() — In her more than 27 years of marriage to Rex Heuermann, Asa Ellerup likely did not know about the gruesome double life her husband is accused of leading, says Suffolk County’s top police officer.
“If you ask me, I don’t think they knew about this double life that Mr. Heuermann was leading,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said of the suspect’s family.
But authorities are not ruling anything out yet and are continuing to gather information “to see if the family might have known exactly what Mr. Heuermann was up to,” Harrison told ‘s Erica Hill on Monday.
Last week, Heuermann, 59, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the murder of three of the “Gilgo Four,” a group of four women whose remains were found along a short stretch of Gilgo Beach. on Long Island in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance and murder of the fourth woman, but has not yet been charged in that case.
On Wednesday, less than a week since her husband’s arrest, Ellerup filed for divorce, her lawyer, Robert Macedonio, told . She did not comment further on the matter.
She was shocked to hear what her husband is accused of, Harrison said.
But unknowingly, she played a key role in her husband’s arrest: It was his DNA, among other evidence, that authorities say helped link Heuermann to the crimes.
Here’s what we know about his wife, their life together, and the unexpected role she played in the case.
The two have been married for 27 years.
Heuermann and Ellerup were married in April 1996, the suspect said in a 2018 statement. Since then, they have lived in Heuermann’s red-and-green childhood home in Massapequa Park, a Long Island suburb, with their daughter and stepson. from Heuermann.
But despite his long stay in the neighborhood, and though Heuermann’s life was long rooted in the same community, few details about the family were known to the neighbors.
Neighbors described the house as creepy and the family as distant, according to Long Island Pressa Long Island monthly magazine.
“The family is very reserved, quiet,” neighbor Frankie Musto told the publication. “We never saw anything suspicious.”
In his 2018 deposition, Heuermann said that he had been married once before. That marriage, he said, lasted three years and they had no children.
Authorities search Heuermann’s home on July 18, 2023, in Massapequa Park, New York. (Credit: John Minchillo/AP)
The wife’s hair was identified on all three victims.
When the victims were first discovered, authorities recovered strands of degraded hair, but DNA testing at the time failed to provide the answers investigators hoped for.
Technological improvements soon helped produce results.
Hair now believed to belong to Ellerup, which had allegedly been unintentionally carried by the suspect on his clothing, was found on or near all three victims, prosecutors alleged in the bond request, citing DNA evidence.
That DNA came from 11 bottles inside a trash can outside Heuermann’s home, the court document says. Authorities had been watching Heuermann and his family for months after they identified him as a suspect in early 2022, during which time they collected DNA samples from items the family dumped.
Although her hair was found with the victims, Ellerup and her daughter were traveling when the murders took place and Heuermann was “alone in the tri-state area,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said during a news conference. The last friday.
“It’s very significant in that it limits him,” criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson told ‘s Jake Tapper of the finding. “If the suspect’s wife is out of town, then why would her hair be there if he’s in town?”
Suffolk County authorities say DNA evidence also linked Heuermann to a male hair found in the burlap sack where the remains of a victim were found.
Rex Heuermann in a file photo from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office. Credit: Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office/AP
Shocked, disgusted, embarrassed
Harrison told on Monday that she was informed that once authorities told Ellerup and her daughter about the crimes Heuermann is accused of, they were both “shocked, disgusted, embarrassed.”
His reaction, he said, is the reason he believes they were unaware of what he was doing.
“But time will tell,” he added. “And once again, there are still many more questions to be asked of family and friends.”
has made multiple attempts to contact Heuermann’s wife and daughter.
After his arrest, Heuermann was remanded without bail. He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer. His next court date is scheduled for August 1.
Heuermann has not had visitors at the Suffolk County Correctional Center where he is being held since his arraignment Friday, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr. told ‘s Brynn Gingras. He is allowed to make two phone calls a day, but it is unclear if he has connected with anyone, the sheriff added.
— ‘s Patricia DiCarlo and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.
