Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer still a ‘hero' in wife's eyes
Asa Ellerup, 61, is convinced police have the wrong man and her 'wonderful' husband isn't the person who murdered and mutilated seven sex workers in Long Island, N.Y., over nearly three decades.
'I know what bad men are capable of doing,' she said during an interview on upcoming Peacock docuseries The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets.
'I've seen it, and I've heard it from other men. Not my husband. You have the wrong man,' Ellerup continued, according to the New York Post.
'I want him to come back home to me,' she said.
'They're trying to sit there and tell me that, but I have no knowledge of what they keep talking about,' she maintained.
''Oh, you must have known.' Know what? My husband was home here. He's a family man, period.'
Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 at his NYC office and charged with the murders of three young sex workers.
He was later charged by Suffolk County prosecutors with the murder and mutilation of four other victims, all also sex workers whose bodies were dumped along Ocean Parkway that spanned nearly 30 years.
Despite evidence — including DNA matches to all the victims, hairs from Ellerup and the couple's daughter Victoria — Heuermann's wife insists her husband is innocent.
Ellerup met 'tall, dark, handsome' Heuermann when she was 18 and working at a Long Island 7-Eleven and the two shared a platonic bond.
'He's my hero,' the devoted woman said. 'There were times where he was working, but I'd call him, and he would come by and pick me up.'
They remained friends, despite both marrying others, but eventually found each other again, a romance blossomed and they wed in Sweden in 1995, and they their daughter was born the following year.
Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after her husband's arrest, but their daughter maintained in the documentary that the move was 'to protect the assets,' according to the Post.
Despite the filing, Ellerup said she regularly speaks to her husband behind bars.
'I haven't seen him in all this time, and when I went down there, I was excited, and like I was, I don't know, I guess on a first date. You're nervous, you're scared. You don't know how the date is gonna go,' she said.
Remains of mom, child found near Gilgo Beach ID'd, though deaths may be unrelated to serial killings
Suspect in Gilgo Beach serial killings charged in death of seventh woman
New charges for alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer cast scrutiny on man's murder conviction
But Ellerup said she hasn't gone to see him in several months and is paranoid about their conversations being recorded behind bars — which makes her afraid to be open with him.
'Telling him that I love him, that will hurt him,' Ellerup said. 'What I want to say to him is, 'I love you, no matter what.'
'But I don't even want to say 'no matter what' because I don't believe he did this.'
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