'My children cry themselves to sleep,' Rex Heuermann's estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, said in her first interview
Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect facing a 'mountain of evidence': Phil Holloway
Former assistant district attorney Phil Holloway analyzes the evidence against suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann on 'America Reports.'
Prosecutors Tuesday described a massive amount of evidence they have to turn over to accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann and his defense team.
At the brief hearing, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Santino Martino told the court that they would hand over 8 terabytes of data by Sept. 27, as Heuermann, wearing handcuffs, a black jacket and a blue shirt, looked on stone-faced.
The evidence includes 2,500 pages of documents, crime scene photos, autopsy reports and over 100 hours of video surveillance, Martino said.
Heuermann, 59, was arrested July 13 for the murders of sex workers Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22, whose bodies were found days apart on a stretch of Gilgo Beach in 2010.
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Rex A. Heuermann, the architect accused of murdering at least three women near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, appears before Judge Timothy P. Mazzei in Suffolk County Court on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Riverhead, N.Y. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)
The unassuming architect, who ran his own firm in Midtown Manhattan, is also the prime suspect in the slaying of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney sat in the courtroom with the victims' relatives, then gave a press conference describing the "voluminous" amount of evidence investigators had collected over 13 years.
Heuermann's defense lawyer, Michael Brown, told reporters that he's "not trying the case in the press" and that his client maintains his innocence.
Heuermann allegedly lived a double life. By day, he was a successful businessman, devoted husband and father to two children.
Rex Heuermann's estranged wife, Asa Ellerup and their daughter, Victoria Heuermann, returning to their Massapequa home after investigators turned it upside down. Heuermann is accused of murdering three sex workers whose bodies were found in Long Island 2010. (Mega/Jeffrey Simon Architecture & Design)
By night, he was allegedly a predator who terrorized sex workers and their families for his sick gratification.
Officials have said that his family knew nothing of his twisted predilections and were gobsmacked by the allegations.
Heuermann's crushed wife, who filed for divorce after his arrest, spoke exclusively to The New York Post on Monday.
Asa Ellerup, 59, said she had lived in the Massapequa home with Heuermann, their two children, Christopher Sheridan, 33, who has special-needs, and their daughter Victoria Heuermann, 26, who had worked at her father's architecture firm.
They're shocked and devastated by the accusations against Heuermann, Ellerup said.
"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," she told The Post.
A general view of Rex Heuermann’s house in Massapequa Park, New York, on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Police and forensic teams departed the house on Tuesday after executing search warrants throughout the accused Gilgo Beach murderer’s home. (MEGA for Fox News Digital )
WATCH 'GRIM TIDE' ON FOX NATION
After Heuermann's arrest, his family was booted from the Massapequa home for two weeks while investigators searched for evidence.
They tore apart every room and dug up the backyard, destroying furniture and keepsakes, Ellerup said. Photos show a bathtub with the side cut out and a chunk of tile missing from the floor.
The family returned to the home a few days ago, and Ellerup recalled her daughter saying she feels "not human" living in the destruction left behind.
Counter-clockwise from left: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Megan Waterman, 22 and Melissa Barthelemy, 24, disappeared after meeting with a client on Craigslist. The remains of the women were found in December 2010 at Gilgo Beach on Long Island. (Suffolk County Police Department)
Ellerup’s lawyer, Bob Macedonio, clarified, "She meant what they’ve done to them and the family is not even human. They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals."
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Ellerup added that even though the house is in complete disarray, "It's the only thing I got."
She tried to explain the situation to her special-needs son. "He’s so distraught and doesn’t understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him," Ellerup told the Post.
Asa Ellerup and her children walk through parking lot July 18, 2023. (Dario Alequin for Fox News Digital )
Heuermann pleaded not guilty July 14 and has denied the charges through his lawyer. The murders, dubbed the Gilgo Four, had long baffled investigators.
In 2022, a task force took a fresh crack at the unsolved case using cellphone data, DNA and eyewitness accounts to zero in on Heuermann.
Rebecca Rosenberg is a veteran journalist and book author with a focus on crime and criminal justice. Email tips to
