The wife of a man charged in the deaths of three women, known as the Gilgo Beach murders in New York, filed for divorce Wednesday, her attorney said.
Asa Ellerup, Rex Heuermann’s wife, filed the complaint in the Suffolk County Supreme Court, according to her attorney Robert Macedonio, the Associated Press reported.
On Friday, July 14, police charged Heuermann with first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of three women whose remains were found along a Long Island beach roadway in 2010, according to Suffolk County court records.
Police arrested Heuermann after DNA from a pizza he ate matched a male hair found on one of the victim’s remains. He pleaded not guilty to three counts each of first- and second-degree murder. He is being held without bail, according to court records.
Gilgo Beach victims
Heuermann was charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, whose bodies were found wrapped in burlap in 2010 along a Gilgo Beach roadway in New York.
He is also the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, whose body was also found around the same time. All four victims were believed to be sex workers, according to court records.
Around this time, police were searching for 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert, a sex worker from New Jersey who vanished in 2010 after leaving a client’s house in Oak Beach. Gilbert was found dead in 2011 in another area. Suffolk County police labeled her death an accidental drowning. Her family has refuted that claim, the AP reported.
Police search Rex Heuermann’s home
After Heuermann was charged, police searched his home in Massapequa Park, New York, and other locations.
Police have been seen taking boxes of material from his home where the couple lived together, including more than 200 firearms, a filing cabinet, a computer, a large doll in a glass case and other household items, the AP reported.
The home is located across a bay from where the remains were discovered. He has lived in this home for decades.
Since his arrest, Heuermann has been on suicide watch at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, the AP reported.
