Why Suspected Gilgo Beach Killer’s Daughter Is ‘On the Fence’ Over His Guilt

Rex Heuermann was initially arrested in 2023 and charged with the murders of Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, and Megan Waterman. Then, in January 2024, he was also charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, before additional murder charges for Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla and Valerie Mack came later in the year. He has pleaded not guilty across the board and awaits trial.

The suspected serial killer’s daughter, Victoria Heuermann, is one of the main interview subjects in Peacock’s The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets docuseries — out today — and gives her POV on the horrific crimes her father is accused of committing.

Victoria recalled her father being “very busy for a couple years” with big jobs while she was in college, telling viewers she always “looked up to him” and felt he left “some really big shoes to fill” for her.

She explained that his “very demanding” job as an architect is something that was “weighing on his mental health,” claiming that he would sometimes “come home frustrated.” She, however, said he was never physically abusive and claimed “the worst he would do was he would throw a plate into the sink.”

“That’s the worst,” she said.

As the doc continues, the family is seen going through what has been dubbed as a possible “kill room” — a locked room in the basement where authorities found the guns.

Victoria explained that everyone knew Heuermann was also an avid hunter. “It was no secret he had guns, he was an open book,” she explained.

“A lot of media, they’re calling the vault, the kill room. That’s where he stored all his guns,” she said. “As a kid, he showed them to me, he did teach me to show me how to use a gun when I was old enough. But the vault was always locked. The only time I was in there was when I was in there.”

“Say if they really did happen down here, he really must have been like Superman for us not to notice anything ever,” she added. “This used to be his bedroom growing up. A lot of his gun stuff, his childhood stuff, family heirlooms were in this room. For him to do that in this room, a little unrealistic but I guess not impossible.”

Victoria’s comments come after her mother, Asa Ellerup, explained that the vault door had a combination lock on the outside, but a lever on the inside, insisting “no one can get locked in here.” She said the room was where he “displayed his firearms collection.”

Ellerup filed for divorce from Heuermann after his July 2023 arrest. Per PEOPLE, the divorce was finalized this past April. While Ellerup doesn’t discuss the reasons for the split — and seems pretty insistent on her husband’s innocence throughout the doc — Victoria gave her opinion.

“I understand why she divorced my dad. They did the divorce to protect the assets,” she claimed.

“It’s now legally her house, she was married to him, she gets the assets in the divorce,” added Victoria. “If we lost the house, we would be homeless. It’s our house. But it doesn’t mean that we’re not a family anymore.”

As investigators built their case against Heuermann, they surveilled Victoria — and pulled her DNA after she took a sip from an energy drink on a Long Island Railroad train. That DNA was crucial to linking her father to the murders, thrusting her and her family into the spotlight.

“I went from being a normal person … to this laughing stock all over the internet and TV and news. I felt humiliated,” she said of all the attention that came with the case.

“I know I don’t have anything to be shameful about. I didn’t really feel like a person. They ask questions, ‘Why didn’t see anything? How did I not know?’ I was 10, 12 and 13 years old when these girls were murdered,” she then said. “I was in school, which takes up a good chunk of the day and then I was home or doing after school activities. And that’s exactly how I wouldn’t know anything. And now that I actually look back on my childhood I do find it hard to believe my dad actually did all of this.”

Despite all the evidence collected by prosecutors throughout the investigation, Victoria remains firmly “on the fence” when it comes to her dad’s guilt.

“The task force is alleging two days after we went on vacation, my dad murdered Megan and discarded her while we were away,” she said, before being asked by a producer whether she thinks the timing is simply a coincidence.

“I’m not sure about it. I don’t know whether it did or didn’t happen. At the time, I was 13 years old. I saw him at regular times every day. Morning, night and the vacations he did join us on,” she continued. “But at the same time, there was a lot of hours our of the day I also was not home, including vacations that he did not join us on. That’s exactly what I mean by on the fence.”

“He was very much around 90% of the time, but there’s that 10% he was not,” she added. “I feel like I can’t know whether he did or didn’t. I was not around for it, I was too young to understand.”

Victoria said she’s “not picking a side” until she sees all the evidence for herself during the trial, as a way of “protecting myself” and her sanity. “With all this evidence growing against him, maybe there is some loyalty still to my dad and to my mom too. Whether the world likes it or not, whether I like it or not, he’s my dad. They can’t take that away from me,” she added.

When asked whether it’s possible for her to love him if he’s found guilty, she added, “If he’s guilty, it will start to become a love-hate relationship. I love him as my dad, the hate is the other side of him that came out. And going forward, I’m not going to interact with him the same way I would have if this never happened. Both the feelings, love and hate, can coexist.”

Victoria, at one point in the doc, also spoke with Kerri Rawson, the daughter of the BTK killer, bonding over their struggle to accept the evidence and allegations about their fathers.

“My self esteem and self worth is six feet under. I feel like I do jump between depression and anger,” Victoria told Rawson. “Why am I even here anymore? There are people out there who want me dead. I was 13 years old at the time, why do I have to go?”

Rawson could relate, saying she also experienced death threats from those who didn’t believe she knew nothing about her father’s murderous ways. She then wondered whether Victoria had visited her father in prison.

“I visited him once. What’s scary is, even when I saw him or visited him in jail, he seemed like himself and how he always is,” said Victoria. “It’s so hard to even believe the fact that he’s this sick killer. But at the same time, like, because I was so young at the time, I also don’t know what he’s not this sick killer. I mentally prepare myself for the ultimate outcome.”

Rawson said it took her a long time to accept the truth because “it doesn’t fit the man I know,” adding that she is sometimes mad about what he did while also sad that he’s no longer around for her as a father.

“Whether or not I believe my dad did it or not, I’m on the fence about that,” Victoria concluded. “Half of me believes he didn’t do it, but at the same time, he could have totally had a double life.”

Peacock’s The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets is streaming now.