ALLEGED Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s estranged wife shielded her face as she arrived in court for the accused mass murderer’s hearing a day after the couple finalized their divorce.

Despite Asa Ellerup signing divorce papers on Thursday night, she and their daughter, Victoria, still supported Heuermann during a pre-trial hearing on Friday morning.

Ellerup was photographed wearing sunglasses to shield her face while walking alongside her adult daughter, 27.

Nearly two years after Heuermann – a 61-year-old architect from Massapequa Park, New York – was arrested for the murders of seven women, he and Ellerup have officially ended their marriage.

The couple reached an uncontested divorce settlement on Thursday night, a mere hours before Heuermann was due in court.

Rex Heuermann at a pre-trial hearing.

“After 29 years of marriage, Ms. Ellerup realizes it’s time to move on with her life and focus on a future for her and her children,” Ellerup’s divorce attorney Robert Macedonio, who confirmed the settlement to Newsday, said.

A judge will still have to finalize the divorce.

Nevertheless, Ellerup and Heuermann’s daughter, Victoria, still showed up to court on Friday.

“She’ll be attending tomorrow’s Frye hearing in Riverhead and is still withholding judgment on Rex’s guilt until all evidence is played out in the courtroom,” Ellerup’s lawyer said.

As Heuermann emerged in the courtroom for his hearing he “looked out to the audience and appeared to glance” at his estranged wife and their daughter who were seated in the third row, according to investigative journalist Laura Ingle, who was present at Friday’s hearing.

The pre-trial hearing centered around whether prosecutors could use crucial DNA evidence at trial.

Prosecutors say that the evidence connects the alleged killer to the murder of seven women on Long Island from the early 1990s to the early 2010s.

Most of the women were found along Ocean Parkway, which is the road that Long Islanders take to visit several famed beaches, including Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann, who was arrested in July 2023, has pleaded not guilty to all seven murders.

‘KILLER’S’ WIFE

Rex Heuermann's ex-wife and defense team leaving court; defense challenges nuclear DNA testing.
Ellerup filed for divorce just six days after Heuermann was arrested.

She and her two adult children left their family home in Massapequa Park, which was raided by police following Heuermann’s arrest.

The home was ripped apart for evidence, causing a spectacle on an otherwise quiet suburban block.

Ellerup and the kids moved to a family property in Chester, South Carolina, about an hour’s drive north of Columbia.

Macedonio said that Heuermann’s wife no longer felt a connection to the Long Island home after it was combed through by police, calling the thorough search a “violation of her property rights.”

Heuermann’s lawyers argued in court that the DNA evidence the prosecution wants to use should be inadmissible given the new technique used to collect the evidence.

The defense said that the new technique has not been tested in the New York court system before while the prosecution says that the technique has been used in the medical community and is consistent with what the courts have allowed.

Ingle said that Heuermann’s lawyer called the technique “magic” and said it was unproven.

GILGO BEACH FINDINGS
It’s been over 20 months since Heuermann was arrested and Long Islanders have been holding their breath in hopes that his trial might bring some closure to a case that has mystified the community for over a decade.

Police searching the home of a murder suspect.

It started when Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old sex worker, went missing on the South Shore in May 2010 after she frantically called 911.

In the search for Gilbert, police uncovered over 10 bodies, including the young sex worker’s.

Heuermann has been charged with the murders of seven women, including Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Jessica Taylor, 20; Sandra Costilla, 28, and Valerie Mack, 24.

All but one of the seven victims, Costilla, were believed to be sex workers.

Costilla was described as a “drifter” and although she had not been called a sex worker, police said her lifestyle was “substantially similar.”