LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: The wife of Rex Heuermann, 56, accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer, has issued a plea for privacy and “normalcy” in the wake of his arrest. Asa Ellerup, who filed for divorce from Heuermann on July 19, said in a statement that her family and neighbors are “enduring a profound and indescribable catastrophe” and that they deserve to live peacefully without media intrusion, NBC reported.
Ellerup, as per investigators was out of state when Heuermann allegedly killed four women - Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello - who were sex workers and dumped their bodies along Gilgo Beach on Long Island. He is also the prime suspect in Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 found in the same area. The women, who are collectively dubbed as 'Gilgo Four', are some of those who went missing in 2007 and were found in 2010 in unrecognizable conditions.
Why did the Gilgo Beach suspect's wife ask for privacy?
Ellerup is not a suspect in the case, according to authorities. Heuermann also pleaded not guilty to all the six first and second-degree murder charges and his lawyer previously stated he is “distraught” and “in tears” over the charges. “I am pleading with you all to give us space so that we may regain some normalcy in our neighborhood,” said Ellerup. “On behalf of my family and especially my elderly neighbors, who have also had their lives turned upside down by the enormous police presence, in addition to the spectators, and news crews. They should be able to walk their dogs and go to the grocery stores without cameras shoved in their faces," said a statement provided by Macedonio & Duncan, the law firm representing Asa Ellerup in her divorce from Rex Heuermann, in a news release on Friday wherein Ellerup also made a direct comment in it.
'The sheer depression of what I saw was enough trauma'
Ellrup first broke the silence on Friday telling investigators they were feeling shocked, disgusted, and embarrassed. “If you want to take pictures, go ahead. I’m OK with it now,” she told reporters, according to the Daily Mail. “If you want to stand up here and wait for something. I have a lot of work to do.” Ellerup continued. “The sheer depression of what I saw was enough trauma." When asked by a reporter Friday afternoon if she would be interested in a GoFundMe page that one of her friends had apparently been trying to set up for her, Ellerup responded: “Yeah … it would be very helpful," New York Post reported. Investigators recently finished searching for Rex Heuermann's Long House home. They were seen using excavators digging the backyard with cadaver dogs.
