'MY LIFE & HOME IN RUINS'
‘Gilgo killer’s wife and kids ‘distraught’
The estranged wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann said her two children “cry themselves to sleep” following his arrest that’s left their Long Island home a complete wreck inside.
In an exclusive interview with The Post Monday, Asa Ellerup, 59, said she’s been riddled with anxiety after investigators spent 12 days ripping up her Massapequa Park home in their search for evidence.
The damage is so bad, she doesn’t even have a bed to sleep in, but had to “take two pieces of foam and put it together so I could lay down.”
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering. Anxiety,” Ellerup said. “My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, they’re not children. They’re grown adults but they’re my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep.”
Her daughter, Victoria Heuermann, meanwhile, has expressed feeling “not human” in the wake of the mess left behind, Ellerup said.
Ellerup’s lawyer, Bob Macedonio, chimed in, “She meant what they’ve done to them and the family is not even human. They were just complete animals. They treated them like animals.”
Ellerup said that even though the house seems unlivable, “It’s the only thing I got.
“We did get another chair out from the basement and upstairs so me and my son can sit and talk. He’s so distraught and doesn’t understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him, she said. “But I said, ‘We’re together. That’s really what matters right now. That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this.’ ”
‘Blindsided’
Ellerup, her son, Christopher Sheridan, 33, and her 26-year-old daughter, Victoria, were suddenly forced out of their ranch-style home after the architect was arrested and charged July 13.
Rex Heuermann, 59, faces three counts of murder in the deaths of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22, whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He is the prime suspect in a fourth killing, of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — with the victims known collectively as the “Gilgo Four.”
Macedonio said Ellerup was “blindsided” by her husband’s arrest. She has since filed for divorce.
“She was in complete shock. Completely caught by surprise,” the lawyer said.
Suffolk County and state police spent nearly two weeks combing through the Heuermann home, even digging up the backyard in a search for body parts or “trophies.”
Last week, cops packed up and left, with Ellerup and her children returning home for the first time.
Images from inside the home obtained exclusively by The Post show a disheveled nightmare, with boxes strewn about and piled up high. One photo shows a piece of the bathtub cut out and a chunk of the tile on the floor missing.
Rex Heuermann, meanwhile, is due back in court Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty on July 14 — and has yet to receive a single visit in jail from his family, authorities said.