RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann will appear in court Tuesday as his estranged wife speaks out for the first time about the toll his arrest and the nearly two-week police search of their home has had on the family.
Heuermann, 59, pleaded not guilty last month to the murders of three women—Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman—whose remains were found in 2010 along a stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. He is also the prime suspect in the killing of a fourth woman found in the area.
A judge ordered him held without bail at his July 14 arraignment. When he appears in court at the Arthur M. Cromarty Court Complex around 2 p.m. Tuesday, the spectator box will likely be filled with people trying to catch a glimpse of a suspect who allegedly managed to avoid arrest for more than a decade in the infamous serial killer case.
The longtime architectural consultant was remanded to the Suffolk County Sheriff's maximum security jail in Riverhead ever since his July 13 arrest outside his Fifth Avenue offices in Midtown Manhattan.
His attorney, Michael J. Brown, may ask Tuesday that bail be set in the case, but it's not expected to be granted by the judge. Brown has previously pointed to Heuermann's lack of a criminal record and said, "There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents."
Meanwhile, Heuermann's estranged wife and two adult children are back at their Massapequa Park home after police completed their 12-day search last week.
While the family has tried to stay away from the media, his wife Asa Ellerup, 59, broke her silence to several outlets on Monday, telling the New York Post that her family has been understandably traumatized by both Heuermann's arrest and the wall-to-wall search of their home.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering,” Ellerup said. “Anxiety.”
Photos taken by Ellerup from inside the home—which was previously described by authorities as "very cluttered"—show the residence was totally upended in the search, with boxes and belongings piled high and a large hole cut into the bathtub.
"I had three cats. Litter boxes were a strew, thrown on top of everything. My pictures were thrown all over the place," Ellerup said. "My couch was completely shredded. I don’t even know if there’s any parts to the couch."
She said her 26-year-old daughter and 33-year-old son "cry themselves to sleep."
Her son, who has developmental disabilities, is "distraught and doesn’t understand," while her daughter has expressed feeling "not human" from the trauma, she said.
Ellerup's attorney Bob Macedonio clarified, 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."
Ellerup indicated the family will stay at the home for now and said she's grateful "we're together."
"That’s really what matters right now," she said she told her son. "That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this."
Ellerup, who filed for divorce days after her husband was arrested, told ABC News that "everything is destroyed" and all the belongings packed inside the one-story home are a painful reminder of the crimes allegedly committed by her husband of 27 years.
"Every time my kids go through something... they open a box. Every single time they cry," she said.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said a "massive amount of material" was removed from the home and it will take time to examine. He said nothing in particular "jumped out" at investigators but "we're going to wait until we see all the evidence."
"There is a whole entire trace analysis that we have to go through with the house with regard to hair fibers, DNA, blood, which we'll just have to wait for the results on," he said.
Meanwhile, police have been keeping a close watch on the family's home on First Avenue to keep members of the public from stopping to gawk at the house and creating a "sideshow."
Officials have said they'll continue to investigate if any other murders on Long Island may be connected to Heuermann. In addition to the "Gilgo Four" whose remains were found within a quarter mile of each other, the remains of a half-dozen other people were also found in the area in 2011.
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