Accused Gilgo Killer's Family Says Netflix Series 'Raises Questions'

RIVERHEAD, NY — Asa Ellerup, who is reportedly close to finalizing her divorce from accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann, appeared in court Tuesday with the couple's daughter Victoria Heuermann as another witness testified in the Frye hearing.

Dr. Richard Green, co-founder of Astrea Forensics, began his testimony during the hearing, held to determine the admissibility of nuclear DNA in the case, by discussing his extensive background and experience in the field.

After the hearing, Robert Macedonio, who represents Ellerup, spoke to the media about the reason the family was in the courtroom Tuesday.

"It's important for the family to be here, to obtain whatever type of closure they're going to get out of this case," he said. "Asa and Victoria, their DNA is allegedly found on some of the victims' bodies."

In December, Heuermann was charged with the death of a seventh victim, Valerie Mack. Last June, Heuermann was slapped with new second-degree murder charges in the deaths of two additional women, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. In July 2023, Heuermann was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder charges and three counts of second-degree murder charges in the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2010. Heuermann was also charged with the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

A total of 11 sets of remains were found in the Gilgo Beach murders, which rocked Long Island. The remains included that of a toddler and an Asian male.

New DNA evidence helped connect Heuermann to all four of the deaths, said Tierney, who is prosecuting the case.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Neither Ellerup nor Victoria Heuermann have been charged or are considered suspects; the DA has said. Victoria was only between three and four years old at the time one of the victims, Valerie Mack disappeared, Tierney said in a bail application.

Macedonio added: "After watching the Netflix series, it raises more concerns and questions about how this investigation was conducted and the procedures that were employed to extract that DNA."

He said the admissibility of the nuclear DNA was for the judge, the District Attorney's Office, and defense attorney Michael Brown to discern. "But the extraction of that evicence, and how they obtained Asa's and Victoria's hair, allegedly, in light of that series that came out — it raises more concerns and questions."

He said the series "shed light on corruption that was going on in Suffolk County at that time."

The series reflects on scandal that plagued the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office at the time, as well as then-SCPD Chief James Burke. The Netflix series, "Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer" raises the question about whether alleged corruption impeded the FBI's attempts to investigate the case.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney had no comment on Macedonio's remarks. The Suffolk Police Department said they would not be commenting. Burke could not immediately be reached for comment.

A look back

In 2023, The United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, upheld the convictions of the former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and his former principal Deputy Christopher McPartland.

The news came just days after former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke, who once led the Gilgo Beach probe, was arrested and charged after soliciting sex from a male undercover agent, police said.

According to John Marzulli, public information officer for the United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, both Spota and McPartland, whose appeals were denied, were convicted on charges including conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding; substantive witness tampering and obstruction of an official proceeding; obstruction of justice; and being accessories after the fact to the deprivation of the civil rights of a victim.

Spota and McPartland were represented by attorneys Alan Vinegrad and Larry Krantz; neither immediately responded to a request for comment.

In August, 2021, Spota, 81, and McPartland, were found guilty of obstruction by a jury in 2019— for covering up an incident during which a man was beaten after he stole a duffel bag from Burke filled with sex toys and pornography — were each sentenced to five years in prison, federal officials said.

Spota, of Mount Sinai and McPartland, 57, of Northport, were sentenced by United States District Judge Joan M. Azrack, Spota was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine, officials said.

The sentences stemmed from the defendants' December 17, 2019 convictions following a six-week federal jury trial; they were convicted on all four counts of the indictment including conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding; witness tampering; obstruction of justice; and being accessories after-the-fact to Burke's "deprivation of a prisoner's civil rights," the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of New York said in a release.

In December 2012, then-chief of the SCPD James Burke "physically and verbally assaulted a shackled prisoner, Christopher Loeb, who was under arrest and being held in an interrogation room at the 4th Precinct in Hauppauge," a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "Loeb had broken into Burke's official police vehicle and stolen his gun belt and ammunition, and a duffle bag containing cigars, sex toys, prescription Viagra and pornography."

Burke was arrested in 2023 at a Suffolk County park and charged with offering a sex act, public lewdness, indecent exposure, and criminal solicitation, fifth degree, with additional potential charges pending, after soliciting a male undercover agent, then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said at a press briefing. Burke, during the arrest, also said, "Do you know who I am?" and said if the news broke, it would be "a public humiliation," officials said.

After the 2012 assault, Burke ordered high-ranking lieutenants of the SCPD to ensure that the detectives and officers who had witnessed the assault would never reveal what they had observed, federal officials said.

