The wife of Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann issued an unsolicited statement last week saying she has given her husband “the benefit of the doubt” and doesn’t believe he is capable of murder.
Asa Ellerup, married to Heuermann for 27 years, filed for divorce less than a week after his arrest for the murders of three of the four Gilgo 4, women found dead and buried along Long Island’s Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago, as CrimeOnline has reported. Heuermann has since been charged with the murder of the fourth woman as well.
Ellerup’s attorney, Bob Macedonio, who released his client’s statement on Wednesday, said that Ellerup can’t do a public interview, although he didn’t clarify if that was because of the 7-figure deal she reportedly signed with NBC Universal and other for a documentary. Macedonio said that Ellerup visits her husband weekly in jail, where he is being held without bond.
“Nobody deserves to die in that manner,” Ellerup’s statement said, according to Newsday, adding that the victims and their families have her “heartfelt sympathies.”
“I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial,” she said. “I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve.”
An attorney representing some of the victims’ family members fired back that Ellerup shouldn’t be waiting and should instead commit to a donation to a victims’ fund in the event her husband is convicted. Gloria Allred — who said she represents an aunt of Megan Waterman, the mother and a sister of Melissa Barthelemy, and a sister, daughter, and friend of Maureen Brainard-Barnes — invited Ellerup “to meet with the members of the victims’ families now to help her understand the depth of their loss.”
“We feel that sympathetic words without deeds are meaningless,” Allred said in a statement released on Friday. “We look forward to Ms. Ellerup’s response.”
Allred does not, so far, represent a member of Amber Costello’s family.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilt to all four murders.
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[Featured image: Asa Ellerup/Facebook and Rex Heuermann/Suffolk County Police Department via AP]
