Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s ex-wife makes eye-catching display of support for him at latest court appearance
The estranged wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann wore her engagement ring as the alleged six-time murderer appeared in court.
Asa Ellerup, dressed in a white blouse, light blue pants and pink sneakers, appeared calm as she entered the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead.
She was accompanied by her attorney Robert Macedonio, another member of her legal team, and her emotional support dog, Stewie “Stuart,” at her side. Her daughter Victoria was not present.
The hearing was a procedural hearing and featured new facts and information that would be presented as evidence against Heuermann. Heuermann was also present at Tuesday’s hearing.
Heuermann did not speak during the hearing, while his defense attorney Michael Brown stood next to him. He appeared older and grayer than at the time of his arrest.
At one point, Heuermann was seen nodding and looking toward where his ex-wife was sitting in the back of the courtroom.
The mother of two wore her trademark dark sunglasses and after Judge Timothy Mazzei ended the trial, Ellerup ran out of the courtroom with Stewie as a swarm of photographers tried to talk to her.
At one point she smiled, but she did not respond to questions from others.
Heuermann’s ex-wife Asa Ellerup was seen wearing her wedding ring while walking Stewie, the family’s service dog, and her attorney Robert Macedonio and another member of Ellerup’s legal team were seen walking nearby as they made their way to the entrance of the Suffolk County Courthouse.
Ellerup wore her gold and diamond engagement ring during Tuesday’s court hearing
Rex Heuermann, 60, Tuesday in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead
The body of Jessica Taylor, 20, missing her head and hands, was discovered in the woods of Manorville, New York in 2003
Sandra Costilla, 28, was linked to the Gilgo Beach investigation after an April search of the property where her remains were found. Unlike the other victims in the case, Costilla has never been described by police as a sex worker.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney held a press conference following the hearing, reviewing the information provided to the defense. A question-and-answer session followed.
He detailed some of the discoveries. “We have six murders that are alleged to have been committed by this suspect, so we look forward to doing that, so that all of the underlying casework for each of those murders,” he said.
He explained the magnitude of the task, going back to the first murder in 1993, 2003, 2007, 2009 and two in 2010. He then provided missing persons files, telephone work, lab work, underlying data, forensic and electronic evidence.
“All the work of the investigative teams – all those notes, all those notebooks, the detectives worked on it. Maine, Connecticut, where missing persons first came from. The NYPD. Under our NYS Discovery Law, we have to provide every piece of paper. We have to do that and we have to prove that we have every piece of paper.
The first victim, 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy, was discovered by Suffolk County police on December 11, 2010. The body of Megan Waterman, 22, of Maine, was found two days later
Heuermann is also accused of the murders of Amber Costello (left) and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (right)
No date has yet been set for the trial.
Heuermann’s attorney Michael Brown also gave a speech outside court.
He said his client “wants his day in court.”
“I stood before you a year ago and I said he wants his day in court. He still wants his day in court and he wants his trial,” Brown said.
“He’s dealing with it the best he can. He understands that he can’t change the circumstances around him for the time being, but he wants his day in court.
When Brown was asked what Heuermann does all day, he replied that he fills his days looking at the discovery he was allowed to view on a computer.
He also spends time in the law library and spends an hour a day in the garden.
He said his client and his ex-wife are in frequent contact and that his daughter Victoria has visited him in prison.
Heuermann’s next trial is scheduled for October 16
Although Ellerup shook her head and did not want to talk about her ex-husband or the case, she did tell DailyMail.com that Stewie had been rescued from a shelter in the Hamptons.
Her lawyer indicated that Stewie is her son Christopher’s dog.
Over the past year, Christopher has been photographed several times by DailyMail.com walking his Labrador Chihuahua mix outside his Massapequa Park home.
Throughout the chaos of today’s trial, Stewie seemed unbothered by the commotion everyone was making around him – inside and outside the courthouse – and conducted himself with poise, poise and cheerfulness.
Ellerup’s team even joked that he would become famous on Instagram.
“We are training him to be an assistance dog,” said Ellerup, who said they have been given a “trainer for in-house.”
Macedonio intervened: ‘They must have a specific task.’
He added: “Now he can go to hotels and we don’t have to have him stay at any more. The Marriott wouldn’t take him the last time they went to Florida and it cost them $800 to $1,200 to have him stay for the weekend.”
However, Ellerup noted that Stewie is “having a lot of fun at the boarding school location” and seemed amused when a member of her legal team asked if he had a “girlfriend.”
Asa Ellerup appears in court on Tuesday to show her support for her ex-husband Rex Heuermann. She appeared calm with her service dog in training by her side
Ellerup looks at her support animal with her lawyer and another member of the legal team at her side, minutes before they enter the courtroom
Heuermann was arrested in July and initially charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. In February, he was also charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
The women were found more than a decade ago, wrapped in burlap and buried along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway on Long Island’s south shore.
Heuermann, an architect, has pleaded not guilty on all counts and is currently awaiting trial in prison.
In April, officials searched an area in Manorville where the partial remains of Gilgo Beach victims Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack were found more than 20 years ago.
In May, state and county police officers raided Heuermann’s family home in Massapequa Park, Long Island, and conducted a second search.
A month later, he was indicted by a grand jury for the 2003 murders of 20-year-old Jessica Taylor and 28-year-old Sandra Costilla in 1993.
After the second search warrant, investigators linked him to the two victims through DNA evidence.