Two weeks ago, Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann captured headlines after he was arrested under suspicion of being the infamous Gilgo Beach serial killer.
But back in his Massapequa Park home, his wife Asa Ellerup, 59, their daughter Victoria, 26, and stepson, Christopher Sheridan, 32, were left in shock. How could the man they knew be charged with such heinous crimes?
Friends of Heuermann have claimed he showed ‘no red flags’, despite the 59-year-old facing charges of murdering three prostitutes and being the prime suspect in a fourth whose remains were found near the others on Gilgo Beach in Long Island.
Each weekday, Heuermann would catch the Long Island Rail Road to Manhattan to head to his office on Park Avenue South. And when he was not at work, he was often seen tinkering around his run-down property by neighbors.
But, for two weeks each year, Heuermann had ‘full reign’ to do as he pleased when his wife and children traveled to her native Iceland. Following his headline-grabbing arrest on July 14, his family have said they are now left ‘disgusted’ and ‘shocked’. Heuermann’s family isn’t alone.
After decades of notorious arrests, the everyday lives led by serial killers have drawn morbid public fascination while leaving their devastated relatives reeling.
Here, DailyMail.com takes a look at the nightmarish double lives and mundane everyday jobs that allowed some of America’s most conniving – and suspected – killers to evade detection and hide in plain sight for years:
Rex Heuermann, 59, is an architect who caught the Long Island Rail Road each weekday from Massepequa Park to his office in Manhattan. For two weeks each year, his wife and children went to Iceland in which time he had ‘full reign’ to do as he pleased, friends have said
Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, 59, and stepson, Christopher Sheridan, 33, are pictured on their porch two weeks after his arrest. Ellerup’s lawyer said she was ‘disgusted’ and ‘shocked’ by the charges against him
Asa Ellerup and her two children, Victoria, 26, and Christopher, 33, cut solemn figures as they arrived back at their Massepequa Park home in Long Island this week
Ted Bundy – The elusive ripper with a young family
As one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, Ted Bundy’s crimes have horrified for generations. He confessed to killing more than 30 women and girls through the 1970s, and investigators believe he may have killed upwards of 70.
But for much of the time he was carrying out his grisly murders, he also had a fiancé and stepdaughter back home.
His partner, Elizabeth Kloepfer, was a self-described lonely alcoholic single mother when she met Bundy in a Seattle bar in 1969. She had recently moved from Ogden, Utah, and jumped at the chance to start a new life with him.
She instantly hit it off with the charismatic and handsome killer, and after introducing him to her daughter Molly, the trio seemed to live for a while in unsuspecting domestic bliss.
‘I handed Ted my life and said, “Here, take care of me”‘ she wrote in her 1981 book, The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy. ‘He did in a lot of ways, but I became more and more dependent upon him.’
While reluctant to question his actions and completely unaware that he was one of the most brutal criminals in the nation, Kloepfer admitted that she was emotionally manipulated by Bundy throughout their relationship.
‘When I felt his love, I was on top of the world; when I felt nothing from Ted, I felt that I was nothing,’ she wrote.
Serial killer Ted Bundy built a reputation as a charming family man, while secretly butchering dozens of women and girls. He is pictured with his fiancé Elizabeth Kloepfer and her daughter Molly, who he helped raise
Bundy was in a six-year relationship with single mother Kloepfer, before his erratic and questionable behavior led to their undoing
Bundy’s fiancé said despite his manipulative nature, the killer seemed to care for her and her daughter Molly (pictured) ‘in a lot of ways’
He had a knack for talking his way out of dubious behavior, such as driving for hundreds of miles to ‘clear his head’ or possessing weapons like knives and ice picks in his car and desk.
But by 1974, five years after the couple met, the noose began tightening around Bundy’s secret life. News reports emerged about a series of rapes and murders across Washington state, and investigators were publicly looking for a suspect named ‘Ted’ who drove a matching Volkswagen to his.
Bundy pictured in custody after escaping from prison in Colorado in 1977
While his home life helped keep up the facade, Bundy was known to use several other tactics to remain above suspicion as victims piled up across several states in the mid-1970s.
Many who knew him over the years said he was able to change his personality on a dime, going from cold and callous to charming and witty if needed.
Bundy also had a reputation among law enforcement for his ability to change his appearance easily, and various mugshots of the serial killer through his many arrests show him with a variety of purposefully altered looks.
With his target victims being vulnerable young women, Bundy would use his good looks and charm to lure them to secluded areas, often convincing them by pretending to be injured or in need of help.
