Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘Irrevocable Breakdown’: Wife of Alleged Gilgo Beach Killer Believes Her Husband Was Living Double Life, Lawyer Says

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

Asa Ellerup’s world has been turned upside down since her husband — Rex Heuermann — was arrested for the murders of three New York women. Their bodies were found scattered along Gilgo Beach in Long Island several years ago. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy spoke with Ellerup’s attorney — Robert Macedonio — about her life before the arrest and how everything’s changed.Listen to Law&Crime's Sidebar Podcast on Apple & Spotify:Apple: https://apple.co/3wMgRgBSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3wITe7b Hosts:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberAngenette Levy: https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Robert MacedonioLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael Deininger Guest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoFor Licensing Inquiries, Please Contact: [e-mail]&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeLAW&CRIME NETWORK PODCASTS: https://lawandcrime.com/podcasts/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. It's come as a shot, but you know, as you can imagine, even if any percentage of the allegations that have been in the media are true, it's been an irreparable breakdown of the marriage. The lawyer for the wife of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heurman talks about what her life has been like since his arrest and why she filed for divorce. I'm Anjanette Levy. Welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. Asa Ellarup's life was turned upside down nearly three weeks ago when her husband, Rex Heurman, was taken into custody for the

murders of three women, whose remains were found on Long Island's Gilgo Beach many years ago. Horman has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Melissa Bartholomey. Megan Waterman and Amberlyn Costello. Their bodies were found wrapped in camouflage burlap along Oceanside Parkway in 2010. The DA says Heurman's DNA was found in the burlap along with the DNA of his wife. Hureman is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen-Brainard Barnes. Eight sets of remains were found on Gilgo Beach in 2010 and 2011, including an Asian male and a toddler. The others were women. Ellorup, her daughter and son, went back to their home in Massapequa Park last week after police searched it for more than a week.

Her attorney shared photos with us from inside the home. It shows what it looks like following the search and frankly, it's a complete mess. Ellorup filed for divorce following her husband's arrest, but that doesn't mean she's not in contact with him. Here's Hewerman's attorney Michael Brown outside of the courthouse this week. He's had contact with his wife, yes, and family members. I don't think she's visited yet, obviously, because she doesn't want to be ambushed by the press. So she hasn't been, she hasn't visited him at the jail yet, no. Brown also spoke about what Hurerman has told him about the murders and his arrest. What is my client told me? He told me he didn't do this. District Attorney's Office has a whole office. They're the biggest law firm in this county.

I'm one guy, right? So Ms. Koish is going to be co-counsel on this. We have other attorneys that I expect are going to be assisting on this. And just to pour through the discovery is an enormous task. There's no plea deal. He said from the moment I met him that I did not do this. So we're prepared to go forward. We will defend this case in a court of law and we will go to trial on this case. But the district attorney has said that they are confident that Hjorman is their man.

This is a 13-year case. So as you saw, we have a great deal of information evidence, photographs, reports to provide to the defense counsel. We've begun that process. I think it was eight gigabytes of material, which is a tremendous amount. And that's just the beginning. We're going to continue to do that on a rolling basis. And, you know, these, you know, this case, the charges in the indictment are just allegations. So this is the first step in the process of proving those allegations. So we look forward to undertaking that process.

Meanwhile, media and true crime enthusiasts have swarmed the neighborhood in Massapequa Park where Heurman lives out of curiosity. Law and Crime producer Alyssa Fisher approached Ellerup to see if there was anything she'd like to say. She looked exhausted, to say the least. just bloodshot. Her lips were pale. She looked like she, I'm sure, had maybe just woken up from a nap. She was in lounge wear. She just looked sad as she said, no, I'm sorry. I'm not interested in speaking right now. And completely understandable. She's had a really difficult few weeks. Joining me to discuss the impact that the arrest of Rex Horman has had on his

family is the attorney representing his wife, his now estranged wife, Asa Ellarup. Bob Macedonia, welcome to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. For having me. I appreciate it. Bob, first of all, how did you come to represent Asa Ellorup? Have you known her for a long time or did you just meet her through your current representation? We met her through a current representation.

You know, we were retained on the Saturday morning after her husband was arrested just to be a buffer between her and the person. police department and handle all communications between her and the DA's office and the police department. And then we followed up with discussing the marital issues in filing for the divorce. So you're representing her on a number of fronts? Correct. We are her attorneys for all the matters right now. Okay. Why did she decide to file for divorce? I think the answer may seem obvious to many people, but this is still somebody she has spent decades of her life with. So I'm I'm sure this has come as a shock.

