Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann’s wife risks losing her health insurance as she battles breast and skin cancer, and the family now plans to sue over the raid that destroyed their home.
Lawyers for 59-year-old Asa Ellerup also released new pictures from her family’s home after police spent more than a week looking for evidence.
In a news conference on Friday, Ellerup’s attorney, Robert Macedonio, said the family would file a lawsuit over the search, alleging violations of their civil rights. They also released new pictures of the damage at the home, showing their belongings being vandalized.
Ellerup has also been battling skin and breast cancer for years and is now at risk of losing her health insurance, Macedonio said on Friday.
“She’s battling breast and skin cancer, her health insurance expires in 90 days because she was dependent on her husband’s insurance, and that’s ending because she filed for divorce,” he said. “Cancer drugs are expensive, how will she pay for treatment?”
Heurmann is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who went missing in 2009 and 2010. He is also the prime suspect in a fourth murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, according to prosecutors.
Asa Ellerup, the wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann, has battled breast and skin cancer for years
Disgraced architect Heurmann is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010
One of the new photos provided by Ellerup’s lawyers shows the family’s “normal” home at Christmas 2009/2010, when police say the murders took place
Lawyers also released new pictures from her family’s home after police spent more than a week looking for evidence
Ellerup’s lawyers said she is currently undergoing cancer treatment that is expected to last for the next 12 to 18 months.
“The source of her health insurance was her husband’s employment. “So that won’t be available to her to treat the cancer for the next 18 months,” Macedonio added.
He had previously said the family found their Massapequa Park home in a complete disarray and their belongings left strewn on the floor after investigators looked for evidence.
On Friday, Macedonio posted a photo of the “normal” family home looking festive during the 2009-2010 holiday season, when police believe the murders took place.
Lawyers also released a series of other images showing the property being looted and vandalized by investigators.
When asked if he thought the family’s civil rights had been violated by the state where the home was left, Macedonio replied, “If we didn’t, I wouldn’t be filing the lawsuit.”
“They spend their time outside on the porch because they can’t go inside,” he added.
Macedonio emphasized that Ellerup and her two children are not suspects in this case, which the police had previously clarified.
He also said Heuermann called Ellerup from prison but didn’t say what the call was about – only that she had been warned not to discuss the case.
Ellerup previously told that she doesn’t “want to walk down the street” and hear what local residents are saying about her home.
“The neighbors want the house gone,” she said. “They want it bulldozed.”
Ellerup filed for divorce to “protect” herself from future lawsuits and has spoken to her husband in prison, her lawyer revealed on Monday.
She said some neighbors were charitable when Melissa Moore, daughter of Happy Face serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, started a gofundme that raised over $20,000.
Ellerup has been largely silent since her husband was taken into custody on July 18, ten years after the bodies of his alleged victims were found on Gilgo Beach.
Lawyers for the family previously said they found their Massapequa Park home in a complete disarray with belongings strewn on the floor after investigators looked for evidence
In a news conference on Friday, Ellerup’s attorney, Robert Macedonio, said the family would file a lawsuit over the search, alleging violations of their civil rights
One of the photos shows items stacked in a room of the property, with crumpled boxes and scattered items
Another photo shows damage to what appears to be a doorbell on the front door of the family home
A “major dig” was taking place at Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park. Pictured are state police investigators gathering evidence at the crime scene
She has not been charged and is not believed to have been involved in any way in her husband’s alleged crimes.
Prosecutors say Icelander Ellerup was out of town each time her husband was killed. After he was charged, she was seen filing divorce papers in a Long Island courthouse.
The couple have two grown children – a daughter Victoria Heuermann, 26, who worked in her father’s Manhattan architecture firm, and a son Christopher Sheridan, 33, who has special needs.
The new pictures and images come after attorney John Ray called a surprise press conference at which he is expected to call Ellerup a “suspect” rather than a victim in the Gilgo Beach murders.
It’s currently unclear why Ray takes this stance, but he previously claimed that he believed an “accomplice” was involved in the murders.
