Rex Heuermann's Wife Asa Ellerup Files For Divorce Amid Gilgo Beach Murder Case
Asa Ellerup, the wife of accused serial killer Rex Heuermann, has filed for divorce, according to CNN. The move comes less than one week after Heuermann was arrested and charged with killing three women, Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Costello, 27 — their bodies were found near Gilgo Beach in Long Island, New York, in 2010. In an interview with CBS New York, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison revealed Ellerup's reaction to her husband's arrest and the charges brought against him. "They were shocked, they were disgusted, they were embarrassed ... I don't believe they knew about this double life Heuermann was living," Harrison said. Ellerup has not been charged in any crimes relating to the murders. In fact, investigators believe that she was out of state when each of the murders occurred, according to court documents uploaded by the Daily Mail.
Ellerup was married to Heuermann for 27 years before the unsolved murder case was linked to him. Interestingly, Ellerup, who shares one child with Heuermann, played a role in her husband's arrest — albeit unknowingly.
Asa Ellerup's DNA was found with all three victims
When Asa Ellerup married Rex Heuermann in April 1996, she probably couldn't have ever predicted that their relationship would end with a murder investigation. According to the New York Post, the two lived in a small home in Long Island — the same home that Heuermann grew up in — just about six miles from where the bodies were found. Overall, however, the family kept to themselves. "People are passing around his graduation photo, and no one knows much about him. In a town where we all know each other, you would think someone would know something," Massapequa resident Bonnie Petrone told the Long Island Press.
Amid the investigation into the murders, authorities say that Ellerup's hair was found with all three of the victims, per CNN. The hair, however, is thought to have been "unintentionally carried by the suspect on his clothes." As Ellerup's now estranged husband faces an intense murder trial that could land him behind bars for the remainder of his life, she's left to pick up the pieces. Her lawyer didn't have any additional comment on her decision to file for divorce. Heuermann is due back in court on August 1.