Suspected LI Serial Killer's Wife Giving Him 'Benefit of the Doubt'

Rex Heuermann won't just have to convince a jury he's innocent of four serial killings, but also his wife. Asa Ellerup, the estranged wife of the suspected Long Island serial killer, put out a statement Wednesday saying she "will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial." In the meantime, "I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve." Though Ellerup filed for divorce from Heuermann soon after his July arrest, she visits him in prison every week and at this point believes he is "not capable of the crimes he is accused of," her attorneys said, per CBS News. Ellerup, who is not suspected in the case, did not attempt to explain how DNA said to come from herself and her husband ended up at the crime scenes.

Asked about the timing of the statement, attorney Bob Macedonio told ABC News, "She has visited Rex several times since the last indictment and wanted to reiterate, she doesn't believe he's capable of this." Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were discovered near Long Island's Gilgo Beach. All four women were sex workers who disappeared between 2007 and 2010. Prosecutors have alleged Ellerup and the couple's children were out of town for each of the killings, per CBS. Ellerup expressed her "heartfelt sympathies" to the victims and their families in the statement. "Nobody deserves to die in that manner," she said. (Ellerup will speak further in an upcoming documentary.)