Gilgo Beach killings: Relatives of suspect Rex Heuermann find new revelations have upended their lives, attorneys say

The estranged wife and children of Rex A. Heuermann have been thrust into the public spotlight since his arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial killings last July, shrinking the world they inhabit to their Massapequa Park home and out-of-state trips to escape attention.

Inside the four walls where they spend most of their time, the family reads books, watches television or plays video games. They have no employment and are limited in the types of changes they can make in their lives as they watch the legal process unfold, family attorneys Robert Macedonio and Vess Mitev said.

“They make 24 hours pass with great difficulty because they're on pins and needles,” said Mitev, the attorney for Heuermann’s daughter, Victoria, 27, and stepson, Christopher Sheridan, 34.

Macedonio, who is representing Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, in divorce proceedings against the accused killer, said that each time the family begins to settle into a new normal, revelations in the criminal case “turn things upside down again.” Twice they were removed from their home for lengthy police searches. Heuermann also has been indicted two more times, bringing the total number of alleged killings to six.

“Every couple months it’s like pulling the scab off a wound,” Macedonio said of the indictments.

Ultimately, Ellerup has been tasked with figuring out how to move on from what life was like before July 13, 2023, to what it will be in the years to come.

“She’s picked up the pieces of whatever life her, Christopher and Victoria had,” Macedonio said, one year after his client’s husband was charged in perhaps the most high-profile criminal case Long Island has known. “She’s started piecing back together what life will be during this process and then now looking down the road to what it's gonna be like after the process, not knowing where that's going.”

Macedonio said he does not see the family living long term on Long Island, where trips to the supermarket are met with “whispers and comments.” He said he expects the family will remain in their house through Heuermann’s criminal case and eventually move out of state, possibly to South Carolina, where Heuermann's brother lives and where they have been spending time in the past year and own 12 acres of rural property in Chester County.

“We’re in the media epicenter of the world,” Macedonio said. “Maybe you have one local news station in rural areas. They’re unknowns in Florida. They’re unknowns, for the most part, in South Carolina. I do not see them staying here no matter how the process plays out.”

Etienne deVilliers, who lives next door to the Heuermanns on First Avenue in Massapequa Park, said Ellerup also has told him she plans to fix up the house and move once the criminal case wraps up. He said the family has expressed frustration with how long the case will take to get to trial.

“Right now they're just kind of handcuffed,” deVilliers said in May. “There's not much they can do.”

The family also faces the possibility of financial fallout from lawsuits the Gilgo Beach families, several of whom have retained prominent California attorney Gloria Allred, could file against Heuermann, Macedonio noted. While Macedonio has said Ellerup expresses her “heartfelt sympathies” to the families of the victims,  Allred has taken exception to comments she's made that she doesn't believe her husband could have committed the killings.

“We wonder, however, what her response will be if Rex Heuermann is convicted by a jury of the murders and/or other felonies with which he is charged,” Allred said in a March statement. “Is Asa willing to commit that, if defendant Heuermann is convicted, she will make a meaningful contribution to a fund to compensate the family members of the victims for their heartbreaking loss?

“Will she also commit to encouraging the defendant, Rex Heuermann, to contribute whatever assets he still has to compensate the victims’ family members?”

Attorney John Ray, who previously represented families of the victims, has accused Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann of knowing more about the killings than they've admitted, allegations Macedonio and Mitev have firmly rebutted. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney also repeatedly has stated investigators believe Heuermann acted alone and committed the killings during times his family was out of town.

Macedonio said any cynicism the public has expressed about his client's comments concerning her husband's “double life” has come from people who do not know what the family's life was like before. He said there already were strains in the marital relationship, and Heuermann's arrest was the “final straw” leading to divorce. 

Among the biggest changes for Heuermann's family in the past year has been in how it handles economic responsibilities. Heuermann, a Manhattan architect with his own firm, where Victoria also worked until it closed after his arrest, was not only “the sole breadwinner” in the family, but he managed all the household bills, Macedonio said. Following his arrest, Ellerup had to learn how to handle those responsibilities for the first time in their nearly 30-year relationship.

Ellerup has not worked in the couple's time together, Macedonio said, noting that it would be difficult for any of the family members to find jobs in the aftermath of the high-profile arrest.

Moves also were made to protect the family’s assets, with their First Avenue home being transferred to Ellerup, who also has begun to pay the taxes on the South Carolina property, according to records from Nassau and Chester counties.

While the family inked a reported seven-figure deal with NBC Universal and its Peacock streaming service for a documentary series, Macedonio said that has not dramatically improved their finances. He said that while the money in the deal is guaranteed, they will not receive full payment until after the series runs on the network. To date, they have been paid only a partial advance, Macedonio said.

“Honestly, it doesn’t go that far,” he said.

The documentary filmmakers were at work Saturday at the family home. Ellerup stood to the left of Macedonio during a short media briefing in the family’s driveway. Victoria and Christopher watched from a few feet to the right behind the attorney as crew members filmed from different angles.

“[Ellerup] wanted me to reiterate to everybody, the family — although it may fall on deaf ears — does have sympathy for all the victims,” Macedonio said, adding that they are “victims as well.”

The family did not take questions, but Ellerup said she’s “not in remission yet” from skin and breast cancer she has been suffering from for several years. “I have up to three years and then the doctors will see if I’m in remission,” she said. In August, Macedonio told reporters Ellerup had been diagnosed several years ago and her health insurance was about to expire because it is tied to her husband's job as an architect.

Macedonio said most of the documentary filming has been centered on interviews with other people and locations away from the house. No date has been set for when the series will premiere, he said, adding that it will run for a minimum three hours of programming.

Mitev described the family’s financial situation as “very limited,” with Asa and Sheridan, who has a disability, not working and Victoria’s previous income being tied to her father’s now-defunct business.

“They are completely adrift in this black sea of mayhem,” Mitev said.

Macedonio said visits Ellerup has made to Heuermann at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead, which were once weekly, have slowed since Ellerup traveled to South Carolina in May and Heuermann was indicted in two additional killings in early June.

He now stands charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to multiple first-degree and second-degree murder charges in connection with their deaths.

The cases span 30 years, from the 1993 death of Costilla to Heuermann’s arrest last July. At the time of Costilla’s death, Heuermann was separated from his first wife and had no children.

“They are collateral damage to the actions of Rex,” Macedonio said of the family members now.

With Joe Werkmeister

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.