The wife of Rex Heuermann, a man named by police as a Long Island serial killer, has filed for divorce. According to authorities, the 59yearold architect is responsible for the deaths of at least four women in New York. He was arrested on July 13 after nearly 13 years of investigations. The bodies of the victims were found between 2010 and 2011 and the case became known as the “Gilgo Four”. The information comes from the New York Times and ABC.
According to broadcaster ABC, Asa Ellerup filed a lawsuit to end her marriage to Rex. Shortly after the architect’s arrest, defense attorney Michael Brown issued a statement, calling the client a “loving husband” and explaining that he and Asa had been together for over 25 years. However, family members emphasized that they are “living through a devastating moment” and that the case has taken an “emotional toll”.
Rex has pleaded not guilty to all four charges against him. (Getty)
According to investigators, phone records indicate that Asa and Rex’s children were not at home at the time of the murders. Police are still investigating where the deaths occurred, but there are indications that it may have been the family home. According to authorities, all of the architect’s victims were women in their 20s and worked as escorts. He contacted her on disposable cell phones.
arrest and investigation
On the night of July 13, Heuermann was approached by investigators after exiting his Manhattan office building. Prosecutors said the suspect managed to cover his tracks and closely monitor the investigation. Prosecutor Ray Tierney revealed that Rex said two words when he was arrested: “Real surprise”.
Police used sophisticated technology to pinpoint the location of disposable cell phones that the alleged killer used to contact the women hours before they disappeared. Using mapping, they located the origin of the calls in a small area where Rex lived and another near his office. Since 2021, investigators have been able to narrow the search area down to a handful of houses.
The last of the four victims to go missing was 27yearold Amber. Before she was last seen in September 2020, a potential client visited her home in western Babylon. The driver was described as a stocky man in his 40s, with thick dark hair, 1970sstyle glasses and a vehicle that was an SUV in the front and a pickup truck in the back. A witness described him as “an ogre”.
As soon as he paid Amber for the service, a man burst into the house “pretending to be an outraged friend”. It was a scene to steal. The customer got scared and ran away, but not for long. He later texted Amber asking for “credit for next time” and rescheduled. The young woman was last seen alive the following night leaving home, apparently to meet the same man.
Police found eleven bodies on the same beach where they found the victims of the suspected Long Island serial killer. (Getty)
Shortly thereafter, a witness reported seeing a darkcolored truck driving through the area. However, the description of the vehicle was lost in the files as if it were irrelevant information. The case got underway with the arrival of Tim Sini as the new Suffolk Police Chief. He focused on tracking down the disposable cell phones for more clues. In 2016, he obtained a court order to obtain detailed information about all phones connected to specific masts in that region during a specific time window.
One of the first police discoveries was that each of the women was calling a different disposable cell phone just before they disappeared. Investigators found that some of these phones were being used during the workday in a specific area in the heart of Manhattan, near Penn Station. During the night they continued to send out signals in the demarcated area.
In March 2022, an investigator found the witness’ description of the car in the file. Police used a database to locate Heuermann’s 2010 Chevrolet Avalanche, the year Costello disappeared. The name of the car’s owner had not yet emerged from the investigation, but the physical description matched the “ogre.” The man lived in investigators’ hot spot: the Massapequa Park area.
Heuermann was charged with firstdegree murder and seconddegree murder respectively. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance and death of a fourth woman. In his first appearance in court in Long Island on July 14, he pleaded not guilty and was being held without bail. The architect has not yet been charged in the case, but the investigation should be “completed shortly”. The next hearing is scheduled for August 1st.
A mistake
According to Tierney, the car’s trail was there “from the start.” The prosecutor said he didn’t know why it had been overlooked but suspected the details may have been deemed unreliable or disappeared in the face of more promising evidence at the time. “It was a big mistake not to track this car down sooner,” said Rob Trotta, a former Suffolk detective.
When investigators managed to connect the vehicle to Rex, the investigation entered a critical phase because too much time had passed and the exact location data of his mobile phone was no longer available. However, billing records showed the phone’s general location at the time of the calls was New York, while also making the cruel and abusive calls to Melissa Barthelemy. She was another victim of the architect.
DNA
When the investigation began, about five locks of hair from the victims were collected. The wires were attached to the ceiling or the tape that wrapped them. At that time, they were considered unsuitable for DNA analysis. But forensic science has evolved, and in the last three years two labs have managed to extract data from the DNA of these samples. Three of them were believed to be the wife of the suspected killer, but one of them had an almost 100% chance of being his wife.
In order to solve the mystery, the police needed genetic material from Heuermann. In July 2022, an undercover agent searched his recycled garbage for empty bottles. In January, the suspect threw a box of pizza in the trash can on the sidewalk outside his Manhattan office. In the crusts left behind, the police got what they needed.
Cops thought they already had enough evidence to identify Rex as the Long Island serial killer, but they ended up discovering something else on the Architect’s computer. He searched the internet for information about what the investigators were doing. The searches linked to their anonymous accounts have included more than 200 inquiries about serial killers in general and the investigation into the Gilgo Beach victims over the past 16 months.
The crime
Suspicions that a serial killer was at work on Long Island arose in December 2010 when a police officer and his dog tried to locate 24yearold Shannan Gilbert, who had been reported missing on Long Island. She worked as a call girl and disappeared while visiting a client in Oak Beach, a gated community near the beach. However, the duo found four bodies on Gilgo Beach.
Rex is charged with the deaths of three women and suspected of killing a fourth victim. (Suffolk County Police Department)
Back then, the bodies were found side by side and wrapped in different fabrics, but none of them belonged to Shannan. The murders appeared to be linked as the bodies were all women in their 20s who had disappeared within the past four years. Therefore, largely based on the way the bodies were “wrapped” and the proximity to each other, investigators assumed they were killed by the same person.
In 2011, the victims were identified using DNA, namely Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. He is charged in her death and suspected of the murder of Maureen BrainardBarnes. In 2011, the remains of 24yearold Valerie Mach were found.
It wasn’t until December of that year that Shannan’s remains were found. But at the time, police didn’t believe his death was linked to the serial killer. Her family disagreed and called for new evidence to be released, but the investigation hasn’t made much headway for years. Eleven bodies were found in the vegetation around Gilgo beach this year.