Accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann’s wife returns home

The estranged wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann returned to the family’s Long Island home Thursday, where she screamed at reporters and flipped off a camera as her son appeared to cry, images show.

Asa Ellerup, who filed for divorce from the alleged murderer earlier this month, returned to the couple’s Massapequa Park home Thursday morning wearing a gray shirt, blue pants and her hair back.

“Don’t talk to me,” she could be heard shouting at a reporter from the front yard of her home, where her son also sat. “Wanna take pictures? Go ahead … Don’t talk to me.”

Ellerup was escorted by a man believed to be a detective. She proceeded to sit on a bench in front of her home and pet a dog.

Her kids, 26-year-old Victoria Heuermann and Christopher Sheridan, 33, were also present, with the elder appearing to wipe his face and cover his eyes.

“I’m mad,” Sheridan said as he passed reporters.

Heuermann’s daughter wore a brown, long-sleeve sweater and a scarf, and largely kept her head down as she arrived at the home with her family.

Their return came after authorities ended an exhaustive search of the property Tuesday.


Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann's estranged wife Asa Ellerup returned to their Long Island home on July 27, 2023.
Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, returned to their Long Island home on July 27, 2023.
James Messerschmidt

Ellerup sitting on the front porch of the Massapequa Park house.
Ellerup sitting on the front porch of the Massapequa Park house.
James Messerschmidt for NY Post

Ellerup with an unidentified man at the house where she lived with the alleged murderer.
Ellerup with her son, Christopher Sheridan, at the house.
James Messerschmidt for NY Post

Victoria Heuermann arriving back at the house.
Victoria Heuermann arriving at the house.
James Messerschmidt for NY Post

When asked if she was staying in the home, she responded: “Please, leave me alone. That’s none of your business.”

She then flipped reporters the bird before the video cut out.

Police had spent days combing through the house and digging up the yard in a search for new evidence against the once-successful New York City architect, 59.


Ellerup told a reporter that it is "none of your business" when asked if she would continuing living at the house.
Ellerup told a reporter that it is “none of your business” when asked if she would continuing living at the house.
James Messerschmidt for NY Post

Ellerup filed for divorce from Heuermann earlier this month.
Ellerup filed for divorce from Heuermann earlier this month.
James Messerschmidt for NY Post

Heuermann was arrested and charged with six counts of murder earlier this month.
Heuermann was arrested and charged with six counts of murder earlier this month.
Suffolk Police Department

Before concluding the search at the home earlier this week, authorities revealed the discovery of a sound-proof, walk-in vault.

The village of Massapequa Park is considering buying the home in an attempt to quell the consistent flood of media and true-crime fanatics to the area, according to reports.

Ellerup had previously asked for privacy in the wake of Heuermann’s shocking arrest, which came 13 years after several women were found dead along Long Island’s Gilgo Beach and surrounding areas.

Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?

Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.

The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.

Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.

Melissa Barthelemy, 24

  • Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25

  • Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.

Amber Lynn Costello, 27

  • Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found in December 2010 after having been last seen leaving her home that September.

Megan Waterman, 22

  • Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.

Jessica Taylor, 20

  • Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.

Valerie Mack, 24

  • Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.”

Unidentified Asian man

  • The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.

‘Peaches’ and her daughter

  • An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”

Jane Doe No. 7

  • Remains found on April 11, 2011, along with the body of the woman dubbed “Peaches” was linked by DNA to a body that was found 15 years earlier on Fire Island. On April 20, 1996, skeletal remains of a young white female were discovered in Davis Park on Blue Point Beach. Two sets of remains, collectively known as “Jane Doe No. 7,” have not been identified.

Shannan Gilbert, 23

  • Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.

Heuermann has been charged with six counts of murder, three in the first degree and three more in the second. He has so far been accused in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.


A police officer outside of the Massapequa Park house during the investigation following Heuermann's arrest.
A police officer outside the Massapequa Park house during the investigation following Heuermann’s arrest.
James Keivom

The bodies of the three women were found along the same stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach between June and September 2010.

Heuermann is also being eyed in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, whose body was found on the same beach years earlier.

Prosecutors alleged Heuermann had a secret life of seeking prostitutes, searching for child pornography, and an obsession with the women he’s accused of killing and their families.

Macedonio & Duncan, LLP, the firm representing Ellerup in the divorce, said last week Ellerup and her family “are going through a devastating time in their lives.”