The estranged wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann wore her engagement ring to the alleged six-time killer’s final court appearance.
Dressed casually in a white blouse, light blue pants and pink sneakers, Asa Ellerup appeared calm as she walked into the Suffolk County Criminal Courthouse in Riverhead.
She was accompanied by her attorney Robert Macedonio, another member of her legal team and her emotional support dog, Stewie ‘Stuart’. Her daughter Victoria was not present.
The court hearing was procedural in nature and outlined new data and information that would be presented as evidence against Heuermann, who was also present at Tuesday’s hearing.
Heuermann did not speak during the hearing, as his defense attorney, Michael Brown, stood by his side. He appeared older and grayer than at the time of his arrest.
At one point, Heuermann was seen nodding his head as he appeared to look in the direction of where his ex-wife was sitting in the back of the courtroom.
The mother of two had her trademark dark sunglasses over her eyes, and after Judge Timothy Mazzei ended the day’s proceedings, Ellerup ran out of the courtroom with Stewie as a swarm of photographers tried to talk to her.
She smiled at one point, but didn’t answer anyone’s questions.
Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, was seen wearing her wedding ring while walking Stewie, the family’s service dog, as her attorney Robert Macedonio and another person from Ellerup’s legal team walked nearby on their way to the entrance of the Suffolk County Courthouse.
Ellerup wore her gold diamond engagement ring to Tuesday’s court hearing
Rex Heuermann, 60, inside the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead on Tuesday
The headless, handless body of 20-year-old Jessica Taylor was discovered in the woods of Manorville, New York, in 2003.
Sandra Costilla, 28, was linked to the Gilgo Beach investigation after a raid was carried out on the property where her remains were found in April. Unlike the other victims in the case, Costilla was never described by police as a sex worker.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney held a press conference after the hearing to review what was provided to the defense, followed by a question-and-answer session.
He explained some of the discoveries in detail. “We have six murders that were allegedly committed by this defendant, so we’re hoping to get all the groundwork for each of those murders to work,” he said.
He explained how exhaustive the task is, going back to the first murder in 1993, 2003, 2007, 2009 and two in 2010. Then missing persons files, telephone work, lab work, underlying data, forensic and electronic evidence are provided.
‘All the work of the investigative teams, all those notes, all those notebooks, the detectives worked on it. Maine, Connecticut, where the missing persons originated. The New York Police Department. Under our New York State Discovery Law, we have to provide every single document. We have to do it and we have to prove that we have all the documents.
The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County police on December 11, 2010. The body of Megan Waterman, 22, of Maine, was found two days later.
Heuermann is also accused of killing Amber Costello (left) and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (right).
The trial date has not yet been set.
Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, also spoke outside the courtroom.
He said his client “wants his day in court.”
“A year ago I stood before you and told you that I wanted to have my case heard in court. I still want my case heard in court and I want a trial to take place,” Brown said.
‘He’s dealing with this as best he can. He understands he can’t change the circumstances around him for now, but he wants his day in court.
When asked what Heuermann does all day, Brown said he fills his days reviewing the discovery he was allowed to view on a computer.
He also spends time in the law library and has an hour a day outdoors in the courtyard.
He said his client and his ex-wife communicate often and that his daughter Victoria has visited him in prison.
Heuermann’s next court date is scheduled for October 16.
Although Ellerup shook her head and would not discuss her ex-husband or the case, she told DailyMail.com that Stewie had been rescued from a shelter in the Hamptons.
His lawyer intervened saying that Stewie is his son Christopher’s dog.
Over the past year, DailyMail.com has photographed Christopher walking the Labrador-Chihuahua mix outside his Massapequa Park home several times.
During the chaos of today’s court proceedings, Stewie didn’t seem to mind the ruckus everyone was making around him, inside and outside the courthouse, and appeared well-mannered, poised and smiling.
Ellerup’s team even joked that he would become Instagram famous.
“We’re training him to be a service dog,” said Ellerup, who shared that they got a “house trainer.”
Macedonio intervened: ‘They have to have a specific task.’
She added: “Now he can go to hotels and we don’t have to put him up anymore. The Marriott wouldn’t take him the last time they went to Florida and it cost them between $800 and $1,200 to put him up for the weekend.”
Although Ellerup did say that Stewie “has a lot of fun at boarding school” and seemed amused when a member of his legal team asked him if he had a “girlfriend.”
Asa Ellerup appeared in court on Tuesday to show her support for her ex-husband Rex Heuermann. She appeared calm accompanied by her service dog in training.
Ellerup looks at his support animal with his attorney and another member of the legal team at his side minutes before entering the courtroom.
Heuermann was arrested in July and initially charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. In February, he was also charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
The women were found wrapped in burlap and buried along the remote stretch of Ocean Parkway on Long Island’s South Shore more than a decade ago.
Heuermann, an architect, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and remains in jail awaiting trial.
In April, officials searched an area of Manorville where the partial remains of Gilgo Beach victims Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack were found more than 20 years ago.
State and county police officers arrived at Heuermann’s family home in Massapequa Park, Long Island, and executed a second search warrant in May.
A month later, a grand jury indicted him for the murders of Jessica Taylor, 20, in 2003, and Sandra Costilla, 28, in 1993.
Investigators linked him to the two victims through DNA testing after the second search warrant.
(tags to translate)dailymail