Burke also enlisted the help of Spota and McPartland, "to ensure that the witnesses kept quiet."

Having served as the Suffolk County DA for over a decade, Spota had successfully helped Burke avoid legal trouble regularly during their decades-long friendship, federal officials said. McPartland, who worked directly under Spota, also had built a close friendship with Burke, and was the first person who Burke called the morning he discovered that his vehicle had been burglarized," the release from the U.S. Attorney's office said.

A federal grand jury investigation into the Loeb assault as "a civil rights deprivation" was opened by the U.S. Attorney's Brooklyn Office, with the assistance of the FBI, in the spring of 2013, the release said.

"Burke, Spota and McPartland used the power and influence of their official positions, and the threat of retaliatory arrest and prosecution, to keep anyone from cooperating with that investigation," federal officials said in the release. "Because of their obstructive efforts, the federal investigation was unsuccessful and was closed approximately eight months later. Local law enforcement eyewitnesses had been frightened into silence, as they feared retaliation against themselves and their families from within the Suffolk County Police Department and the District Attorney's Office."

A year later, prosecutors from U.S. Attorney's Long Island criminal division reopened the investigation.

Burke pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice in February 2016 and was sentenced to 46 months' imprisonment; Spota and McPartland both resigned from the District Attorney's Office in light of the charges against them and were disbarred, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The two were sentenced at the courthouse in Central Islip.

Loeb was paid $1.5 million after he filed a federal lawsuit against Suffolk County, a report by 1010wins said.

Former Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said at the time that then-Suffolk District Attorney Tim Sini had "restored integrity to the office."

In 2016, Bellone publicly called on Spota to step down with claims that Spota was "operating a criminal enterprise that must be stopped."

"The actions of these defendants represent the worst of law enforcement," said Sini at the time. "Their conduct has devastated many people individually, deprived Suffolk residents of what they deserve from public officials, and was a disservice to all the honest, hardworking men and women of law enforcement. . .We need to remain focused on continuing our progress and ensuring that the days of the past never happen again."

"With great power comes great responsibility – and, as we've proven throughout the course of this investigation, Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland abused their power to skirt the irresponsibility to comply with a federal civil rights investigation," said FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Maguire.

Heuermann's estranged wife does not believe "he was capable" of crimes

On Tuesday, when asked if the evidence concerning his client and her daughter was "illegally obtained," Macedonio said: "We don't know. Because we haven't gotten to that procedure yet," and said, depending on whether or not the nuclear DNA in the case is deemed admissible, that would be determined "if and when it gets to a trial."

Ellerup, Macedonio said, "has said from the beginning that she does not believe Rex, the father of her children and the man she married, was capable of committing these crimes. That has been consistent. She has said she wants to play out in the courtroom and listen to the evidence there, not in the media, not on the podcast, not in the Netflix series. This is an important step for her and her family to get to whatever closure they have to get."

However, Macedonio added: "Sitting in the courtroom is difficult, because they are the only people in the courtroom, that their DNA is alleged to be on victims of homicide — victims of a serial killer. So it's very important for them to see, listen and hear it for themselves, instead of hearing someone else tell them, 'It was your DNA.' They're intelligent human beings. Victoria and Asa understand what's going on, they understand the processes, so they want to hear it for themselves and hear how it was done."

According to a prior bail report, Ellerup and the couple's children were out of town on the date that Maureen Brainard-Barnes went missing; they were also away for the previous murders, according to the DA..

Tierney has said the Suffolk County Crime Lab, as well as two outside forensic laboratories, conducting testing of hairs recovered from various victims, specifically compared the DNA profiles generated from those hairs recovered at the crime scenes to DNA profiles developed from Heuermann and members of his immediate family.

A cheek swab taken from Heuermann matched DNA found on pizza crust disposed of by Heuermann — a key part of evidence that officials say led to his arrest.

Members of the Gilgo Beach task force met with Ellerup and his daughter, Victoria Heuermann, and stepson, Christopher Sheridan, to obtain buccal swabs, the DA said. The swabs were tested against 11 bottles found in garbage cans placed in front of Heuermann's home on July 21, 2022, as well as a "Monster Java" can, the report said.

Investigators saw Victoria Heuermann drinking from the can while on a Long Island Rail Road train; they took the can after she discarded it in a trash bin, a bail report said.

Throughout the investigation, key evidence has included the five hairs found on the victims. Nuclear DNA testing helped provide more accurate results, Tierney said.

