Rex Heuermann told ex-wife he murdered Gilgo Beach victims at family's home, documentary reveals

NEW YORK (AP) — The man who recently pleaded guilty to New York's Gilgo Beach serial murders told his ex-wife while in jail that he killed most of his female victims in the basement of the family’s dilapidated home, the latest episode of a documentary series shows.

His ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, said in a teaser for the episode airing Thursday on NBC’s streaming service Peacock that Rex Heuermann also told her that the eight women he has admitted to killing were his only victims.

Ellerup says later in the teaser that he told her that he killed seven of them in the basement of the family's house in Massapequa Park on Long Island while she was away.

“I said to him, ‘So Mr. Heuermann, I understand that you are confessing to me on these murders. Can you please tell me how many of these women did you kill’?,” she said in the 90-second clip. “He said, ‘Eight’.”

Ellerup said she intentionally didn’t use her former husband’s first name as a way to “put a wall up” between the two.

“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.”

The latest and last installment of “The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets” follows the release of the series' first three episodes last June. Another documentary, “Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders,” also comes out Wednesday on Amazon's streaming service, Prime Video.

Ellerup's attorney, Robert Macedonio, declined to discuss what other new details are revealed in the new episode of the Peacock documentary.

“This has been an extremely emotional and painful process for the family to endure and come to terms with the allegations that Rex Heuermann was the Gilgo Beach serial killer,” he said in an email. “Ms. Ellerup would like the focus to remain where it belongs — on the victims and their families, who have suffered immeasurable and lasting losses.”

Vess Mitev, a lawyer for the couple's two grown children, Victoria and Chris, said the two “echo the sentiments of their mother, and wish only to move forward as best they can, given this remarkably dark chapter in their lives.”

Heuermann’s lawyers didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Earlier episodes of the documentary showed the family struggling to reconcile their memories of the architect, who had an office in Manhattan, with the portrait of the killer described by authorities.

Ellerup, who divorced Heuermann after his arrest in 2023, steadfastly defended her ex-husband’s innocence during those earlier episodes. But her daughter eventually conceded her father “most likely” committed the brutal killings that bedeviled investigators and drew intense interest from true-crime watchers for years.

The saga came to a close earlier this month when Heuermann, 62, of Massapequa Park, admitted in Riverhead court to murdering seven women and also killing an eighth he had not yet been charged with over a 17-year span.

Heuermann said in court he strangled the women, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies before dumping them on a desolate parkway not far from Long Island's Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Manhattan.

He’ll be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Follow Philip Marcelo on X: @philmarcelo.

Rex A. Heuermann, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Rex A. Heuermann, center, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Asa Ellerup, wife, of Rex Heuermann gives her statement outside the courthouse as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, center left, wife, of Rex Heuermann and Victoria Heuermann, right, walk the hallway after departs the courtroom as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, wife, of Rex Heuermann waits to give her statement outside the courthouse as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Walter Usakowski was mowing his lawn in a northern suburb of Detroit when three canvassers from the United Auto Workers approached.

“I don’t even need to talk to you,” Usakowski said. As a retired member, he was already supporting the union’s slate of Democratic candidates in the Nov. 3 midterms.

But he is not sure how many of the other “guys in the shop” will vote for Democrats. He worked at Ford Motor Co.’s Sterling Axle Plant for more than 45 years, and he knows many members who backed Republican President Donald Trump.

The election-year canvassing was one part of the UAW’s efforts to reassert its political power in Michigan, a premier political battleground. Although the union generally backs Democrats, its membership is more divided over which party best represents working-class interests. It also is reckoning with past corruption scandals, a drop in membership and a lack of transparency that has eroded trust within its ranks.

“It’s not going to be an overnight thing,” said JJ Jewell, who is part of the UAW’s Community Action Program executive committee. “Even if this election goes fantastically, that’s not mission accomplished. That means we’re 1% of the way done.”

Jewell and others made the rounds on a recent sunny Saturday in Macomb County, where Trump won by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024. Many of the union members they met in a neighborhood of well-kept suburban houses were retirees, and while most said the cost of living was their top concern, they did not agree on whether Democrats or Republicans would better address it.

One resident, who said she blamed billionaires for the country’s problems, planned to vote for Democrats. Another street over, a couple said they both supported Trump and declined to take a flyer of the UAW-endorsed candidates.

