Gilgo Beach murders: Rex Heuermann’s potential ties to Atlantic City probed as sister-in-law speaks out

Follow the latest news on the Long Island serial killer case as police continue to search for evidence implicating the Manhattan architect over string of escort deaths

Gilgo Beach: Police remove evidence from home of Long Island serial killer suspect

Law enforcement in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is investigating potential ties between local unsolved cases and Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told ABC News that his task force is looking into possible connections between Mr Heuermann and the murders of four female sex workers whose bodies were found in a ditch just over the Atlantic City border in 2006.

“Shame on us if we don’t look into Las Vegas, South Carolina, even Atlantic City, we’ve got to make sure if anyone has any information,” Mr Harrison said.

It comes amid comments from Mr Heuermann’s sister-in-law that she is in complete disbelief following his arrest over the deaths of Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy.

“I vacillate between desperately wanting my niece and nephew’s life returned to its previous state, intact, without a father accused of being a serial killer to being pleased and secure in knowing that someone is in custody,” Dr Johanna Ellerup told NBC News.

“My ego has great difficulty processing the idea that I looked Rex in the eye and was unable to discern any murderous intentions.”

Key points

• Investigators believe suspect Rex Heuermann killed victims in family home
• Suspect’s wife files for divorce from accused serial killer
• Gilgo Beach murder suspect’s company was hired for work at Trump Building
• Las Vegas and South Carolina police probe suspect’s possible ties to unsolved cases
• Evidence that led Long Island police to catch suspect
• Police ‘confident’ Heuermann will soon be charged with fourth murder

[21 July 2023 00:00 · Andrea Blanco]

What we know about Gilgo Beach murder victims

New York architect Rex Heuermann has pleaded not guilty after being charged with killing of three women found dead near Long Island seafront a decade ago.

The Independent’s Joe Sommerlad reports:

[21 July 2023 01:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Rex Heuermann’s client reveals his ‘chilling’ comments about Gilgo Beach serial killings

A woman who worked with the Gilgo Beach murders suspect has revealed a chilling interaction she had with him last year.

Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested last week in connection with the murders of Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy, whose remains were found along with seven other bodies in the shoreline community of Gilgo Beach in December 2010.

He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, with authorities saying they’re confident more charges loom ahead.

Mr Heuermann lived in Massapequa Park, near the sites where some of the victims were last seen, and has an architecture business in Midtown Manhattan.

Real state agent Jeffrey St Arromand, who worked with Mr Heuermann on a Brooklyn brownstone project last year, told The New York Post that the now alleged serial killer had a bizarre conversation with one of their shared clients.

The female client, who spoke to the Post under the condition of anonymity, said that Mr Heuermann was in charge of renovations to her Crown Heights home, which she was looking to sell at the time.

During one of those exchanges, the woman claims Mr Heuermann brought up the Gilgo Beach slayings.

“I was only with him in my home to review the scope of work,” she said. “I even gave him a ride to his home in Long Island from Brooklyn. At one point on the drive, we talked about the Gilgo Beach murders — we even discussed the burlap and why someone would use that. In retrospect, thinking about that conversation, it’s just bone-chilling.”

Costello, Waterman, Barthelemy and Brainard-Barnes were found within one-quarter mile of each other.

They were bound by belts or tape and some of them were wrapped in burlap.

[21 July 2023 02:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Where exactly were the Gilgo Beach murder victims found?

Map showing sites where victims of Gilgo Beach killer were found along Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY (Suffolk County Police Department)

[21 July 2023 03:00 · Andrea Blanco]

How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard

More than a decade after 11 bodies were found dumped in Long Beach, married father of two and Manhattan-based architect Rex Heuermann is under arrest. Does this mean the hunt for the Gilgo Beach serial killer is finally over?

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp reports:

[21 July 2023 04:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Rex Heuermann’s wife had bizarre response to Gilgo Beach murders arrest as divorce filing revealed

The bizarre response of Rex Heuermann’s wife to news of his arrest in the Gilgo Beach murders has been revealed amid reports that she has filed for divorce.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said during a sit-down interview with Fox News that Mr Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup had initially been shocked after learning her husband was linked to the murders of three women whose bodies were discovered in Gilgo Beach back in 2010.

“When we told the wife, she was shocked, she was embarrassed. But there was a point where we showed her certain pictures and she said, ‘OK, it is what it is,’” Mr Harrison said in the interview that aired on Thursday.

It comes as online court records show that Ms Ellerup, who has been married to the accused serial killer’s wife for two decades, filed a matrimonial complaint in Suffolk County Supreme Court. The filing – titled Asa Ellerup v Rex Heuermann – states that the divorce is “uncontested”.

[21 July 2023 05:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Rex Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup files for divorce

Rex Heuermann’s wife has filed for divorce just six days after New York police arrested her husband over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders.

Court records show that Asa Ellerup – the accused serial killer’s wife of two decades and mother of his children – filed a matrimonial complaint in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The case – Asa Ellerup v Rex Heuermann – is listed as “uncontested”.

His family are said to have been left “shocked” and “disgusted” after the Long Island native, 59, was arrested on Thursday and charged with the murders of three women.

[21 July 2023 06:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Attorney John Ray says he hopes new task force reviews evidence in Shannan Gilbert’s case

Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011. Suffolk County authorities have previously said that they don’t believe Gilbert was a victim of the Gilgo Beach serial killer, or even that she was a victim of homicide.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation.

“We’ve insisted that she was murdered. We have overwhelming evidence that that is true,” John Ray, an attorney for the Gilbert family, told The Independent. “The police had taken bizarre position that she died of natural causes.”

He added: “We’re hoping now with the new task force with these great guys and new brains and excellent work of the District Attorney and the new Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison.

“We’re hoping that they’re going to give it a look, a new look at the evidence with Shannan and investigate it as a murder.”

[21 July 2023 07:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Rex Heuermann is ‘traumatised’ by Gilgo Beach murders arrest, attorney says

Attorney Michael Brown told ABC News that he met the accused serial killer for the first time on Friday when he was arraigned on charges for murdering three women and dumping their bodies along the shores of Long Island.

He said that Mr Heuermann seemed normal in the meeting but was “traumatised” by the fact he had been taken into custody over the unsolved killings.

[21 July 2023 08:00 · Andrea Blanco]

The evidence that sealed Rex Heuermann’s arrest: Pizza crust, burner phones and his wife’s hair

It’s taken 13 years but Suffolk County Police finally say they’ve caught the serial killer who dumped his victims along the shores of Gilgo Beach – thanks to a pimp’s tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, his wife’s hair and a pizza crust.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp reports:

[21 July 2023 09:00 · Andrea Blanco]

Woman describes eerie Rex Heuermann ‘date’

Long Island resident and former escort Nicole Brass has since come forward with claims that she went on a date with Mr Heuermann sometime between 2014 and 2016.

Ms Brass, 34, first claimed in a TikTok video that she had met Mr Heuermann at a seafood restaurant in Port Jefferson and he then decided to bring up the Gilgo Beach murders while trying “to make it look just like someone who was very interested in the case”.

“It didn’t seem like somebody who feels bad when he talked about the victims. It seemed like somebody who really wanted to brag about what they did, but couldn’t,” Ms Brass told the Daily Beast.

“His body language shifted, and it seemed like he was having fun ... It was almost like he was visualising it in his head and getting off to what he was saying.”