It's come as a shock, but, you know, as you can imagine, even if any percentage of the allegations that have been in the media are true, it's been an irreparable breakdown of the marriage. And, you know, she just needs to move forward protecting herself at this point. It's going to take years for her husband's matters to play out in court. And honestly, we just need to protect her and have her move forward as quick as we can. And when you say protect her, what do you mean by that? she's obviously whatever liability he may be involved with civilly we don't want to be

responsible for any of this she needs to make decisions um as an independent person not being a married person protect her her children and just honestly move forward putting her life back together her life has been thrown into complete upheaval i was going to ask you how is she doing we see the photographs of her in the news on media websites and i mean i didn't know her before this happened and none of us did, but she definitely looks stressed, as you would imagine she would be, and probably like she hasn't slept in weeks. She's emotionally and physically exhausted.

Like you said, she hasn't slept in weeks. It goes where you can't get an hour or two asleep here or there. There's not been a full night sleep that's gone on. Since they returned to the home, the media bangs on the door throughout the days and late into the night, which then gets the dog barking. And just between that and her children, you know, crying themselves,

sleep at night. They're in the 20s and 30s, but still, this is a traumatic event for the entire family for her. I mean her and our two children. I'm not speaking about her husband, what they're going through right now. And they're innocent victims in this whole matter. I was going to ask you about that. People always speculate and ask questions. Did she know anything? Was she involved? Did the family have any inkling whatsoever? And it's been reported and in the bail application, and it said that Asa was out of town when these alleged murders, you know, they're murders, but when his alleged involvement occurred in these crimes. Is there anything she's shared with you that you can share with us

that indicates that she may be looking back in hindsight's 2020? She has no independent knowledge of even the dates and times that they're alleging these crimes to take place. The only thing that we've gained from this is what the media has put out. The DA's bail application, as you just stated, eliminates her from being in the jurisdiction when these crimes are committed. They, I'm sure, have extensively investigated that prior to making that statement or they wouldn't have ruled her out in their bail application.

So I'm confident that she had no idea that this was going on. It was not involved in any of it. Has she indicated that their marriage was a happy one? I mean, I find it hard to believe if Rex Horman is indeed found to be responsible for these homicides, that there wasn't any behavior toward the family that might have been, you know, maybe strange or violent. I just don't know. No indication of any, you know, violence and the marriage between her and him.

And again, if it's found to be true that he did this, it was a complete double life that she was unaware of. She's a homemaker. She raised the two children. She's a homemaker. She's raised the two children and that's it. We saw that there was a GoFundMe page started for her to raise some money for her and her family by the daughter of a serial killer, how is she feeling about somebody who's been

through this before doing something nice for her on her behalf? She feels good about it. If anybody knows what Oz's going through, it would be someone that's lived through it. We could all give our opinion and all try to comfort as much as we possibly can. But the young woman that started, the co-family for her, has lived it. Her family's lived it. And she's suffered the public, you know, scorn of her dad being known as the happy face killer. And it's been very supportive throughout this since the beginning.

Tell me about the children, if you would. I saw a photograph, I think, on Newsday's website of her daughter, Victoria and Asa. I would assume in your office, I don't know that, but it looked like they were in some type of office. I think they were in my office, yes. Yeah. What are they like? They're doing better. They're doing better as the days go on in the early time.

It was just a complete emotional upheaval of their entire lives, just hour by hour trying to process what actually happened and trying to retrace what life was like when these alleged crimes happened, which is almost impossible for any of us to put a timeline together. What were we doing 10 years ago today? I don't know. I couldn't tell you without really exhaustively going through any documents or any items that may have to remind me of that. So people are trying to do that.

And all those documents or anything they would be able to do that with have been taken out of the house. your staff shared photos with us of the interior of the house and i don't know what it looked like before but it seriously looks like a tornado has torn through there um did the police do all of that in their search or i mean were there things kind of laying around before that or tell me the police went through every item in that house to the point of even emptying cat litter boxes out which were not empty at all over the house they were you know there's three cat litter boxes in the house when the police entered. They were emptied out and the catlet was thrown all over the house. There's no reason for that. There's no forensic value in that. There's no evidentiary value

