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True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Gilgo Heuermann Case: Phone Evidence, Civil Liability, and Family Exposure

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Tony Brueski

True Crime, News Commentary, News

4.2 โ€ข 612 Ratings

๐Ÿ—“๏ธ 18 April 2026

โฑ๏ธ 27 minutes

๐Ÿงพ๏ธ Download transcript

Summary

The prosecution's phone evidence in the Melissa Barthelemy case maps a precise geographic timeline. On July 12, 2009, a prepaid burner phone Barthelemy had communicated with traveled from Massapequa Park to Midtown Manhattan โ€” the documented route between Rex Heuermann's residence and office. Hours later, Barthelemy's personal phone traveled that same corridor in reverse. Over the following five weeks, an individual using Barthelemy's phone placed calls to her 15-year-old sister Amanda, providing details of the killing. Each call originated from high-traffic Manhattan locations. Each lasted under three minutes. Each was directed at the minor sister, not at the victim's mother.

Barthelemy, 24, held a cosmetology license from Buffalo and had relocated to New York. Prosecutors allege Heuermann also conducted internet searches for images of the victims' family members โ€” including minors โ€” following the killings.

The civil aftermath of Heuermann's guilty plea is now unfolding alongside the criminal case. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack names Heuermann's ex-wife Asa Ellerup and their daughter Victoria as defendants. The complaint alleges the family derived financial benefit from a documentary production and demonstrated disregard for the victims. Ellerup's counsel has characterized the claims as reckless. Victoria Heuermann has made public statements indicating she believes her father most likely committed the charged killings โ€” a position that creates its own legal implications in the civil proceeding. The guilty plea significantly alters the civil litigation landscape, as the admission of criminal liability eliminates the need for the plaintiff to independently establish the underlying acts.

This week's coverage examines the phone trail evidence and its role in the prosecution's timeline, the wrongful death suit's legal theory and the family's civil exposure, and analysis from Robin Dreeke and Eric Faddis on the behavioral and legal dimensions of the case.

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#RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #MelissaBarthelemy #AsaEllerup #WrongfulDeath #LISK #TrueCrime #TrueCrimeToday #CivilLiability #GilgoFour

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the big breakdown.

0:02.2

A long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers podcast and true crime today.

0:10.4

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske and Robin Drey.

0:17.0

There's another part to this story.

0:19.4

While Rex Heerman was admitting to eight murders inside

0:22.8

of Suffolk County courtroom, his estranged wife, or ex-wife, Asa Elrop, was sitting in the last

0:28.1

row watching the man. She was married to for nearly three decades confessed to things. She has

0:33.6

publicly said she never believed he was capable of.

0:40.1

She called him her hero during this whole process.

0:46.2

She walked outside and told reporters her thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

0:49.2

But Elrp isn't just a spectator anymore.

0:55.3

There's a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack that now names her and her daughter Victoria as defendants, accusing them of knowing about the killings, profiting from a

1:00.9

documentary deal reportedly worth over a million dollars and showing disregard for the families

1:05.9

of the women Rex Herriman killed. So this, there's an interesting angle over here. And again, in no way am I

1:12.4

accusing Victoria or Asa of having knowledge of any of this. I want to be very clear about that

1:17.2

as we get into it. But it is a point of this case, and we're going to discuss it. Asa was married

1:22.3

to him for nearly three decades. She lived in that house, roughly 1,300 square feet, not a big place, where investigators found a

1:30.1

basement vault behind a large door containing hundreds of weapons and other stuff, other places

1:36.1

they weren't allowed to go into. The wrongful death lawsuit says it's impossible that she didn't

1:42.2

know something was happening in that house.

1:45.1

Eric, as someone who has prosecuted violent crimes that have happened inside homes,

1:50.6

do you believe that a wife can live in a space that small and not know something is deeply wrong?

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