Gilgo Beach killer confessed to wife that seven victims died in their home.

Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial killer who recently pleaded guilty to the murder of eight women, revealed a chilling truth to his wife during a fraught private conversation. He confessed that seven of the victims died inside their family home.

In a new excerpt from the finale of NBC Peacock's 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,' Asa Ellerup exposes the terrifying moment her suburban husband's mask slipped, forcing her to confront him as a murderer. The clip does not specify the exact date of this confrontation or the event that triggered it, but Ellerup filed for divorce just days after his July 2023 arrest.

"He looked very nervous – very, very nervous," she told her lawyer in the footage, which airs in full this Thursday. Throughout the meeting, Ellerup refused to address her 27-year husband by name, instead treating him like a stranger. "I said to him, 'So, Mr. Heuermann, I understand that you are confessing to me on these murders,' she recalls. 'Can you please tell me how many of these women did you kill?' He said eight."

Heuermann insisted that she was not home during all the killings, a claim prosecutors support by noting she was always away on holiday with their two children when the crimes occurred. Her attorney, Bob Macedonio, then asked if any victims died in their Massapequa Park home on Long Island. "He said yes, they were killed in his room downstairs, all except one," Ellerup stated.

Heuermann's admission was as calculated as the crimes themselves. He calmly described waiting until his wife was gone before transforming their family home into a killing ground. When asked if he hesitated while answering, Ellerup replied, "No – he just told me the answer."

The exchange reflected a complete break from their shared life. "Well, I put a wall up," she explained regarding the mental effort required to endure his words. Her lawyer noted the cold formality of the tone, observing how Heuermann responded to her use of his last name with, "Oh, are we formal now? Mrs. Ellerup?"

Soon, the tension shifted to something more unsettling. As he spoke, Ellerup felt the return of the man she once knew. "When he started talking, it started feeling like that's the Rex I know," she said. "But I didn't want to see that one.

I wanted to see the one I needed to see."

Asa Ellerup, who divorced the accused killer after his arrest, recounted a chilling admission from her ex-husband. Heuermann told her that he was "not home during all of them," confirming he committed the acts while his family was away. Ellerup has consistently maintained that she and her children remained completely unaware of the crimes committed in their own home.

The quiet, clinical nature of his confession is set to air in the final segment of a documentary on Peacock, detailing the life and crimes of the Gilgo Beach killer, whom prosecutors say terrorized Long Island for decades. Only weeks ago, Heuermann brought a decades-long investigation to a dramatic close. Inside a packed courtroom in Suffolk County, the 62-year-old architect pleaded guilty to multiple murder charges tied to the notorious Gilgo Beach killings—a case that has haunted the community for more than 30 years.

He admitted to murdering seven women between 1993 and 2010, and acknowledged a eighth victim for whom he had not been formally charged. Speaking in a flat, almost detached tone, Heuermann confirmed he strangled his victims, many of whom were young women working as escorts. Some were dismembered before their remains were scattered along remote stretches of coastline near Gilgo Beach.

The victims, including Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, became known as the "Gilgo Four." Their discovery in 2010 sparked a sprawling investigation that dragged on for more than a decade. Additional victims, including Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla, and Karen Vergata, were later linked to the same killer through DNA and forensic evidence.

Rex Heuermann also pleaded guilty to the murder of an eighth victim, Karen Vergata. The backyard of Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park was searched in June 2024, and discarded pizza crust was seized for DNA testing. Selfies of Heuermann were also submitted as evidence in the case.

The situation now forces families to reconcile the reality that the husband they lived with for almost 30 years was a wanted serial killer—a fact he now freely admits. The revelation of his crimes while his family was away highlights the devastating impact these regulations and directives have on public trust and the safety of communities.

For decades, the Gilgo Beach murders appeared to be an unsolvable enigma, hampered by procedural errors, conflicting jurisdictions, and a persistent lack of suspect information. That dynamic shifted dramatically in 2023 when law enforcement quietly narrowed their focus on Michael Heuermann by synthesizing cellphone records, eyewitness testimony, and a pivotal DNA sample extracted from a discarded pizza crust. This genetic material provided the definitive link, matching the hairs recovered from the crime scenes to Heuermann and confirming his role in the killings.

To ensure the investigation remained covert, prosecutors deliberately withheld details to prevent the suspect from becoming aware of the scrutiny. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney explained this strategy following Heuermann's plea, stating, 'We wanted the one person who mattered, the murderer, to think it's business as usual.' For years, Heuermann maintained a deceptive facade as a devoted suburban husband and father, while simultaneously operating as a Manhattan-based architect who returned nightly to his residence in Massapequa Park. Behind this respectable exterior, he functioned as a predator who exploited the family's absences to lure women into his home and eliminate them in secret.

Asa Ellerup, Heuermann's estranged wife, and their daughter, Victoria, appeared before Suffolk County Court on April 8 ahead of the hearing. Photographs captured the family together just prior to Heuermann's arrest on suspicion of serial murder, though their attorney later described their lives as having been 'destroyed' by his actions. Authorities believe the Massapequa Park home served as the location for some of the case's most gruesome acts. Ellerup's testimony corroborated long-held prosecutorial suspicions that at least some victims were brought inside the residence and killed in a basement room while her family was away. Prosecutors maintain that Ellerup and their children were out of town during these events and remained unaware of the crimes.

During the court proceedings, Ellerup remained silent as her former husband recounted his atrocities, occasionally gripping her seat or holding her daughter's hand for support. Following the hearing, she released a brief statement expressing condolences to the victims' families and requesting privacy. For the grieving families, Heuermann's guilty plea offered a measure of long-awaited closure. Melissa Cann, sister of victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes, remarked, 'This has been a long journey of hope – hope that one day we would stand here and say her name with justice beside it.' Similarly, Elizabeth Baczkiel, mother of Jessica Taylor, noted that the plea lifted a years-long burden, adding, 'I am glad that this is over as far as him pleading guilty,' and that it removed a significant source of stress for her family.

Despite the confession, significant uncertainties persist regarding the total number of victims. Investigators suspect additional bodies may be concealed along Ocean Parkway, the road bordering Gilgo Beach where four remains were initially discovered. Furthermore, disturbing artifacts recovered from Heuermann's home, including a document prosecutors described as a 'planning guide' detailing methods for selecting, killing, and disposing of victims, suggest a calculated campaign of violence that may have claimed more lives than currently accounted for.