Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is due back in court on Long Island Tuesday, the day after his estranged wife shared the impact of his arrest and the ongoing investigation is having on the family.
Heuermann, 59, was arrested on July 13 and charged with murder in connection with the deaths of three women — Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22 — found on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the killing of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
On Monday, his estranged wife Asa Ellerup, 59, said during an exclusive interview with the New York Post that her two adult children "cry themselves to sleep" after his arrest.
"My children cry themselves to sleep," she told the Post, referencing her 33-year-old special-needs son, Christopher Sheridan, and her 26-year-old daughter, Victoria Heuermann, who live together in their Massapequa Park home. "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."
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She also said investigators wrecked her Long Island home during their search for evidence in connection with the killings, leaving her without a bed to sleep in. She also suffers from anxiety, she explained.
Victoria Heuermann said she feels "not human" after the home was wrecked, the Post reported.
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."
Macedonio said Ellerup, who filed for divorce after Rex Heuermann was taken into custody, was "blindsided" by her husband's arrest.
"She was in complete shock. Completely caught by surprise," Macedonio said, per the Post.
Suffolk County Police and New York State Police tore up the Heuermann home in search of body parts, even digging up the backyard.
Ellerup described the house as unlivable but said,"It's the only thing I got."
"I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering," she added.
"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 told the Post. "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.'"
Police ended their search last week, allowing Ellerup and her children to return home for the first time.
"[Cops] walked up, they went into the vehicles and out the door they went," Ellerup said. "Out. 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."
"I had three cats. Litter boxes were a strew, thrown on top of everything," she continued. "My pictures were thrown all over the place. My couch was completely shredded. I don’t even know if there's any parts to the couch."
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"I had a greenhouse and I like planting seeds and my greenhouse, they it, they lifted it up," she added. "They stuck it, it’s high. You know, they threw it on top of a whole bunch of stuff. It’s a $3,000 greenhouse."
According to Macedonio, police changed the locks on the house so the family had to obtain new keys.
Ellerup said investigators damaged some of the family's personal belongings, including some which were valuable.
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Macedonio said the family is still in the process of taking stock of the damage to the home.
"We just got back from the residence," he said. "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."
Rex Heuermann pleaded not guilty on July 14 and his family has not visited him since his arrest.