In a microcosm of broader political rifts, union voters remain politically divided. Union voters have traditionally been seen as a Democratic-leaning constituency, but Trump made direct appeals to them with his anti-elite rhetoric and promises to overhaul international trade agreements that sapped factory jobs. In 2024, voters who were union members or were in a household with a union member split between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, with more than half voting for the then-vice president and 44% for Trump.

Betty Anderson, a UAW member, thinks the organization is on the right track, but she is not confident about bridging internal political divisions. She said she is angry with members who voted for Trump, whom she sees as selling out the working class.

“I don’t think those people are ever going to be on our side,” Anderson said. “They think they have an opportunity to be in an elite class.”

Since 2017, more than 10 UAW officials have pleaded guilty in a corruption investigation that found millions of dollars of union dues were stolen. Members also faulted leaders for closed-door contract negotiations that they said destroyed trust in the UAW.

Shawn Fain was elected UAW president in 2023 on a platform of transparency, and victories in labor disputes with Detroit's three major automakers bolstered member support. Leaders hope this will translate into votes for its candidates.

“I think the UAW members now are starting to fall a little more in line,” said Usakowski, the retired axle plant worker.

On Friday, Fain said he won reelection to lead the union for four more years. The results have not yet been certified.

Mark DePaoli, director for one of the UAW’s southeast Michigan regions, said the union hosted forums with candidates where any member could ask questions. The UAW endorsed progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the U.S. Senate primary even though rival Haley Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, worked as chief of staff on an auto bailout task force during the Great Recession, a position she frequently cited while campaigning.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to endorse him,” DePaoli said. In its announcement, the union referenced El-Sayed’s support for universal healthcare and criticism of corporate money in politics. El-Sayed wore a UAW pin during the first Senate debate with his Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

“The UAW’s backing of Abdul was critical in winning a historic primary despite being outspent by tens of millions of dollars, and will be just as critical in winning" next month, El-Sayed spokesperson Cole Wozniak said in a statement.

Rogers is emphasizing his opposition to controversial federal regulations under Democratic President Joe Biden that would have required automakers to ramp up production of electric vehicles, which some feared would lead to factory closures.

“Mike knows the challenges our autoworkers face, and he’ll be their champion in the U.S. Senate,” Rogers spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement. “The same can’t be said for Abdul and UAW national leadership.”

Robert Bruno, a professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the UAW's strength relies on its ability to mobilize voters.

“You don’t win campaigns off of your endorsements,” Bruno said. “You win campaigns at the door, or at the bar, or at the union hall.”

In the 1980s, there were more than 600,000 active and retired UAW members in Michigan, according to the union. Today, that number hovers around 350,000. The UAW is still the largest union in the state.

UAW leaders are optimistic after a primary election campaign drive and what they see as better, more transparent leadership. The union said about 113,000 of its members voted early during Michigan’s August primary, and it has volunteers canvassing and calling voters before Election Day.

In September, the UAW hosted a conference of its Michigan political arm for the first time since 2018. Fain told reporters at the Lansing event that the organization wants members to drive the direction of the union, focusing on issues like affordability.

“We are as active as we can be right now,” he said.

GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

United Auto Workers union canvassers JJ Jewell, from left, LaShawn Barnett and Kim Avouris check canvassing routes on their phones in Shelby Township, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacqueline GaNun)

FILE - United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain addresses the crowd during a campaign rally for Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, July 18, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez, File)

JJ Jewell, from right, Kim Avouris and LaShawn Barnett canvass for the United Auto Workers union in Shelby Township, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacqueline GaNun)

Walter Usakowski, second left, a retired worker from the Ford Motor Co.'s Sterling Axe Plant who plans to vote for the union's slate of Democratic candidates in the midterms, talks with United Auto Workers union canvassers LaShawn Barnett, from left, Kim Avouris and JJ Jewell in Shelby Township, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacqueline GaNun)

Walter Usakowski, from left, a retired worker from the Ford Motor Co.'s Sterling Axe Plant who plans to vote for the union's slate of Democratic candidates in the midterms, talks with United Auto Workers union canvassers LaShawn Barnett, Kim Avouris and JJ Jewell in Shelby Township, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacqueline GaNun)