“He’s the only date I ever felt fear on,” Nikki Brass says of Rex Heuermann, who faced a judge Tuesday for a pre-trial hearing.
A former escort claims she had an unsettling encounter with Rex Heuermann, the architect accused of killing three women whose bodies were left along Gilgo Beach in New York.
Nikki Brass says she went on a date with Heuermann in 2015. She claims that during that date, he talked to her about his fascination with the Gilgo Beach murders. She also says he suggested driving though the marsh where the bodies were discovered, but that she turned him down.
“He’s the only date I ever felt fear on,” Brass says. “Absolute fear. Like pit of my stomach, got to get out of here, something’s not right about this guy.”
Mary Shell, who worked for Heuermann from 2007 to 2010, around the time prosecutors say the three women were murdered, says he pestered a female co-worker to go on hunting trips.
“‘Oh come out and shoot with me?’ ‘What about now?’ ‘What about today?’ ‘When are you going to come out shooting with me?’ And she said to me, ‘I’m not an idiot,’” Shell says.
Heuermann faced a judge Tuesday for a pre-trial hearing. Suffolk County prosecutors on Tuesday said they have begun providing Heuermann's attorney with the evidence they have collected, including autopsy findings, DNA reports and crime scene photos. About 2,500 pages of records and 100 hours of surveillance video recorded outside Heuermann’s home ahead of his July 13 arrest has been handed over to his lawyer, prosecutors said at the brief hearing, the Associated Press reported. More evidence will be turned over to the defense on a rolling basis, District Attorney Ray Tierney said, noting that what has been handed over is a fraction of the evidence that authorities have collected.
Heuermann was charged last month with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; and Megan Waterman, 22, three of the 11 people whose bodies were discovered on Gilgo Beach between 2010 and 2011. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The three women vanished over a 14-month period. Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007, officials said. Heuermann's attorney said that Heuermann says he is innocent. Heuermann is due back in court on Sept. 27.
Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup has also spoken out, saying her and her children's lives have been upended.
The aftermath of a 12-day police search of Heuermann's family home on Long Island has heavily impacted his wife and children, she said. Boxes and trash was left piled up in the home's kitchen and a bathtub was smashed in search for a secret hiding place. The garage door also appeared to be broken and the home's front yard was filled with trash.
Ellerup, through her attorney, said she and her children cry themselves to sleep every night.
“I wake up in the middle of the night shivering. My children cry themselves to sleep,” Ellerup said, according to the New York Post.
