Asa Ellerup, the wife of Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann, said her children “cry themselves to sleep” since he was arrested on suspicion of being the “Long Island Serial Killer.”
In an interview with the New York Post published Monday, Ellerup, 59, detailed the “anxiety” she and her family has felt since police searched her Massapequa Park, New York home for 12 days following her estranged husband’s arrest.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering,” Ellerup told the Post. “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.”
Ellerup’s daughter, Victoria Heuermann, said she feels “not human” considering how the police have treated them.
“She meant what they’ve done to them and the family is not even human,” Ellerup’s lawyer, Bob Macedonio, elaborated. “They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals.”
“[The police] walked up, they went into the vehicles and out the door they went. Out,” Ellerup told the Post of the police search. “They left. And when I got into the house I might have had a few steps of walking space between my front door and the kitchen.”
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“I had three cats. Litter boxes were a strew, thrown on top of everything. My pictures were thrown all over the place,” she continued. “My couch was completely shredded. I don’t even know if there’s any parts to the couch.”
“There was a Pelican case in my house which had clothes in it, and inside of a Pelican case they have foam. I was able to take two pieces of foam and I was able to take two pieces of foam and put it together so I could lay down,” Ellerup noted.
“My backyard, I can’t even explain it,” she said. “I had a greenhouse and I like planting seeds and my greenhouse, they lifted it up. They stuck it, it’s high. They threw it on top of a whole bunch of stuff. It’s a $3,000 greenhouse.”
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Despite the disheveled state of her home, Ellerup told the Post: “It’s the only thing I got. We did get another chair out from the basement and upstairs so me and my son can sit and talk.”
“He’s so distraught and doesn’t understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him,” she added. “But I said, ‘We’re together.’ That’s really what matters right now. That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this.’”
As previously reported, Heuermann was charged with the murders of Amber Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22, and has since pleaded not guilty to the charges of first- and second-degree murder. He is also a suspect in the murder of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes. All four women worked as online escorts and were reported missing between 2007 and 2010.
Macedonio told the Post that Ellerup was “blindsided” by Heuermann’s arrest. “She was in complete shock. Completely caught by surprise,” Macedonia added.
“We just got back from the residence. We’re making an itemized list of all things,” Macedonia explained. “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.”
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