Rex Heuermann: Suspected Gilgo Beach killer has 'acclimated' in jail amid ex-wife's 'therapeutic' visits
SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: Rex Heuermann, the former architect now facing allegations of being a serial killer, has been adjusting to his new life in jail.
Meanwhile, according to a report, his wife, Asa Ellerup, has been making weekly visits that are said to be therapeutic for her.
Rex Heuermann has been 'very compliant' in prison
Heuermann is currently housed in a 60-square-foot cell at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County, awaiting trial for the alleged murder of four women, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, also called Gilgo Four' murders in 2009.
The bodies were discovered bound with belts or tape and wrapped in burlap along a stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010. Heuermann was arrested dramatically in July 2023.
Heuermann has maintained he's not guilty of the charges. “He’s looking forward to fight these charges and we’re doing that. We’re going to continue to prepare," defense attorney Michael Brown said during his arraignment last year.
Heuermann has “become more acclimated with jail life,” since he arrived at the facility last July, Suffolk County Sheriff Dr Errol D Toulon Jr, told People.
He spends his time reading books, going through his case discovery, sleeping, and watching TV in his cell. Toulon notes that Heuermann has been “very compliant” and "there haven’t been any issues."
Rex Heuermann's estranged wife Asa Ellerup is visiting him weekly for 'therapeutic' reasons
Toulon revealed that Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, has been visiting him about once a week.
She didn’t visit him in the first three or four months of his incarceration, but she started visiting "more frequently" in the last two months.
These visits Ellerup's attorney Bob Macedonio said, "I think is therapeutic for her and to get whatever kind of grasp on the situation she possibly can."
Even after filing for divorce from Heuermann following his arrest, after 27 years of marriage, Ellerup can't come to terms with believing he is a murderer.
Earlier Ellrup through her attorney said in March she was going to give him a "benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve”
“I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial,” she said, adding that she extends her “heartfelt sympathies” to the women known as the “Gilgo Four” that her husband is accused of killing.
“Nobody deserves to die in that manner," she said.
Asa Ellerup still finds it hard to believe Rex Heuermann committed serial murders
She has a "very difficult time believing that the Rex, who she was married to for 27 years, is capable of committing these homicides," Macedonio, her attorney told the publication.
Ellrup also participated in a multi-part documentary that will follow her during the Heuermann trial.
Heuermann was charged in July 2023 with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman. He was later accused of murdering Maureen Brainard-Barnes. All four victims worked as online escorts and had been missing between 2007 and 2010.
Authorities linked Heuermann to the killings through DNA evidence, burner phones used to meet the victims, and a piece of his hair allegedly found at the bottom of a burlap bag used to wrap Waterman’s body.
