The wife of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuerman was shocked when police stormed their Long Island home after he was arrested last week for the gruesome murders of at least three sex workers outside his Manhattan office.
But Asa Ellerup, 59, had a different reaction after showing her ‘some pictures’, helping her come to terms with the fact that she has been suspected of carrying out the notorious murders in the area for decades.
‘When we told the wife, she was shocked, she was embarrassed,’ Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told Fox 5. ‘But there was one point where we showed him certain pictures and he said, ‘Okay, this is it. .”
On Wednesday, about a week after her arrest, Ellarup, who is filing for divorce from Heuerman, 59, was seen leaving the office of her attorney Robert Macedoniano in East Islip, New York. Their daughter Victoria Heuerman, 26, and her stepson Christopher Sheridan were with her.
Asa Ellarup, 59, who filed for divorce from Heuerman, 59, on Wednesday, about a week after her arrest, was seen leaving the office of her attorney, Robert Macedoniano, in East Islip.
Ellerup and Heurman’s daughter Victoria Heurman, 26, and their stepson Christopher Sheridan were with him at the lawyer’s office Wednesday.
Rex Heuerman, 59, was arrested outside his Manhattan farm and charged with murdering the three women. He is the prime suspect in the fourth murder
Photo taken Saturday of the Heuermann-Ellerup home on Long Island, as investigators remove items
Heuerman is charged with murder in the deaths of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22. He pleaded not guilty on Friday.
The police commissioner did not reveal which images were shown to his wife, but Heuermann is depicted in a variety of images, from taking selfies while hooking up with sex workers to surveillance video footage of purchasing a burner phone.
Ellarup’s lawyer, Robert Macedonia, told Newstimesuk.com on Wednesday that police executed a search warrant at the family’s New York home in Massapequa Park when they arrested Heuerman in midtown Manhattan.
“He was in complete shock,” the lawyer said. ‘Their whole life has been turned upside down.’
He was away when the women were killed and neighbors said they were rarely seen together
Their daughter Victoria Heuermann, 26, worked as a receptionist with her father.
Asa Ellarup vs. Rex Heuerman is listed as an ‘uncontested’ matrimonial filing on Wednesday, with a complaint, summons and ‘notice of continuation of health care coverage’ filed and processed.
Ellarup immigrated to the United States from Iceland as a child and grew up near Heuerman, Long Island.
He was away when the women were killed and neighbors said the couple were rarely seen together.
It has now emerged Heuerman owns two other homes – in Las Vegas and South Carolina – and police are investigating whether he may be connected to any unsolved murders there.
Under New York state law, all divorce filings are sealed from public scrutiny, but the case and party names are docketed and posted.
Asa Ellerup vs. Rex Heuemann is listed as an ‘uncontested’ matrimonial filing on Wednesday, with a complaint, summons and ‘notice regarding continuation of health care coverage’ filed and processed.
Macedonia told Newstimesuk.com on Wednesday: ‘I can confirm that we filed a summons for divorce today in Suffolk County Supreme Court.’
She said Ellarup was home at the time of her husband’s arrest in Manhattan, and authorities searched the residence at the same time.
“When they made the arrest, they executed the search warrant at the same time, so there’s no tipoff for anybody to destroy any kind of evidence,” Macedoniano said. ‘So when they were taking him to Manhattan, there was already a team waiting at home to do it as soon as they got him so he wouldn’t call and say ‘hey.’
Ellerup attended Farmingdale High School and was briefly married at age 20, divorcing in the early 1990s in Queens. It is unclear whether she had a professional life outside the home.
Their daughter Victoria Heuermann, 26, worked as a receptionist with her father, and they have a stepson, Christopher Sheridan.
Dr. Johanna Ellarup, a pharmacist who lives just seven miles from the Long Island home Heuerman shared with her sister, said the family had not heard from Asa Ellarup.
An elderly man believed to be Asa Ellarup’s father Frode was seen at Johanna’s house
Heuermann’s daughter Victoria worked with him at the architecture firm where he was arrested
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said he does not believe Heuerman’s family was aware of his double life. His daughter Victoria is pictured
The family kept to themselves and neighbors said no one remembered being invited to their home.
Ellerup’s sister Johanna Ellerup, a pharmacist who lives seven miles from their Long Island home, told Newstimesuk.com that their mother has died and their father still lives in the house where Asha and Johanna Ellerup grew up.
‘We haven’t heard from him, we don’t have his address,’ said Johanna Ellarup. ‘We know nothing.’
She added her father is old ‘and it’s overwhelming for him’.
‘True, I swear we know less than you,’ said Johanna. ‘We know nothing. We know nothing.’
The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County police on Dec. 11, 2010. Megan Waterman, 22, was found two days later.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 when she disappeared (left). Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old. Their bodies were found near Barthelemy on the same day
The suspect’s home sits directly north of Gilgo Beach across South Oyster Bay
An aerial view of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach and area near Ocean Parkway
Heuerman was arrested in connection with the murder. Police are investigating whether he is involved in any other unsolved crimes
Ellarup was reportedly traveling in Maryland, New Jersey and Iceland at the time of the murders of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Melissa Barthelemy, whose bodies were dumped on Gilgo Beach.
When sex worker Barthelemy disappeared from her Bronx home on July 12, 2009, travel records show Asa was in Iceland.
He left for his native land on July 8, 2009 and stayed there till August.
A year later, 22-year-old prostitute Megan Waterman was last seen on June 6, 2010.
Records suggest his phone likely traveled to Massapequa Park and the location of the cell site was near Human’s home.
According to cellphone billing records, Ellerup was in Maryland during this time, traveling from New York on July 4, 2010, and returning four days later.
Amber Costello, a 27-year-old who also works as a sex worker, was last seen by acquaintances on September 2, 2010.
Ellerup was traveling again, leaving home on Aug. 28, 2010, and returning from New Jersey on Sept. 5, billing records show, according to court documents.
A member of the crime lab was seen examining the items outside Human’s home on Tuesday
Police were on the scene Tuesday at Heuerman’s Long Island home
First look at Gilgo Murders suspect Rex Heuerman as he is led into court from the Suffolk Police 7th Precinct. Charges will be made public soon pic.twitter.com/BmysKoGzEy
— GREG CERGOL4NY (@GREGCERGOL4NY) July 14, 2023
Police first searched Rex Heuerman’s home after his arrest on July 13, 2023.
New York State Police officers are seen carrying large amounts of evidence outside the home of Rex Heuerman in Massapequa Park, N.Y., Monday afternoon, July 17, 2023.
On Monday night, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said he did not believe Human’s family was aware of his alleged crimes.
‘They were upset. They were embarrassed,’ Harrison said.
‘So if you ask me, I don’t believe they knew about this double life that Heuermann was living.’
At the IGA supermarket in Massapequa, where Ellerup and her children often shopped, the cashiers knew them as a quiet, cheerful family.
And although Ellerup visited the store several times a week, they say Heuerman never accompanied her and their children.
Store manager Mary Salmeri told the New York Times, ‘He never came with them.
‘I’m not sure what that says about them.’
Ellerup often looked depressed, she added, and the family would pay for their groceries using food stamps.
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