When a man commits a crime, not only the accused, but also their wife and family suffer greatly. This is the story of one such woman, who continues to believe her husband is innocent and refers to him as “my hero.”
In an emotional and contentious interview for the upcoming Peacock docuseries The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, Asa Ellerup, the estranged wife of accused serial killer Rex Heuermann, an architect arrested in July 2023, expresses her emotions.
According to The New York Times, Rex has been charged with the cold-case murders of three sex workers, Barthelemy, Waterman, and Costello, among others, and remains in prison.
In the Peacock documentary The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, his 61-year-old wife described seeing him in prison as “falling in love all over again.” She insists that authorities arrested the wrong man. “He is my hero,” she explained.
“I know what bad men are capable of—I have experienced it,” Ellerup says in the series, which debuts Tuesday. “He is not my husband. “They have the wrong person.” Aside from murder, Rex Heuermann was later charged with four other murders that occurred over a nearly 30-year period. Almost all of them were prostitutes, and their remains were discovered along Long Island’s Ocean Parkway.
Despite DNA evidence linking him to the victims, including hair traced to Asa Ellerup and their daughter, Victoria, Heuermann’s wife claims he is a “family man” rather than the killer described by the court. Meanwhile, Asa and Rex met when she was 18 and working at a 7-Eleven in Long Island.
According to reports, Asa, who had a dark and heartbreaking past that included abuse, a suicide attempt, and an attempted abduction, had Rex serve as her shield and protector. They married in Sweden in 1995 and had their daughter the following year.
Despite the serious charges leveled against her husband, Asa strongly defends him. She also denied that Rex solicited sex workers or had any involvement with the pornographic material allegedly discovered in their home, saying, “I do not even know if that stuff is his.”
Meanwhile, she stated that Rex was a rock for her even during difficult times, such as when he had a double mastectomy (a surgical procedure in which both breasts are removed).
Furthermore, in the series, Asa Ellerup dismissed swinger party rumors and insisted he was always at home on weekends. “If he said he went to Lowe’s and was gone for an hour, there is no way he was off murdering someone,” she told me. Even though the mother of one filed for divorce on March 27, after Rex had left, her daughter claims it was for financial reasons.
While a wife can divorce her husband in jail, the process is slightly more complicated because one of the spouses is behind bars and may be unable to follow all of the standard rules. Furthermore, in this scenario, the wife will have greater control over the assets and child custody.
Rex owned an architecture firm in Manhattan called RH Consultants & Associates and lived in Massapequa Park, a peaceful village on Long Island’s South Shore. He is currently housed at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County, New York, and is expected to remain there while his legal proceedings are ongoing.
Asa Ellerup mourns the distance between her and Rex. “I want to tell him I love him, but I hold back,” she admits. “Not because I doubt him, but because I do not believe any of this.” I do not see what everyone else is claiming. “I do not see it.”
This is a developing story; we will keep you updated on the final outcome of the case. If convicted of the current first- and second-degree murder charges against him, Rex will face multiple sentences, according to his bail application.
