CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann appeared at Suffolk County Criminal Court Monday afternoon for a conference hearing.
The court was expected to go over evidence and talk with witnesses.
Heuermann is accused of killing three women and is the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth.
“This is the first step in the process of proving those allegations,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.
Tierney said there’s been a “massive amount” of material amassed during the case’s 13-year investigation.
Parking lots around the court were already jammed early Tuesday, and lines formed to get into the court for the conference with Heuermann, attorneys and the judge.
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We are learning from Heuermann’s estranged wife, 59-year-old Asa Ellerup, that their family was blindsided.
Ellerup shared a statement with the New York Post, saying since learning of her husband’s arrest, she filed for divorce.
“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,” she said in the statement. “He’s so distraught and doesn’t understand. And as a mother, I have no answers for him.”
Ellerup’s attorney provided CBS New York with photos after investigators spent 12 days tearing through the Massapequa Park home.
Ellerup said the family had to dig through rubble just to find a chair.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering,” she said in the statement.
She added her daughter, Victoria, has expressed emotions of feeling “not human” in the wake of the mess left behind. Their lawyer chimed in, saying, “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.”
Detectives want to know where each of the Gilgo Beach Four was murdered.
“She had no idea this was going on. Her husband is a suspect. She is not a suspect. She has not been questioned by the police in all of this. It has been extremely overwhelming for her and the children to piece life back together,” Ellerup’s attorney Robert Macedonia said.
Heuermann has been held without bail since his July 14 arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty to fist and second degree murder charges in the killings of three women.
Authorities want to know if he had ties to murders in Las Vegas and South Carolina, where he owned properties. However, police said this week they believe he is not connected to the unsolved deaths of four sex workers in Atlantic City. The bodies of those women were found close together in a drainage ditch behind a demolished motel.
Tierney addressed the media after the proceedings, which have garnered international media coverage.
The DA isn’t running for reelection for two years, but has already started referring to Gilgo in his campaign promotions.
