Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
The Gilgo Beach serial killer left ten victims in his wake and the suspect has been charged in four out of ten of the murders. The suspect is named Rex Heuermann from Massapequa, Long Island. Nine of the victims were adults and the tenth victim was a toddler. Four out of the nine victims were dubbed the Gilgo Four.
In 2022, a task force was formed to crack this cold case and eventually charge Heuermann. The task force determined it was the work of a serial killer because the bodies were treated in a uniform way. They were led to Heuermann via DNA evidence and phone records linking him to four of the ten bodies. The other six remain solved at this time. At the time of his arrest, Heuermann had a wife and kids. Despite what’s been said and discovered about Heuermann, his wife is reluctant to believe that her husband committed these murders.
Like any spouse, Heuermann’s wife was in complete shock when she learned from police what her husband was arrested for. What followed next was worse. The press invaded the family’s neighborhood after the news broke, forcing them to face national attention. Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for a divorce not long after this experience. But Ellerup speaks out on what her husband may or may not have done.
According to NBC, Ellerup had opened up about her 33 year-old son who has developmental disabilities crying himself to sleep because he doesn’t fully understand what is happening with his family with the Post. “My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, they’re not children. They’re grown adults but they’re my children,’’ said Ellerup in the interview. She also mentions that she’s feeling anxiety over everything because the way they were treated was like animals by law enforcement.
NBC mentions that investigators spent twelve days searching the family home, only to leave the one-story home unlivable. Their belongings were all over the place, their couch was shredded, and the greenhouse was a mess. The most disturbing thing found in the search was Heuermann’s cache of over 200 guns.
In the wake of the destructive search, Ellerup’s attorney said they will be creating an itemized list of damaged and missing property before contacting the District Attorney’s office. According to Yahoo Canada News, Ellerup continues to visit her soon to be ex-husband in jail despite the pending divorce. It’s unknown if it’s for settlement reasons. Despite Ellerup believing Huermann couldn’t have committed these murders, right now Heuermann is set to appear in court on April 17th after pleading not guilty to four charges of murder.
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