The wife of the suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has filed for divorce nearly a week after the Manhattan architect was arrested and charged in the deaths of three women whose remains were found along a secluded beach roadway in 2010.
Asa Ellerup, 59, who has been married to Heuermann for 27 years, lodged the petition in Suffolk county supreme court on Wednesday. The court filing indicates the action is “uncontested”.
Ellerup, originally from Iceland, has yet to make a public statement about her husband. The Suffolk county police chief, Rodney Harrison, told CNN that Ellerup said she was “blindsided” when police showed up at their Massapequa Park home 40 miles east of midtown Manhattan at the exact moment last Thursday that Heuermann was arrested in Manhattan, and informed her that her husband had been apprehended on suspicion of three murders.
Harrison also told Fox News on Wednesday that Ellerup and her children had expressed “shock, disappointment and disgust” over the allegations against Heuermann when they met with investigators.
According to Harrison, after investigators showed her certain pictures, Ellerup had remarked: “OK, it is what it is.”
Her lawyer, Bob Macedonio, told the outlet last week that “her and her children’s lives have been completely turned upside-down,” adding: “this is all still a whirlwind.”
“They were home and the cops came in, and they were completely blindsided, and they told them what was going on,” he said.
George Duncan, a partner at Macedonio’s law firm, told the Guardian there would be no comment on Ellerup’s divorce petition.
Court documents have said that the suspect separately committed the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, more than 13 years ago. In each case, the suspect’s wife and children were out of New York state at the time the killings occurred.
According to the investigators, DNA from Ellerup’s own hair found on tape used to bind one or more of the victims has been pivotal in connecting Heuermann to the crimes.
Police chief Harrison, who assembled the multi-agency Gilgo Beach taskforce that identified Heuerman, has also told CNN that the reaction of Ellerup and her two children indicated they had no idea about Heuermann’s alleged crimes.
“They were disgusted. They were embarrassed,” Harrison said. “So, if you ask me, I don’t believe they knew about this double life that Heuermann was living.
“But, time will tell,” he added. “And once again, there are still a lot more questions that need to be done to the family and friends.”
