NEW YORK — The wife of a Manhattan architect accused of the Gilgo Beach serial murders She says her two adult children “cry themselves to sleep” and that she “has no answers” for them when they ask her about her husband’s arrest.
Asa Ellerup, 59, who filed for divorce from the suspectRex Heuermann, spoke in an interview with the New York Post Monday about the past few turbulent weeks that she and her children have endured.
Heuermann was arrested on July 13, charged with three counts of murder for the deaths of three women, and is said to be the prime suspect in the disappearance of a fourth woman. The group of women was known as the “Gilgo Four,” whose findings raised fears of a serial killer in the area.
“My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, they’re not kids. They are adults but they are my children, and my son is developmentally disabled and cried himself to sleep,” Ellerup told the Post about the trauma of the ordeal. His daughter is 33 years old, according to the outlet.
Ellerup said she, too, has been experiencing “anxiety.”
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shaking,” he said.
Investigators spent 12 days searching the family’s Massapequa Park home on Long Island for evidence. Ellerup told the Post that by the time the family was allowed to return, the one-story residence in the quiet suburb of South Shore was virtually uninhabitable. They came home to scattered litter boxes, their couch torn up and their greenhouse altered, he said.
Police previously said Heuermann had a stash of more than 200 weapons in a vault inside his house.
Ellerup’s daughter, Victoria Heuermann, 26, said she felt “not human” after her father’s arrest.
Ellerup’s attorney, Bob Macedonio, added: “She meant what they’ve done to them and the family isn’t even human. They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals.”
“We got another chair from the basement and upstairs so my son and I can sit and talk. He is so distraught and doesn’t understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him,” Ellerup told the outlet.
“But I said, ‘We’re together. That is really what matters now. That you and I are sitting here together and we will get through this,’” she added.
Ellerup’s attorney said he will make a detailed list of damages and what is missing and contact the district attorney’s office.
Macedonio told NBC News’ “TODAY” show this week: “It’s been a very tumultuous time for them. Life has turned upside down in recent weeks.
She added that Ellerup was totally “shocked” by her husband’s arrest and is now focused on protecting her family.
Heuermann, 59, who worked in Manhattan, will appear in court in Riverhead, New York, on Tuesday afternoon for his first hearing since his arraignment.
He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
His arrest shocked Long Island and the New York area, and the investigation into the large number of bodies found in the Gilgo Beach area is ongoing.
