LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: The daughter of notorious Happy Face Killer recently expressed that she believes the Gilgo Beach killings suspect Rex Heuermann used his family as a "mask" to conceal his serial killer traits. The Manhattan architect, 59, was arrested on July 13, 2023, as the prime suspect in the murders of four Craigslist sex workers, whose bodies were found on an isolated Long Island beach in December 2010.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges but seems short of familial support. Investigators previously revealed that his family was shocked and disgusted after learning about his alleged crimes. On Wednesday, July 19, his wife Asa Ellerup even filed for divorce to end their more than 20-year-long marriage. Heuermann and Ellerup, who raised two children together, lived in the same Long Island residence, where investigators found a plethora of eerie evidence, including a child-sized doll, a massive haul of firearms, and horrifying posters. Following divorce filing, Ellerup's attorney Robert Macedonia revealed that the family's lives have been turned completely upside down since Heuermann was named as the suspected Gilgo Beach killer.
Who is Melissa Moore?
Reflecting on Heuermann’s family situation, Melissa Moore, whose father Keith Hunter Jesperson was convicted of killing eight women, told the US Sun that she has immense empathy for Ellerup and her two adult children. Moore stated that the family will be "going through hell" as they attempt to stitch together what's left of their lives after realizing that many of the years leading up to this point have been a "total lie." Nevertheless, she pushed them to keep barring Heuermann indefinitely to stop him from manipulating them or exerting more control over their lives. "All this is going to be incredibly shocking and bewildering to his wife and children," she said.
"Imagine you wake up one day and your whole world blows apart, but now not only do you not have a home to go back to for comfort [...] everything you thought you knew about your life is now a lie,” Moore expressed before adding, "It's so physically jarring and emotional. You have a 'before' and now you have an 'after.'" She added that Ellerup and her children will be pressed with accusatory and unfair questions of "How could you not know?" as if they are somehow to blame for failing to catch and stop him. "Rex's wife and children will be pummeled with that question, but they're not idiots. Look how long it took for the police to discover this. Why should they know any better?" asked Moore.
“His family was a facade that helped him go under the radar for so long”
Moore remarked the family was unable to suspect Heuermann’s crimes because “he and other people like him are so skilled at leading a double life.” "He wasn't coming home and telling his wife he killed these women. It's not in his best interests to do that because it would be over. The facade would be over, his cover-up would be over, so the only way he doesn't get caught is by keeping them in the dark. His family was a tool for him, and they're still a resource for him that he's going to try to use to protect himself," she continued.
Moore then compared Heuermann to her father and said "With Rex as a suspect, and my father as a convicted serial killer, I came to learn that our family was a facade that helped him go under the radar for so long.”
The infamous Happy Face Killer case
“My father, and people like him, use their families as a mask for their insanity. [And after they're caught] serial killers try to keep their families close because they need the family, they need their support for optics and to continue controlling their assets and controlling their story. I'm so scared for Rex's family because if they maintain contact, he maintains his control,” she continued.
Moore was just a teenager when her mother informed her that her truck driver father has been arrested for murdering dozens of innocent people. Jesperson was convicted of killing eight women but claimed to have murdered up to 185. The first victim identified by police as Jesperson's victim was his girlfriend, 41-year-old Julie Ann Winningham, whom he strangled to death in Washougal, Washington, on March 10, 1995.
Jesperson turned himself in after making two unsuccessful suicide attempts in the hopes that it would result in mercy at his punishment. During his time behind bars, he started confessing to his murders. In a letter to his brother, he confessed to killing eight people in five years across several different states. His first known victim, Taunja Bennett, was murdered in January 1990, near Portland, Oregon. He acquired the moniker "Happy Face Killer" because he signed each letter with a smile. Moore claims that her mother forbade her from discussing her father's situation with her, so she used to skulk off to the library to study about it. He was eventually sentenced to life without parole and is serving his sentence in Salem, Idaho.