Nuclear DNA is found in the cell nucleus; mitochondrial DNA is found in cell cytoplasm, according to reports.

Brainard-Barnes, the report said, had been left restrained by three leather belts, one of which was used to tie her feet, ankles, and legs together. A female human hair was found on the buckle.
The DNA profile generated from the female hair on Barnes, recovered from the belt buckle, "is 7.9 trillion times more likely to have come from a person genetically identical to Asa Ellerup's SNP Genotype file than from an unrelated individual," the bail report said.

Two female hairs were found on Megan Waterman; a DNA profile generated said the hair was 2.374 x 10 to the 48th power, to have come from a person genetically linked to Ellerup's profile than to an unrelated individual, the report said. The second hair, recovered from the tape from Waterman's head area, is 2.778 x 10 to the 480th power to come from a person genetically identical to Ellerup's profile, the report said.

A female hair found on Costello, after a one-to-one autosomal nuclear DNA comparison, said it was 4.654 x 10 to the 63d power more likely to have come from a person genetically linked to Victoria Heuermann's SNP Genotype file than from an unrelated individual, the report said. At the time of Costello's disappearance and murder, Victoria Heuermann would have been about a month shy of her 14th birthday, the report said.

Two forensic labs have independently determined that the female hairs recovered on Waterman and Costello are derived from a person genetically identical to the SNP Genotype files of members of Heuermann's family, specifically Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, the report said. Because they were away and out of state at the time of the murders, it "provides further support that Rex A. Heuermann murdered, restrained and transported the remains of the victims to Gilgo Beach until they were ultimately discovered in December 2010, the report said

A male hair found on Waterman was also linked to Heuermann, according to the report.

Speaking with the media after that prior court proceeding, Macedonio, representing Ellerup and the family, said the bail report "makes clear that Asa Ellerup and her children were not involved, or even in the jurisdiction when these murders took place. The murders of all four victims occurred at times when the defendant's wife and children were traveling out of the state. We have said consistently, since Day 1, July 13" when Heuermann was arrested, "was a surprise to Asa Ellerup and her children. This life that existed or may have existed, they were completely unaware of. She has no involvement in this and has never had any involvement in this. The DA's superceding indictment again makes that clear."

When asked about any reaction from Heuermann about the link between the hairs found on the victims and his wife and daughter's DNA, Brown said: "All along we have been told that the evidence is unsuitable for nuclear DNA testing. This morning was the first time in these 13-plus years that, miraculously, nuclear DNA testing and results have come forward."

Mitochondrial DNA testing revealed statistics, Brown said, "that, quite frankly, were not that convincing." He said the initial mitochondrial testing for "what they claimed was his wife was 28 out of 10,000" would have the same DNA results. Another hair indicated 4 out of 10,000 would have the same results, he said. "What it simply says is that she is not excluded," and 28 people would have the same DNA.

"We are certainly going to look into the lab reports, the lab testing and the transfer of evidence," he said.

Netflix documentary

According to Netflix, "Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer," which debuted recently, focuses on the case. "Young women who worked in the sex industry were disappearing from New York City and Long Island and their families were desperate for answers," a description of the three-part documentary read.

"Then in 2010, female remains were found in the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island, leading to a string of additional discoveries at a virtual dumping ground steps away from New York’s busiest beaches. Despite all of this, the case of the 'Long Island serial killer] remained unsolved for 13 years — until July 2023, when a major break came after corruption was rooted out within the police responsible for the case."

Netflix added: "From two-time Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus (Lost Girls) comes the definitive look at the twists and turns in a case that dominated headlines, and is still developing in real time."

In 2020, Netflix also debuted a new movie filmed on the North Fork in 2018 about the Gilgo Beach murders. The film, also directed by Garbus, was based on the book "Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery" by Robert Kolker, according to producer Anne Carey.

Speaking with Patch, Kolker, who is interviewed on camera in the new series, and is credited as a "consulting producer," said he likes the new three-part documentary very much. "I think the series wisely focuses the institutional failures that let a killer roam free for decades, and the persistence and power of the victims’ families."

Divorce

In other news, Heuermann and his estranged wife Asa Ellerup are closer to finalizing their divorce, Ellerup's attorney Macedonio told Patch.

"All the documentation was filed, including the stipulation," he said. "The settlement was signed off between Asa and Rex." The judment was signed by a Supreme Court justice Tuesday and will be entered into record by the clerk over the next couple of days, he said.

Macedonio said he was unable to share details of the agreed-upon settlement. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the terms," he said. "It's a private matter between them."