Rex Heuermann's sister-in-law, Dr. Johanna Ellerup told NBC News "my ego has great difficulty processing the idea that I looked Rex in the eye and was unable to discern any murderous intentions."
A family member of the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer has spoken out to NBC News and says she is stunned by his arrest.
Rex Heuermann's sister in law Dr. Johanna Ellerup says "my ego has great difficulty processing the idea that I looked Rex in the eye and was unable to discern any murderous intentions."
"I vacillate between desperately wanting my niece and nephew’s life returned to its previous state intact to being pleased that someone is in custody,” she added.
She spoke out as cops used a back hoe to dig up the yard of Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park, Long Island. They also removed a greenhouse and a wooden deck, and scanned the yard with ground-penetrating radar.
Investigators reportedly uncovered a soundproof bunker with concrete walls two to three feet thick and a steel door built in the basement.
Neighbors say the house has become a macabre tourist attraction.
“It's obviously becoming quite a circus you have a lot of people coming, taking selfies and things like that. We certainly don't want to glorify the situation,” one neighbor told Inside Edition.
Inside Edition is learning cops failed to act on a vital clue that might have led to an arrest years ago.
In 2011 Dave Schaller told police he saw one of the victims, Amber Costello, on the night she vanished, with "a towering, Frankenstein-like figure with an empty gaze" who was driving a Chevy Avalanche pick-up.
The 6-foot-5-inch Heuermann drove a Chevy Avalanche that police recently discovered in South Carolina.
In 2016 Schaller appeared in a documentary on the murders called “Killing Season” and said, “All I had to do was walk 10 feet and I would have seen this guy's car. I could have seen the license plate or something. Ten feet killed that girl.”
When his lead was re-examined last year it reportedly led police to focus on Heuermann.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty.
Related Stories
