Gilgo Beach killings: Suspect Rex Heuermann's family struggling 'to comprehend' renewed focus on home

The estranged wife and adult children of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann are struggling “to comprehend” as a second law enforcement search of their home stretched into a third day, an attorney for the family said Wednesday.

Robert Macedonio, who represents Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, spoke of the “post-traumatic stress” the family is feeling as he escorted the couple's daughter, Victoria, to retrieve her car from her First Avenue home.

“This family has been through something that's unimaginable, no matter the guilt or innocence of Rex,” Macedonio said. “Victoria, Asa and Christopher are collateral damage because their lives have been turned upside down.”

Victoria Heuermann, 27, who was home Monday when police arrived to execute the second search warrant for the home in 10 months, did not speak with reporters as she drove away in her car.

“This is something well beyond their comprehension,” Macedonio said of the renewed focus on the house. “They never could have anticipated last year and this again.”

Macedonio said the search warrant came when Ellerup was out of town and the family did not know law enforcement was coming.

“They obtained their probable cause and they went and searched,” the attorney said, adding that everything was peaceful and Victoria cooperated, leaving the home. “Because such an extensive search was conducted 10 months ago, [they were] a little bit surprised. I can't imagine what was missing, what was left behind.”

Macedonio said he has not seen a copy of the search warrant and does not know if Ellerup has been in touch with Heuermann since the latest search. He reiterated that prosecutors have stated Ellerup is not a suspect in the killings, which Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney has said occurred while she was out of town. Ellerup is currently in South Carolina, where the family owns property, he said.

Tierney has declined to comment on the ongoing search, which on Wednesday included more sightings of Suffolk County and New York State investigators removing big boxes of evidence from the home.

Heuermann, 60, was arrested in New York City July 13. The following afternoon he pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree murder charges in the killings of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello, whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach more than 13 years ago.

He again pleaded not guilty in January to the superseding indictment, which added a fourth count of second-degree murder in the slaying of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found near the other victims. All four 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 — worked as escorts.

Heuermann is due to next appear before Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in criminal court in Riverhead June 18.

Heuermann's defense attorney, Michael J. Brown, of Central Islip, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

By late Wednesday afternoon, investigators pulled an even larger box truck into the street in front of the house and began filling it with the contents of Heuermann's garage, including paint cans and a floor fan.

The initial search of Heuermann’s home in July — which coincided with warrants executed for storage space he rented, the Manhattan office of his architecture firm and a vehicle kept at his brother’s home in South Carolina — lasted 12 days.

During the July 2023 search, police used scanning technology to identify “disturbances” in the ground outside Heuermann’s property, Tierney said at the time. An excavator dug up the yard, and investigators with shovels could be seen scraping freshly upturned earth, but did not yield any “large items of evidence,” the district attorney said.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.