(NewsNation) — The bodies of four women were discovered on a New York beach more than a decade ago, and now the wife of the man charged in their deaths is “coming to terms with where her life is at,” her attorney said.
Rex Heuermann is charged in deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. Their bodies were discovered in 2010 on nearby Gilgo Beach. Each woman is believed to have been involved in sex work.
Heuermann appeared in a Long Island courtroom Wednesday, where his wife, Asa Ellerup, was in attendance, despite having filed for divorce.
“I think (she’s) trying to come to terms with where her life is at now,” her lawyer Bob Macedonio said Wednesday on “Banfield.” “Honestly, she has nobody to speak to and she’s just having a difficult time processing everything that’s out there.”
Prosecutors have said Heuermann led a double life, commuting daily to Manhattan for work as an architect and allegedly killing female sex workers when his wife went out of town.
Like the public, Ellerup only knows details about the killings that have been discussed in court or reported in the news, Macedonio said.
Her presence in the courtroom, the lawyer added, is part of the process of preparing for her life without her husband.
“She still does not believe that the man she was married to was capable of committing these horrendous crimes,” he said.