Attorneys representing the wife and children of Rex Heuermann, the suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders, said the family is struggling to meet their basic needs after a police search of their Long Island home left extensive damage.
The attorneys stressed what law enforcement have previously said: that Asa Ellerup and her children, 33-year-old Christopher Sheridan and 26-year-old Victoria Heuermann, did not have any knowledge of the killings of four women whose bodies were found on the Long Island, New York, beach in 2010. Authorities alleged that Rex Heuermann lived a double life and that in at least three of the killings acted only when his family was out of town.
That’s made the family victims as well, the attorneys said, as they announced at a news conference on Friday that the family will file a notice of claim, a precursor to a potential lawsuit, to “protect their rights” against law enforcement who they say damaged their Massapequa Park home during the 12-day search.
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Robert Macedonio, the attorney representing Ellerup, who has filed to divorce Heuermann, said he is unsure which law enforcement agencies were involved in the search but will file accordingly when he learns more.
Macedonio said he toured the home on Sunday and painted a bleak picture of the condition that investigators left it in.
“It was piled floor to ceiling with debris that was just taken out the attics, the closet, every inch of the house,” he said. “There was a path probably a foot or two wide to get from the front door to the kitchen, and that was the way through the house.”
“The children and Asa were sleeping on foam mats on the floor, next to the dog bed where the dog was sleeping,” Macedonio said.
Macedonio also said that some reports about what was found in the house have been inaccurate. He said reports of a “soundproof” vault in the basement were false, describing it as a security door with an open ceiling that served as storage for Heuermann’s guns.
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Vess Mitev, the attorney representing Heuermann’s adult children, said the conditions inside their home were “deplorable” and said the family has been deprived of basic human needs.
“Every moment that they spend in this waking surreal nightmare they have to keep reevaluating where they are,” Mitev said. ”Their valuables were shattered, their beds were destroyed, the places where they laid their heads down at night no longer exist.”
Macedonio added that Ellerup has been treated for cancer for several years and was depending on her husband’s health insurance. With his arrest and the pending divorce, she’s set to lose that.
“That’s a big fear and stress on her on top of all this other stuff that’s going on,” Macedonio said.
Heuermann has been charged with the murders of three women and is suspected in the killing of another. The investigation is continuing, and he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