in that. So I'm not sure why that was done. Victoria, her daughter, was an avid game player on PS5, PlayStation 5. The game was actually broken in half. Why that kind of stuff happens? I don't know. Whether it's just overly aggressive police work being in the house, it just makes no sense for that kind of destructive behavior to go on when you're looking for evidence of alleged crimes. And her son, Asa's son, appears to, it's my understanding, maybe has some developmental disabilities. Is that correct? He's on disability, you know, with the state, with the state and the government receives benefits from the state. And, you know, Hase is his caretaker. I saw in the pictures of the home as well, the photographs of the home, that part of the

bathtub appeared to be cut out. The vinyl bathtub was a vinyl replacement tub that was cut open as well as the floor ripped up. And the police did that, I would assume. Absolutely. Somebody on their behalf did it, yes. Does she have some animus or anger toward the police department over how this search warrant was executed at her home?

I don't think it's even gotten to the anger point yet and it's just processing what's going on in their life. They're still trying to locate their passports that, you know, driver's licenses and just simple thing, the keys to the house. The police changed the front door locks. We had to get keys to her house from the police department to be giving me to go back into the house. There's still no key to the back of her house.

She can't go out of the back door of her house. We don't have a key to get in it out of that. So it's been a process of just reacquainting herself with her home that she was displaced up for a little over two weeks, almost two weeks. She was quoted by the police commissioner in Suffolk County as saying it is what it is once they showed her photographs of what they had, you know, this evidence. the bail application. Can you explain to me? I'm not aware of that quote. As the police commissioner said that quote, I'm not going to say she said her, didn't say it, it wasn't there. But that just seems like an odd comment to make, you know, and why the police would be showing her evidence and bringing evidence to a crime scene

wouldn't make sense to me in the first place. I don't, I'm not sure whether that really happened or not. Were you, have you been with her each time she's spoken with law enforcement? She, she, the only time that she was with law enforcement without us present was that initial day when they went there with the search warrant. Has she been interviewed extensively by the detectives? She has not been interviewed at all by the detectives. That's interesting. I would have thought they would have asked to interview her. Like, hey, do you remember anything about this or that? No. Is there anything that you would like to say or that she would like to convey to the public through you? I mean, obviously we would love to speak with her, but is there anything that

you believe she would like to convey to the public. She would like life to get back to whatever normalcy she can for her and her two children and have the neighborhood return to a sense of normalcy. The neighbors of people in their lives has been almost as traumatic as, as our sisters and a children's, you know, to dissent, they can't walk their dog. It's going to the grocery store, drive down their own street, which is blocked off for a couple of weeks. And it's become a focal point for, I guess, you know, serial killer fans that want to drive by the house. and it's just become almost like a tourist attraction. And she wants it to quiet down for our own sanity and for the neighbors as well.

There's a lot of elderly people live in the neighborhood that they don't need this. Rex Horman's defense attorney, Michael Brown, said during a press conference that your client has spoken to her husband and his children have, too, since he's been incarcerated. You know, is she keeping in touch with him? Is he contacting her from jail and they're talking? I know they've spoken. I'm not sure how many times they've spoken, and I'm not even sure what the content of those conversations were. I know we've instructed her not to discuss any of the facts that are being reported about the case. Everything is recorded out of the jails, and it's often used in criminal prosecutions, any of those recordings. So we've instructed her, and I'm sure Mr. Brown has instructed his client not to discuss the facts of any of the criminal allegations that are out there on the telephone. Does she still love her husband? We haven't even got to that. I mean, you know, yeah, I don't even ask those questions. At this point, it's irrelevant. I need to protect her and children. I understand.

So what's your next step as far as the divorce proceedings go? He, of course, will have to be represented. If he chooses to get an attorney, you can do a pro se. You know, Mr. Brown is only representing him on the criminal matters. He'll be served with papers at the correctional facility. And then that starts, you know, the summons has been filed. They'll get served personally by the sheriff's office. and then the commencement of that, he'll choose to get an attorney or not get an attorney, and we'll proceed that way. Well, Bob, is there anything that you'd like to add that I haven't covered? I know you've mentioned the reach out by the Happy Face Killer's daughter,

who's also started the GoFundMe page on behalf of ASSA, and I think the last time I checked it was almost raised approximately $20,000. There's been donations of mattresses and food and clothing for her and children. And so whatever help the public can give to her to try to rebuild her life, we would appreciate. I can show you 100% of the proceeds to go to ASSA. There's no legal fees involved in any of this. We don't. We're not looking to take a legal fee from her or any of the funds that are raised through GoFunding.

Bob Macedonia, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcasts. and of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time.