gilbert, who went missing after a panicked 911 call in 2010. More than a decade later, Suffolk County police said they believe Gilbert’s death was an accident.
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However, after a search, the bodies of Gilgo Four and six other victims were discovered further east on Ocean Parkway.
A road sign directing drivers to Gilgo Beach, off Ocean Parkway, about 45 miles east of New York City. (Michael Lewis/Fox News Digital)
Investigations into the remaining deaths are ongoing.
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Heuerman is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail and is scheduled to reappear in court on April 17.
A skull mask is attached to a cross in the wetlands behind Gilgo Beach, south of Long Island, New York, on July 19, 2023. Gilgo Four’s body was found in brush in the background along Ocean Parkway. (Fox News Digital Mega)
he was born and raised Massapequa Park, New York. He bought his childhood home from his mother in the 1990s and moved his family there.
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Neighbors described him as a quiet businessman who carried his briefcase to a nearby train station and wore a three-piece suit to his Manhattan office five days a week.
