Gilgo Beach killings: Rex Heuermann's estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, says she has given him 'benefit of the doubt'

The estranged wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann declared in a statement Wednesday that she visits her husband in jail weekly and still maintains the defendant is not capable of the crimes he is accused of.

Asa Ellerup, who filed for divorce from her husband of 27 years in the days following his July 13 arrest in connection with the case, also expressed sympathy for the victims in a statement released late Wednesday by her Islip Terrace-based attorney, Robert Macedonio. The divorce is pending.

“I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial,” Ellerup said in the statement. “I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve.”

The unsolicited statement added “Ms. Ellerup’s heartfelt sympathies go out to the victims and their families,” and “nobody deserves to die in that manner.”

A trial date has not been set.

Macedonio said Wednesday that Ellerup can't do an interview, but said she wanted to speak out publicly. Ellerup is currently under contract for a reported seven figures with NBC Universal, Texas Crew Productions and G-Unit to produce a documentary on the case.

Heuermann, 60, of Massapequa Park, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the killings of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello, whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach 13 years ago. Heuermann, who worked as an architect in midtown Manhattan, has been held without bail at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead since his arrest.

All four of the women — the first of 10 sets of remains found along Ocean Parkway that are believed to be the work of one or more serial killers — were sex workers.

Despite Ellerup’s claims of weekly visits, jail spokeswoman Victoria DiStefano said jail records indicate she’s visited far fewer times.

“We have record of Asa Ellerup being logged into the facility 7 times,” DiStefano said in an email Wednesday.

Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing some of the family members of the victims, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.

Heuermann’s lead criminal defense, attorney Michael J. Brown, also did not respond to a message Wednesday.

Ellerup filed for divorce in Suffolk County Supreme Court six days after Heuermann’s arrest. Heuermann was served with the divorce papers inside the jail and signed the admission of service, Newsday has reported. He is not contesting the divorce, records show.

Last August, Macedonio told reporters Ellerup had been diagnosed with skin and breast cancer several years ago and her health insurance was about to expire because it is tied to his job as an architect.

Despite her filing, Ellerup has visited Heuermann at the jail where prisoners are allowed to embrace and kiss visitors and she has shown up to court to in support of her estranged husband. She first visited him in November, her lawyer said previously. He also said at the time that Ellerup and Heuermann spoke on the phone.

Ellerup has observed two of Heuermann’s court appearances, including one with their adult daughter, Victoria Heuermann.

Heuermann lives a solitary life behind bars, jail officials have told Newsday, due to security concerns because of the notoriety of his case. He’s permitted to review the state’s evidence against him, but has very limited contact with any other inmates.

Suffolk prosecutors have said they have evidence against Heuermann, including DNA and cell site data linking him to the crimes.

Heuermann’s Chevrolet Avalanche pickup, which authorities said helped crack the case after a witness described it as being driven by a man who paid for services from Costello the day before she went missing, was recovered by FBI investigators in South Carolina. Authorities have not yet revealed whether the vehicle has provided any evidence.

Prosecutors have said a cheek swab, obtained from Heuermann by court order since he’s been in custody, matched a mitochondrial DNA profile that authorities who were surveilling Heuermann developed from a pizza crust and “used napkin” that allegedly was discarded in Manhattan. Prosecutors have said the mitochondrial DNA profile developed from the abandonment sample — the pizza and napkin — could not be excluded as a match to a hair found at the bottom of burlap used to “restrain and transport” the remains of Waterman, one of the victims.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said previously the DNA analysis of the cheek swab “just erases all doubt.”

Prosecutors have said of the five unidentified hairs found with the remains of the four initial Gilgo Beach homicide victims’ remains, DNA analysis links them to either Heuermann himself, or his wife and daughter, both of whom he lived with in a dilapidated home in Massapequa Park.

Two other female hairs found with Waterman’s body are linked to Ellerup using the nuclear DNA analysis, while the earlier mitochondrial DNA results on one of the hairs linked both Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, prosecutors said.

Another female hair found on tape in the head area of Costello’s remains likely came from Victoria Heuermann, prosecutors said, after the initial testing linked it to both her and her mother. And the female hair found on the belt buckle used to restrain the lower body of Brainard-Barnes likely came from Ellerup, prosecutors said.

But prosecutors have said they don’t believe Ellerup or their daughter had anything to do with the killings.

Heuermann used seven burner phones over a 14-month period to do approximately 200 searches about the Gilgo Beach investigation — even visiting the website Suffolk police created in 2020 as a clearinghouse for information and tips — and for photos of the victims and to learn about their family members, including siblings and children, prosecutors have said.

At Heuermann’s most recent court date last month, prosecutors handed over a trove of documents to the defense, including nearly 3,000 police tips.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Santomartino told the court it had provided to the defense — at its request — the police department's “lead log” containing 2,944 tips received.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.