By Christina Maxouris, CNN
(CNN) In her greater than 27 years of marriage to Rex Heuermann, Asa Ellerup most likely did not know concerning the horrible double life her husband is charged with being alive, Suffolk County’s high police officer says.
“Should you ask me, I do not suppose they knew about this double life that Mr. Heuermann was main,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison mentioned of the suspect’s household.
However authorities should not ruling something out but and are persevering with to collect data “to see if the household may need recognized precisely what Mr. Heuermann was as much as,” Harrison informed CNN’s Erica Hill on Monday.
Final week, Heuermann, 59, was arrested and charged with homicide in reference to the murders of three of the “Gilgo 4,” a bunch of 4 girls whose stays had been discovered alongside a brief stretch of Gilgo Seaside on Lengthy Island in 2010. He’s additionally the prime suspect within the disappearance and homicide of the fourth girl, however has not but been charged in that case.
On Wednesday, lower than every week since her husband’s arrest, Ellerup filed for divorce, her legal professional, Robert Macedonio, informed CNN. She didn’t remark additional on the matter.
She was shocked to listen to what her husband is accused of, Harrison mentioned.
However she unknowingly performed a key function in her husband’s arrest: It was his DNA, amongst different proof, that authorities say helped hyperlink Heuermann to the crimes.
Here is what we find out about his spouse, their life collectively, and the sudden function she performed within the case.
The 2 have been married for 27 years.
Heuermann and Ellerup had been married in April 1996, the suspect mentioned in a 2018 assertion. Since then, they’ve lived in Heuermann’s red-and-green childhood house in Massapequa Park, a Lengthy Island suburb, with their daughter and Heuermann’s stepson.
However regardless of his lengthy keep within the neighborhood, and although Heuermann’s life was lengthy rooted in the identical neighborhood, few particulars concerning the household had been recognized to neighbors.
Neighbors described the home as creepy and the household as distant, in response to the lengthy Island Press, a month-to-month journal serving Lengthy Island.
“The household could be very reserved, quiet,” neighbor Frankie Musto informed the publication. “We by no means noticed something suspicious.”
In his 2018 deposition, Heuermann mentioned that he had been married as soon as earlier than. That marriage, he mentioned, lasted three years they usually had no kids.
They discover spouse’s hair with the three victims
When the victims had been first found, authorities recovered strands of degraded hair, however DNA testing on the time failed to supply the solutions investigators hoped for.
Technological enhancements quickly helped produce outcomes.
Hair now believed to belong to Ellerup, which had allegedly been unintentionally carried by the suspect on his clothes, was discovered on or close to all three victims, prosecutors alleged within the bond request, citing DNA proof.
That DNA got here from 11 bottles inside a trash can outdoors Heuermann’s house, the courtroom doc says. Authorities had been watching Heuermann and his household for months after they recognized him as a suspect in early 2022, throughout which period they collected DNA samples from objects the household dumped.
Though her hair was discovered with the victims, Ellerup and her daughter had been touring when the murders befell and Heuermann was “alone within the tri-state space,” Suffolk County District Legal professional Ray Tierney mentioned throughout a information convention Friday.
“It’s totally important in that it limits him,” prison protection legal professional Joey Jackson informed CNN’s Jake Tapper of the discovering. “If the suspect’s spouse is out of city, then why would her hair be there if he is on the town?”
Suffolk County authorities say DNA proof additionally linked Heuermann to a male hair discovered within the burlap sack the place the stays of a sufferer had been discovered.
Stunned, disgusted, embarrassed
Harrison informed CNN on Monday that he was knowledgeable that when authorities informed Ellerup and his daughter concerning the crimes Heuermann is accused of, the 2 had been “shocked, disgusted, ashamed.”
His response, he mentioned, is the explanation he believes they had been unaware of what he was doing.
“However time will inform,” he added. “And as soon as once more, there are nonetheless many extra inquiries to be requested of household and pals.”
CNN has made a number of makes an attempt to contact Heuermann’s spouse and daughter.
Following his arrest, Heuermann was remanded with out bail. He pleaded not responsible by his legal professional. His subsequent courtroom date is scheduled for August 1.
Heuermann has not had guests on the Suffolk County Correctional Facility the place he’s being held since his arraignment Friday, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr. informed CNN’s Brynn Gingras. He’s allowed to make two cellphone calls a day, however it’s unclear if he has related with anybody, the sheriff added.
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CNN’s Patricia DiCarlo and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.