(NEW YORK) — The estranged wife of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann maintains that her husband is “not capable of the crimes he is accused of,” her attorney said in a new statement on Wednesday.
Heuermann, a former New York architect, has been charged in the murders of four women whose remains were found in a desolate spot along the ocean near Gilgo Beach in December 2010, prosecutors said.
His wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce nearly a week after he was arrested in the case in July, according to a court filing. Her attorney said Wednesday that she visits Heuermann weekly.
“I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial,” Ellerup said in a new statement released on her behalf Wednesday through her attorney, Bob Macedonio. “I have given him the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve.”
She also expressed her “heartfelt sympathies” to the victims and their families, her attorney said.
“Nobody deserves to die in that manner,” Ellerup said.
Heuermann, 60, was charged in January with murdering Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007 while working as an escort, prosecutors said. He had previously been charged in July with murdering three other escorts on Long Island — Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Melissa Barthelemy. He has pleaded not guilty to his charges.
Asked why Ellerup released a statement now, Macedonio told ABC News, “She has visited Rex several times since the last indictment and wanted to reiterate, she doesn’t believe he’s capable of this.”
Heuermann’s wife and his children were out of town when Brainard-Barnes disappeared and was killed, fitting an alleged pattern of Heuermann being home alone when the other three were killed, prosecutors alleged in a recent court filing.
Since Heuermann’s arraignment in July, significant DNA evidence was collected in the case, prosecutors said, including from hair found on the buckle of the belt that secured Brainard-Barnes’ body. That hair matched the genetic profile of Heuermann’s wife. Hairs found at the other crime scenes were also linked to Heuermann’s wife and daughter as well as Heuermann. His wife and daughter are not considered suspects in the case.
A trial date has not been scheduled.
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