Rex Heuermann’s spouse Asa Ellerup, was noticed heading into courtroom the Suffolk County Supreme Courtroom in Riverhead on Wednesday for a listening to.
When requested why she was there, she reportedly refused to elucidate, the New York Put up reviews.
Ms Ellerup has spoken out to say that she is standing by her husband and has “given him the good thing about the doubt” over his alleged involvement within the Gilgo Seashore murders that forged a shadow of terror by the Lengthy Island shores for greater than a decade.
Asa Ellerup, who shares two grownup youngsters with the accused serial killer, launched an announcement in March through which she insisted he’s “not able to the crimes he’s accused of”.
“I’ll hearken to all the proof and withhold judgment till the top of trial,” mentioned Ms Ellerup in an announcement, launched by her legal professional Bob Macedonio.
“I’ve given him the good thing about the doubt, as all of us deserve.”
Mr Macedonio advised ABC Information that Ms Ellerup – who filed for divorce simply days after his July 2023 arrest within the high-profile case – had visited Mr Heuermann “a number of occasions” since he was charged with the homicide of a fourth sufferer in January and “she doesn’t consider he’s able to this”.
Ms Ellerup’s legal professional mentioned that she additionally needed to increase her “heartfelt sympathies” to the victims and their households.
“No one deserves to die in that method,” she mentioned within the assertion.
It’s now been eight months since Mr Heuermann was arrested and charged with three of the murders that had rocked the Lengthy Island group of Gilgo Seashore for greater than a decade.
Mr Heuermann was initially charged in July with the murders of three girls Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.
This January, he was additionally charged with the homicide of a fourth sufferer Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
The 4 girls, collectively referred to as the “Gilgo 4”, all labored as intercourse staff and disappeared after going to fulfill a shopper.
Their our bodies had been present in December 2010 inside one-quarter mile of one another, sure by belts or tape and a few wrapped in burlap – all dumped alongside Gilgo Seashore.
Courtroom paperwork laying out the case in opposition to the 60-year-old Manhattan architect state that hairs belonging to Ms Ellerup had been discovered on Waterman, Costello – and on the belt used to bind Brainard-Barnes.
Prosecutors discovered that the suspect’s spouse was out of city on the time of the murders however that her hair may have transferred to the crime scene by her husband’s clothes or him utilizing gadgets resembling tape taken from the household residence. A hair belonging to Mr Heuermann was additionally allegedly discovered on the burlap wrapped round Waterman’s physique.
Ms Ellerup and the couple’s grownup youngsters, Victoria Heuermann, 26, and Christopher Sheridan, 33, are mentioned to have been blindsided by his shock arrest.
Vess Mitev, an legal professional representing the grownup youngsters, beforehand advised The Impartial that the household was merely attempting to outlive after being thrust into the nationwide highlight over their member of the family’s alleged crimes.
“The Heuermann youngsters have been residing in a relentless, surreal, waking nightmare,” he mentioned.
“Simply because the information protection doesn’t proceed or it’s not within the information every day every day, for them it’s every single day, it’s each second. It’s the second they wake up to date they return to sleep once more.
“It’s a state of affairs you wouldn’t wish to want on anybody. It’s not a actuality.”
He added: “Their focus has simply been on managing their fundamental each day wants. We have now particular, elementary wants that we require to outlive as folks and that has actually been their major objective as their sources have been depleted fully or are not accessible to them.
“Their fundamental wants resembling meals, clothes, shelter and a secure area to sleep in have been all however obliterated. They’re attempting to piece again collectively these very fundamental however but so important issues that the majority of us take with no consideration.”
It has since emerged that the accused killer has signed over full possession of the household property to his spouse – and that Ms Ellerup is working with Peacock on a documentary.
In whole, the stays of 11 victims had been discovered alongside the shores of Lengthy Island in 2010 and 2011, sparking fears of a number of serial killers.
The case started again in Could 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a younger lady working as a intercourse employee, vanished after leaving a shopper’s home on foot close to Gilgo Seashore. She known as 911 for assist saying she feared for her life and was by no means seen alive once more.
Throughout a seek for Gilbert in a dense thicket near the seashore, police found human stays. Inside days, 4 victims had been discovered.
By spring 2011, the variety of victims rose to 10.
Gilbert’s physique was then present in December 2011. Her reason for dying is broadly contested with authorities lengthy claiming that it’s not linked to the serial killer or killers however that she died from unintended drowning as she fled from the shopper’s residence.
Nevertheless, an impartial post-mortem commissioned by her household dominated that she died by strangulation and her household proceed to consider she was murdered.
No fees have been introduced in connection to the opposite victims additionally discovered alongside the shores.