'Disgusted' Gilgo Beach Suspect's Wife Files for Divorce

The wife of accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann filed for divorce Wednesday, less than one week after her husband was taken into custody and charged with the deaths of three of 11 women who were found near Gilgo Beach in New York 13 years ago.

Asa Ellerup, 59, who has been married to Heuermann for more than 20 years, filed a complaint against her husband in Suffolk County Supreme Court, according to court records, reports the New York Post.

Divorce filings, under state law, are sealed from the public but the cases and names of the parties are public.

Ellerup and the adult daughter she shares with Heuermann were seen in public Wednesday, accompanied by a man whose identity was not clear, though reports indicated he may have been Heuermann's stepson.

Ellerup is from Iceland and had been in hiding since her husband's arrest.

Earlier this week, police said Heuermann's family was "shocked" when he was arrested outside his office, where he works as an architect, and later charged in the deaths of the three women.

"They were disgusted; they were embarrassed," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said Monday.

Ellerup is Heuermann's second wife. They lived in the Massapequa Park home where he grew up and which he bought from his mother in 1994, the year he founded his architecture firm in Manhattan. Their daughter and his stepson lived with them. His daughter reportedly had worked as a receptionist at her father's company, RH Consultants and Associates, on Fifth Avenue.

Heuermann is charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and is a suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. All four were found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010.

By the spring of 2011, 10 more bodies were found around the area, including eight women and an unidentified man and toddler, the Post reported.

Heuermann's wife's DNA allegedly was found on three of the victims' bodies, according to prosecutors, reported Pix11 in New York. Two female hairs were found on Waterman, with one on the tape wrapped around her head; a female hair was also found in tape used to wrap burlap around Costello; and a woman's hair was detected in a belt buckle on Brainard-Barnes' body.

However, the deaths appear to have occurred when Ellerup was out of town, and she showed shock at his "double life" when she learned of the arrest, local police said.

She has not been implicated in any of the murders.

John Ray, a lawyer involved in two unsolved Gilgo Beach cases, told the The U.S. Sun that he believes a woman may also have been involved in the murders. Ray said he was tipped off about Heuermann's impending arrest by a source who also named a second suspect. Ray refused to share that person's name.

"We also believe that some of the victims could've been lured by a woman," Ray told the outlet, but he didn't elaborate on whether the "we" he referred to included investigators.

He added that he believes that a woman may have been involved because the toddler that was found was wrapped in blankets.

"It's that kind of thing that, if you're such a depraved murderer, you don't take time to do," Ray said. The baby hasn't been identified by reports indicating his or her mother was found dead in Nassau County.

Ray added that a woman was also involved in threatening calls to his home and office since January concerning his work with the families of killing victims Jessica Taylor and Shannan Gilbert.

"The same language is used; the same tape recordings are used; it's the same eerie voices and crazy sounds that are used in every one of those calls," he said.

Meanwhile, a woman who went out on a date with Heuermann several years after the Gilgo Beach murders said he was "excited" to talk about the killings, reports CBS New York.

"He was very detailed, and it didn't seem like somebody who was just a true crime fan," she said. "It seemed like somebody who, as they talked about it, was reliving it in their head. Like, he seemed, like, excited. Like, it piqued his interest. He sat up straighter, he relaxed his body. He seemed, like, really excited to talk about it," she said.

About NEWSMAX TV:

NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!