The convicted Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann confessed to his ex-wife that he killed women in the basement of their family home while she was away, according to a new documentary. In a teaser clip released to promote Peacock's The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, Asa Ellerup said her ex-husband admitted to killing eight women without hesitation.
Heuermann pleaded guilty on 8 April to seven murders committed between 1993 and 2010, and also acknowledged an eighth killing for which he was not charged. Ellerup, who finalised her divorce in March 2025 after 27 years of marriage, said she refused to call him Rex during the jail cell meeting. She recalled asking how many women he had killed and receiving the reply: "Eight?" When she asked who the eighth was, he did not elaborate.
Ellerup said Heuermann told her the killings took place in a downstairs room at their Massapequa home, with the exception of one victim. Investigators later discovered a soundproof vault-like room, hundreds of guns and detailed plans for the murders at the property.
After the court hearing, Suffolk County prosecutor Ray Tierney said Heuermann had "walked among us playacting as a normal suburban dad" while targeting women for death. Heuermann confessed to strangling each victim, dismembering some and wrapping them in burlap. The victims include the "Gilgo Four" – Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Maureen Brainard-Barnes – as well as Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, and the uncharged murder of Karen Vergata.
Heuermann is scheduled to be sentenced to multiple life terms on 17 June. His attorney said the guilty plea was intended to spare victims' families the ordeal of a trial. Ellerup's lawyer said the family had endured an emotional and painful process, adding that she wanted the focus to remain on the victims and their families.