Vergata’s legs were found almost two decades earlier, on April 20, 1996, in a plastic bag in Davis Park on Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. Her skull was then found on Ocean Parkway in 2011
Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was the first body to be discovered, while Megan Waterman, 22, of Maine was found in December 2010
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 when she went missing (left). Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old. Their bodies were found near Barthelemy’s the same day
Brainard-Barnes’ body was bound with a belt bearing the initials ‘WH’ or ‘HM’ – which police say could match relatives of Heuermann’s
Investigators have identified a seventh victim of the Gilgo Beach murders – known as “Jane Doe 7” or “Fire Island Jane Doe” – as Karen Vergata, 34. She is in a school photo
Heuermann is the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007.
Brainard-Barnes’ body was bound with a belt bearing the initials ‘WH’ or ‘HM’ – which police say could match relatives of Heuermann’s.
Heuermann last appeared in court on August 1, looking disheveled when prosecutors handed four hard drives containing evidence to his attorney, Michael Brown.
The judge barred the release of four hard drives, each containing two terabytes of evidence, which were given to attorneys and investigators but will not be made public.
Heuermann will return to court in September. After the hearing, Brown argued with the media and maintained his innocence.
“He told me he didn’t do that,” he said, before complaining about the size of the evidence file and the time it would take to review it.
“The prosecutor has an entire office … I’m just a guy.” Merely combing through the discovery is a daunting task, but we’re going to do it, we’re willing to do it.
“Whether it’s a year or a year and a half, whenever that day comes, we look forward to defending this case,” he said, adding that he would seek to move the trial out of Suffolk County.
“We will deal with this case in court.”
Heuermann was arrested in connection with the murders of three women whose bodies were found in burlap sacks on Gilgo Beach
Ellerup’s attorney says that during their investigation, they tore up every inch of the house and left a mess
This comes after investigators identified a seventh victim of the Gilgo Beach murders – known as “Jane Doe 7” or “Fire Island Jane Doe” – as Karen Vergata, 34, who went missing in 1996.
They said Vergata lives in Manhattan and works as an escort. and was never reported missing.
District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney declined to comment on whether Heuermann was connected to Vergata’s murder, but emphasized that no charges had been filed against him.
The newly identified victim’s legs were found almost two decades earlier, on April 20, 1996, in a plastic bag in Davis Park on Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach.
Her skull was then found on the Ocean Parkway near Tobay Beach in Nassau County; Her torso and hands were never recovered.
Police said they created a DNA profile from Vergata’s remains in August 2022, following the establishment of the Gilgo task force. In October of that year, the FBI managed to identify the remains from a swab taken from one of her relatives using genetic genealogy.
This comes after case investigators added the profile of Bronx teenager Judith Ramona Veloz, who disappeared in 1993, to the national missing persons database last October – months before they arrested Heuermann.
Heuermann was linked to one of the murders through a mitochondrial DNA profile obtained from a pizza crust and a used napkin he discarded from his midtown Manhattan office
District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney declined to comment on whether Heuermann was connected to Vergata’s murder, but emphasized that no charges had been filed against him. Heuermann in a sketch of his hearing on August 1st
Victoria Heuermann, 26, and her step-brother Christopher Sheridan, 33, said they had “no foreclosure” to see their father in his Suffolk County incarceration, but neither would they make a hasty decision
Veloz was 19 when she disappeared in Manhattan, nearly 20 years before the Gilgo Beach Four and other remains were discovered in the area.
The suspected serial killer is under investigation for crimes across the US, with Suffolk County and the FBI leading the investigation.
Police are investigating whether he operated in the Atlantic City area and have interviewed incarcerated sex workers who interacted with him.
The investigation now spans four states — Heuermann owns a timeshare in Las Vegas and a property in South Carolina — and police are investigating whether he may be linked to unsolved murders there.
Officers executed search warrants at his Chester, South Carolina home and seized a green Chevrolet Avalanche truck they believe is linked to the suspect and one of the murders and transported it back to New York.