I cannot imagine the horror and pain of losing a loved one to murder. What a terrifying feeling to have someone you loved be completely healthy with no natural cause of death in sight, only to be stolen from your life out of thin air in a violent and intentional way. The only other worse thing I can think of is living with a person who committed those types of crimes and not having the slightest clue they were capable of such degradation. And if that person is your spouse? The betrayal has to feel immeasurable.
That certainly seems to be the case for the ex-wife of the recently tried ‘Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.’
On April 8, 2026, Rex Heuermann from Massapequa Park, Long Island, New York, confessed to killing eight women over the course of two decades whom he brutally strangled and dismembered, reported the New York Post. The 6’4″ architect appeared to be smirking as he rattled off details of his crimes, eliciting gasps from the victim’s families and sobs from his daughter, Victoria.
The father of two admitted to killing Sandra Costilla, 28, the first victim killed in 1993, as well as Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Megan Waterman, 22; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who were famously known as the “Gilgo Four.” He also murdered Valerie Mack, 24 and Jessica Taylor, 20, and confessed to killing Karen Vergata, 34, whose 1996 death had not previously been linked to him. All of them were believed to be sex workers.
He reportedly repeatedly relayed strangulation as the ultimate cause of death for these women and then confessed to dismembering some his victims and tying them up in burlap sacks.
Asa Ellerup, who was married to Heuermann for 27 years, filed for divorce shortly after he was arrested and linked to the murders in 2023.
USA Today reported that in an upcoming Peacock documentary set to release on April 23, 2026, The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, she revealed that her former husband had confessed the killings to her privately.
“He looked very nervous. Very, very nervous,” Ellerup said in the trailer. “He said he killed eight women.”
She also shared that he admitted to killing “all except one” in their own home in “his” room in the basement.
People in the comments section of the documentary preview waffled between sympathy and suspicion for Ellerup.
“I don’t think she knew. She probably knew he was sleeping with [sex workers] maybe but I don’t believe she knew abt the murders [because] then she would have feared for her own life and her kids and their friends etc,” one person wrote.
Another person, however, noted that the ex-wife’s demeanor seemed a little off. “The slight smirk. And she didn’t ask,” the commenter pointed out, referring to the moment she said he admitted to killing eight when he was originally only charged with 7. “That’s a problem.”
Heuermann is set to return to court for sentencing on June 17.
For three of the women he killed, he faces three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He could also get a consecutive sentence of 100 years to life for killing the other four women. Heuermann agreed to confess to Vergata’s murder to wrap her case into the guilty plea. Now he and his victims’ families are awaiting that fated court date.
