Peacock’s The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets concluded with the fourth and final episode on Thursday, April 23, which gave an inside look into Rex Heuermann’s family’s reaction to his guilty plea in connection to eight killings.
On April 8, Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted to killing an eighth. As part of his plea deal, he is expected to receive three life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Us Weekly breaks down the biggest bombshells revealed in the episode, below.
Rex Heuermann Confessed to His Ex-Wife and Daughter Before Pleading Guilty
Heuermann sat down with his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter, Victoria, for separate conversations with therapist Alison T. Winter so that he could confess to the killings.
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“I’m scared. There’s no doubt about that. I’m nervous, but I have questions to ask and I’m gonna need him to answer them for me. Number 1 is, ‘Did you kill any of these women? Then it would be, ‘OK, how many of these women did you kill?’” Ellerup said in a confessional before she met with Heuermann. “I need to hear from him whether he did this or not. I can’t process things I don’t know.”
Ellerup added that “the hardest part” of the whole situation was accepting that she was possibly married “to a serial killer.”
Rex Heuermann’s Wife Reacts to His Confession
While Ellerup’s meeting with Heuermann wasn’t filmed, she detailed his confession to the cameras.
“He looked very nervous. Very, very nervous. And 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. “He said eight.”
According to Ellerup, Heuermann said she wasn’t home for any of the murders and he killed all of his victims in their home except for one. Sandra Costilla was killed in his car, and it was the first murder Heuermann committed before he married Ellerup.
“He said he never really intentionally tried to kill these women. He said he just killed them. But he doesn’t know how he killed them,” Ellerup said.
However, Winter said that while Heuermann claimed he didn’t know he was going to kill his first victim, he “planned to kill” the others.
Following her conversation with Heuermann, Ellerup said she finally believed he was the Gilgo Beach Killer.
Inside the Timeline of Karen Vergata’s Death
As part of his plea deal, Heuermann admitted he killed Karen Vergata. Her body was discovered in April 1996, though it’s suspected she was killed months earlier. Meanwhile, Heuermann married Ellerup on April 13, 1996.
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“I would say that the killing of Karen Vergata before he was getting married was a pivot point to make him more comfortable in future killings. I don’t think he cared that he was about to go get married to his pregnant wife,” Winter said. “He divides the world. He said they’re two separate entities. He doesn’t regulate emotions like you and I do.”
She added of the killing, “In his mind, it was time that Asa will be away planning their wedding so he was free to do what he wanted and fulfill his own fantasy. I think that was pivotal to making it easier and easier to move forward. And it became more of a game inside his mind.”
Rex Heuermann’s Daughter Reacts to His Confession
“Ever since my dad was arrested, it has been a combination of humiliation, confusion, sadness and uncertainty,” Victoria said in a confessional. “Nobody really thinks about the daughter of the serial killer … People are just making up stories about it.”
She then opened up about meeting with her father, in which he confessed to the murders. “Walking into that room, I saw my dad, the man, not necessarily the monster,” she said, adding that she asked how many victims there were.
After he confirmed he killed eight women, he insisted the first murder wasn’t planned. “I also asked him about his planning document that was created in 2000 before Valerie Mack’s murder. My dad told me he first created that document as a way to try to distract himself from actually having to do the act himself,” she said.
When asked why he committed the murders, “he said that his demons got to him.”
“When he was in a certain opportunity or there was a certain catalyst in front of him that would start to create these dark urges, it was a sickness,” she said of Heuermann’s motive.
Therapist Reveals Why She Thinks Rex Heuermann Stopped Killing People
Winter was asked why she thinks Heuermann stopped killing, with his first murder taking place in 1993 and his final one being in 2010.
“Rex told me that toward the last two killings, he knew he wasn’t getting the same gratification. He wasn’t receiving the adrenaline rush. And by his last kill, he knew he was gonna stop,” she said.
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Winter went on to say she believes he stopped killing when Shannan Gilbert’s death made headlines as her family continued to search for her. “I think he was very concerned about getting caught,” she said.
H2: Therapist Explains Why Rex Heuermann Might Have Committed the Killings
Winter also said that Heuermann and other psychopaths don’t know why they felt the need to kill.
“They really don’t have answers in those moments. They don’t. He doesn’t know why. The only thing that he’s really able to come up with is that he gets to know them as people. If he gets to know someone, he gets vulnerable. He’s not in total control,” she said. “So if he felt he was losing a sense of control, what would he do? He would pursue with a kill, which was planned because he set up his house for it prior.”
Winter explained that Heuermann had a four-day plan for his killings. The first day was to prepare the basement where the killings took place, while the second day was killing the victim and getting rid of the body. The third day was for cleaning up and the fourth day was saved for “emergencies.”
Rex Heuermann’s Relationship With His Parents
Heuermann’s relationships with his parents were also discussed in the docuseries. He said his dad was not approachable and was very controlling. “His dad was very critical of him and I do believe it manifested into why he’s very methodical, OCD, obsessive on certain things, because he was criticized so much,” Ellerup said.
Meanwhile, Ellerup said his mom was “not hard on Rex at all.” However, Winter claimed Heuermann told her that his mom was unavailable to him and he claimed he “pretty much raised himself.”
Rex Heuermann’s Wife Moved Into the Basement After He Pleaded Guilty
After Heuermann officially pleaded guilty to killing the women in his family’s basement, Ellerup explained she moved into the basement.
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“This whole basement looks very different. It’s been completely gutted and redone,” she said.
“The brutal truth is that Rex Huermann said he dismembered the bodies in this room. That is the brutal truth,” she continued. “I’m in this room. And I’m here because I do feel spiritual. I am trying to say spiritually in my own way that I’m really sorry for what these victims went through. Every night that I go to bed and go to sleep, I am haunted by dreams.”
After noting that the dreams “follow me for the rest of my life,” she added there will “never be any justice for anyone and there will never be any way to forget about this.”
Ellerup also shared that she has seen Heuermann 12 times since he confessed to her. “I want to get to know this other side of Rex. I want to know why Rex killed these women,” she said. “What his triggers were. I’m processing the information in a very different way because now I see the evil in him.”
