ISLIP TERRACE, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The estranged wife of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been battling two cancers as she also deals with her life being upended by his arrest last month, her divorce attorney revealed Friday.
Asa Ellerup’s cancer fight is all the more stressful because her health insurance is set to be cut off, attorney Robert Macedonio told reporters at a news conference in Islip Terrace.
Ellerup, 59, is in ongoing treatment for the cancers, he said, without elaborating.
“For the past several years, she’s been suffering from cancer,” Macedonio said. “She has breast cancer. She also has skin cancer. She’s presently under a course of treatment that’s going to continue for the next 12 to 18 months.”
“Why do I bring that up?” he continued. “Her health insurance is due to expire in the next 60 days.”
Macedonio said Ellerup was covered by her husband’s health insurance policy through his job as an architectural consultant in Manhattan.
“So when the funds run out, his business accounts, the health insurance will no longer be available for the cancer treatment she needs for the next 18 months,” he said.
Macedonio confirmed that Melissa Moore, the daughter of convicted “Happy Face Killer” Keith Hunter Jesperson, helped set up a GoFundMe for Ellerup.
“100% of the proceeds from that GoFundMe go to Asa,” he said.
Ellerup has been living with her adult son and daughter at the family’s home in Massapequa Park, which was searched by police for nearly two weeks last month. Macedonio said investigators left a “mess” that required a “cleanup crew with 20-yard dumpsters and five men” to remove the debris. The family is laying the groundwork for a lawsuit over the alleged damage by multiple law enforcement agencies.
An “enormous outpouring of support” from the public—which has included gift cards, care packages and food delivered to her house—has helped Ellerup get through the ordeal, Macedonio said.
“She’s going through a very difficult time emotionally,” he said. “She’s recovering each day, not only dealing with the cancer but this newfound life that she has to come to terms with to protect herself and her children.”
Heuermann, 59, remains at a Suffolk County jail on charges he murdered three women whose remains were found in the Gilgo Beach area in 2011.
He’s also the prime suspect in the killing of a fourth woman whose remains were found there. He’s maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Authorities have said Ellerup and her children had no knowledge of the killings and were out of town at the time.
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