His Ex-Wife Sleeps in the Room Where He Says Victims Were Killed: Now the Gilgo Beach Killer Will Die in Prison

Rex Heuermann, the convicted Long Island serial killer at the center of the Gilgo Beach murder case, has been sentenced to the maximum punishment allowed after admitting to and being convicted in the deaths of eight women.

And according to his ex-wife’s attorney, Asa Ellerup believes he got exactly what he deserved.

“She believes the sentence is appropriate for his crimes, and obviously he got what he deserved,” Ellerup’s attorney, Bob Macedonio, said. “You can’t kill eight people. She’d never condone any of that.”

Heuermann, 62, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Timothy Mazzei to three consecutive terms of life in prison without parole, followed by four consecutive terms of 25 years to life. After delivering the sentence, Mazzei ordered bailiffs to remove him from the courtroom.

The sentencing closed one of the darkest chapters in Long Island criminal history, but it also left behind painful questions for the victims’ families, Heuermann’s own family, and the public.

How does someone live a seemingly normal suburban life while hiding something this horrifying?

Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 outside his Manhattan office. At the time, he was known publicly as an architect, husband, and father living in Massapequa Park, about 35 miles east of New York City.

But investigators later connected him to a series of murders spanning from 1993 to 2010. He was charged in the deaths of seven women and confessed to killing an eighth during an April 8 change-of-plea hearing.

For years, the Gilgo Beach case haunted Long Island. The discovery of human remains near Ocean Parkway turned into one of the most disturbing serial murder investigations in New York history. Victims’ families waited years for answers while investigators searched for the person responsible.

Now, Heuermann will spend the rest of his life in prison.

During sentencing, Judge Mazzei did not hold back.

The judge called Heuermann a “coward” and a “small man” for the killings, noting that the victims were women who were much smaller than him. He asked Heuermann whether he was sorry for what he did to the women he murdered.

“Yes, I am,” Heuermann replied.

Mazzei then told him he was “disgusting” and “despicable.”

The emotional sentencing came as Ellerup continues to draw public attention for her role in the Peacock docuseries “The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets.” In the series, she revealed that she now sleeps in the room where Heuermann said several of the victims were tortured and killed.

That detail is almost impossible to process.

Ellerup said in the episode that she is aware of the brutal truth of what happened in that room, but that she remains there for spiritual reasons and to express, in her own way, sorrow for what the victims endured.

Some viewers have found that deeply unsettling. Others may see it as a complicated attempt by a woman whose life was destroyed by the crimes of the man she once married.

Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann’s arrest. Since then, she and her children have had to live with the reality that their home became part of one of the most infamous murder cases in the country.

According to her attorney, Heuermann has not contacted Ellerup or their children since he was transferred out of the Suffolk County Jail. He was being processed at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York, though it was not immediately clear where he would serve his sentence.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said after the sentencing that authorities expected Heuermann to be moved out of local custody quickly. By the next morning, he was gone.

As for whether there may be more victims, Tierney has declined to speculate. He said what he personally thinks does not matter and that if investigators uncover more evidence, it will be presented to a grand jury.

That means the legal case may be over for the eight victims tied to Heuermann’s sentence, but the larger investigation may not be fully closed in the minds of many people following it.

For the families of the women he killed, no prison sentence can undo the years of loss, grief, and unanswered questions.

For Heuermann’s ex-wife and children, his crimes left behind a different kind of devastation: the realization that the person they knew was capable of unimaginable violence.

And for the public, this case remains chilling because of how ordinary Heuermann’s life appeared from the outside.

He was not hiding in the shadows. He had a job, a family, a house, and a routine.

That may be the scariest part.

Do you think families of convicted serial killers should be viewed as victims, too? And what do you think about Asa Ellerup choosing to remain in the home connected to these crimes?