A Killer’s DOUBLE Life?—A Wife’s Disbelief!

A shocking twist in a seemingly ordinary life leaves Asa Ellerup grappling with her past after the arrest of her ex-husband, Rex Heuermann, for the infamous Gilgo Beach killings.

At a Glance

• Asa Ellerup, the estranged wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, says he is “not capable” of the horrific crimes.
• Heuermann has been charged with the murders of four women, known as the “Gilgo Four,” and has pleaded not guilty.
• Prosecutors have built a case based on DNA evidence from a discarded pizza crust and data from burner phones.
• A new docuseries explores the family’s struggle to reconcile the man they knew with the monster prosecutors describe.

A Wife’s Disbelief

Asa Ellerup, the estranged wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, is breaking her silence, maintaining that the man she was married to for decades could not be responsible for the heinous crimes he is charged with. In a new Peacock docuseries, Ellerup says she “will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of the trial” but also insists that Rex “is not capable of the crime he is accused of,” according to ABC7NY.

Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann’s shocking arrest in July 2023. He currently awaits trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for the murders of four women—Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes—whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island over a decade ago.

The Overwhelming Evidence

Ellerup’s defense of her ex-husband stands in stark contrast to the mountain of evidence prosecutors have compiled. The case against the 61-year-old architect was built on what investigators say was a key DNA sample taken from a pizza crust he discarded in a trash can outside his Manhattan office. That DNA was linked to a male hair found on one of the victims.

Investigators also painstakingly traced a series of burner phones used to contact the victims back to Heuermann. They have also uncovered thousands of disturbing online searches he allegedly made for torture pornography and information about his victims and their families.

A Family Divided

The family’s struggle to comprehend the allegations is a central theme of the new docuseries. While Asa Ellerup maintains her disbelief, her daughter, Victoria Heuermann, expresses a more tormented view. In an interview with TODAY, she grapples with the possibility of her father’s guilt. “While we were having fun on vacation, he was home, murdering and dismembering women here,” she tearfully speculates.

She also struggles to reconcile the accusations with the father she knew. “He really must have been like Superman for us to have not noticed anything ever,” she said, noting that the family home where police conducted an extensive search “used to be his bedroom growing up.”

Jared P. Scott, the director of the docuseries, told Fox News that Heuermann “seemed to be a master manipulator.” His ability to lead an apparent double life—a suburban family man and architect by day, a monstrous killer by night—is at the heart of this dark and complex case.