The family of the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect has criticized police for dumping their beloved cats into a “kill shelter” after tearing up their home and forcing them to cook on their front lawn.
Rex Heuermann, 59, is charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010, and is the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007.
His wife Asa Ellerup found her Massapequa Park home in total disarray when investigators launched an extensive search following his arrest.
She and her two grown children immediately left the house on police instructions, leaving them no time to find their pets amidst the chaos.
In the end, they had to sleep in a rental car for days until they were allowed to go home – and since then they have been living in an ‘awake horror show’.
Asa Ellerup and her two adult children. They immediately left the house under police instruction, leaving them no time to find their pets in the midst of the chaos
Rex Heuermann, 59, is charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared in 2009 and 2010, and is the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007.
In the photo: one of the family’s cats. When they got home, they were gone. The police had sent them to a ‘kill shelter’
Melissa Moore, the daughter of serial killer Keith Jesperson, met with Ellerup to offer her support Sun USA that the police sent the family’s cats to a shelter.
Rex’s son Christopher, who suffers from learning disabilities, was able to locate his service dog Stewie before they were banned from the property, but they were unable to locate their two cats.
Moore said, “They left assuming the police would look after the animals when they left the house without any notice.
“The authorities immediately trapped the cats and sent them to a shelter.”
Thanks to their lawyers, Ellerup and her children were eventually able to find their cats and bring them home.
Moore added, “Lawyers representing Asa found out her animals were in a shelter and arranged for them to be removed before they could be euthanized.”
Etienne de Villiers, 68, who lives next door to the family, said the family has been spending more and more time in their front yard since the man’s arrest as investigators have left the house ‘uninhabitable’.
The inside would be covered in debris from their search, attorney Vess Mitev said.
Villiers told the New York times: ‘They barbecue in the front yard, they’ve never done anything like that before. Suddenly they’re there all the time.’
Fortunately, they got their cats back before they were euthanized
The family is spending more and more time in the front yard as investigators have left the house “uninhabitable.”
The inside of their home would be covered in debris from their search, attorney Vess Mitev said
This follows reports that Heuermann has been seeing a minister in prison once a week at his request, as he still appears “emotionless” after being released from suicide watch.
He spent the first few days in jail isolated in his cage in his 60-square-foot cell, often looking up at the ceiling, but has since settled in, Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. said. from Suffolk Thursday to Newsweek.
“I didn’t see any emotion from him,” the sheriff said. “You wonder what’s going on… Is there something brewing inside?”
Toulon recounted the architect’s five-week jail sentence at Riverhead’s Suffolk County Jail and related that Heuermann goes for walks alone in a small recreation area and spends his time reading and watching television.
While reporters and fans of true crimes have been asking to see him, Heuermann has only met his attorney Michael Brown and a man the sheriff declined to identify.
As part of the investigation, police spoke to sex workers operating in the Long Island area.
Two prostitutes hired by Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann have accused him of being “violent” and “aggressive” towards them.
Interviewed in late July, shortly after Heuermann’s arrest, they said they became fearful for their safety during intimate encounters with the New York-based architect.
“A person that size who was a little bit aggressive was probably scary,” Toulon said of Heuermann, who is six feet tall and weighs 240 pounds.
Although they were not injured, both sex workers told police they were nervous after their only encounter with the suspect.
Heuermann’s arrest marked a stunning breakthrough in the long-stalled cold case that first made headlines in 2010, when police began searching for a missing woman, Shannon Gilbert, near Gilgo Beach on Long Island.