Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann’s wife has cancer — and it’s spreading: lawyer

The estranged wife of suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann is battling spreading skin and breast cancer, and her insurance is about to run out because she was covered by his policy, The Post has learned.

Asa Ellerup, 59, of Massapequa Park on Long Island, has fought the disease for several years and now needs about 12 to 18 months more of treatment, family lawyer Robert Macedonio said Friday.

But she got her medical insurance through Heuermann, her husband of 27 years — and it will only continue as long as his Manhattan architecture business can cover the premiums, the lawyer said.

That gives her about two months’ more coverage, Macedonio said.

“That’s a big fear and stress on her on top of all this other stuff that’s going on,” the lawyer said.


The estranged wife of suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann is battling spreading skin and breast cancer, according to reports.
The estranged wife of suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann is battling spreading skin and breast cancer, according to reports.
Edmund J Coppa

Rex A. Heuermann appeared during a hearing in Suffolk County Superior Court in Riverhead, New York on August 1, 2023.
Rex A. Heuermann was arrested for the murders of three women in Long Island, New York.
via REUTERS

Ellerup and her two children — Christopher Sheridan, 33, who has special needs; and Victoria Heuermann, 26 — only returned to their home last week after Heuermann’s July 13 arrest for the murders of three women.

Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?

Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.

The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.

Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.

Melissa Barthelemy, 24

  • Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25

  • Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.

Amber Lynn Costello, 27

  • Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found in December 2010 after having been last seen leaving her home that September.

Megan Waterman, 22

  • Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.

Jessica Taylor, 20

  • Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.

Valerie Mack, 24

  • Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.”

Unidentified Asian man

  • The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.

‘Peaches’ and her daughter

  • An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”

Karen Vergata

  • A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996, two months later her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort.

Shannan Gilbert, 23

  • Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.

He is the prime suspect in a fourth.

All of the bodies, along with seven others, were found dumped along the marshy beach shoreline a few minutes from the family’s home.


Asa Ellerup, 59, has been battling cancer for several years and now needs about 12 to 18 months more of treatment, family lawyer Robert Macedonio said.
Asa Ellerup, 59, has been battling cancer for several years and now needs about 12 to 18 months more of treatment, family lawyer Robert Macedonio said.
James Messerschmidt for NY Post

Ellerup has said their kids “cry themselves to sleep” since Heuermann’s arrest.

“But I said, ‘We’re together,’” Ellerup told The Post. “ ‘That’s really what matters right now. That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this.’ ”