Suspected 'Gilgo Four' serial killer to appear in court today

Estranged wife says her two children 'cry themselves to sleep' every night

Published: August 1, 2023 12:00pm

After 12 days of investigators searching his Long Island home, suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is set to appear in court Tuesday in connection three of the four killing for which he is charged. 

Heuermann is set to appear in a Suffolk County court at 2 p.m. He was arrested July 13 outside his Manhattan office. 

Heuermann is also the lead suspect for the murder of a fourth woman found near Gilgo Beach.

His scheduled appearance comes one day after The New York Post published an interview with his wife, Asa Ellerup, who said investigators tore apart the family's Massapequa Park, N.Y., home looking for evidence.

The search reportedly resulted in the discovery of nearly 300 weapons in the basement.

"My children cry themselves to sleep," Ellerup said. "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."

Ellerup’s lawyer, Bob Macedonio, later told CNN that Ellerup's daughter, Victoria Heuermann, described the investigators at her home as "complete animals," saying that, "they treated them like animals."

Christopher Sheridan, Ellerup's special needs son, and Victoria, were forced out of their home after Heuermann was arrested and charged with the three murders.

Ellerup said that many valuable items were destroyed in her house including rare Dungeons and Dragons cards, a well kept greenhouse and her son's guitar.

"We just got back from the residence," Macedonio said Monday, "We’re making an itemized list of all things. Since she just returned home, we don’t know the extent of the damage or what’s missing. We'll be in touch with the DA's office."

Ellerup filed for divorce less than a week after Heuermann was arrested. She and her family are yet to visit him in jail, authorities reportedly say.

In addition to the murder of the three women who were all petite former sex workers in their 20s – Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello.

More than 10 different sets of human remains were found near Gilgo Beach, on Long Island, from December 2010 to April 2011. The four women that Heuerman is suspected of killing were all near each other and likely put there around similar times, authorities says. 

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