Unlike some killers who hid behind mundane jobs, Bundy relied on the superficial, although he did notably work for a short time for a suicide hotline.
However, Bundy’s double life ultimately turned into his undoing. In 1975, Kloepfer went to the police with her growing suspicions about her fiancé, after realizing his erratic behavior seemed to link up with many horrific unsolved murders in the news.
Bundy was able to carve out a seemingly idyllic family life for over half a decade while still carrying out his murders
Bundy later married Carol Ann Boone in 1982 from behind bars, and the couple shared daughter Rose until his execution in 1989
Bundy and his second wife Carol Ann Boone pictured in prison in Florida with their daughter Rose
While it helped him for years, the information she provided about his behavior, personality and movements ultimately helped lead law enforcement to his arrest.
Behind bars, Bundy echoed his former life as he controversially wedded Carol Ann Boone in 1982. The two shared a daughter, Rose, before she divorced him in 1986, three years before he was executed in Florida.
Dennis Rader – The sadistic stamp collecting dad
Dennis Rader stands apart among serial killers for the length of time he was able to remain undetected, maintaining a family man facade for decades before the veil finally slipped.
From 1974 to 1991, Rader murdered at least 10 people, including two children, in Wichita, Kansas. He gave himself the nickname ‘BTK’, stood for ‘bind, torture, kill’, and terrorized the area for years with taunting letters sent to police and local media.
And while Heuermann used a correspondingly cruel tactic of mocking his victims’ families instead of authorities, the similarities between the two sadists extend far further.
Rader himself even drew comparisons earlier this month, writing in a letter from behind bars that their parallel lives – and crimes – practically make them ‘clones.’
‘I was arrested age 59. Married, two kids,’ Rader wrote in the letter, to Fox News. ‘Husband, dad longtime a serial killer, stalker, used electronic devices, lives in a neighborhood undetected.’
Dennis Rader murdered at least 10 people, including two children, in Wichita, Kansas from 1974 to 1991
The ‘BTK’ killer’s daughter Kerri Rawson has been open with her struggles to comprehend his murders, but said she has forgiven him while cutting all contact
Rawson (pictured) has written two books about coming to terms with her father’s crimes
Rader bolstered his everyday front by holding a humdrum job for ADT Security installing home security alarms. The role gave him eerie access to people’s homes and an intricate understanding of personal security, which he would use in his crimes such as cutting the phone lines before creeping inside.
He worked at the company from 1974 to 1988 as panic swept the Wichita, Kansas area, and he often installed alarms for homeowners terrified of the infamous BTK killer.
Rader stands apart among infamous serial killers for the length of time he was able to remain undetected. He baffled investigators for years when he stopped writing the taunting letters, and was only caught when he resumed in 2005.
For decades before his arrest, the former Air Force staff sergeant lived a seemingly uneventful lifestyle with his wife Paula Dietz and their two children in their Wichita home.
He had met his wife in church, and he went on to tick all the boxes as an average American dad by becoming a stamp collector, church board president and Boy Scout troop leader.
Discovering their beloved husband and father was the man who had been terrorizing the state devastated the family, and, like Kloepfer, his daughter Kerri released books about how she came to terms with reality.
Rader was married to his wife Paula Dietz, pictured on their wedding day in 1971, for 34 years before she discovered he was a brutal serial killer
Rader began killing four years before the birth of his daughter Kerri (left), and continued until she was 12-years-old
While terrorizing Wichita, Kansas in the 1970s, Rader held a variety of milquetoast roles that built hid image as a standard family man, including as a Boy Scout troop leader, church president, and stamp collector
Rader’s daughter said he was often ‘even-keeled’ but had a temper that would erupt out of the blue. He is pictured August 2005 at his sentencing
Her father’s murders began four years before she was born, and continued in nightmarish secrecy through her childhood until she was 12.
‘Most of the time my father was even-keeled and warn,’ Kerri told ABC News in 2019.
However, she noted that her father had a temper that could erupt out of the blue. ‘The key to surviving life with dad? Watch the pot closely,’ she wrote in her book, A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming. ‘Turn down the heat, and know when to get out of its way before it blows.’
His murders stopped in 1991, but he remained on the run until he seemingly got bored of his mundane life, and some have posited that he grew frustrated that he never received ‘credit’ for the infamous slayings.
In 2005, he decided to start writing mocking letters threatening to resume killing, which was reportedly spurred when he saw a news report about the 30th anniversary of his first murders.
He would often lead police and journalists on scavenger hunts with clues for more information, but this led to his undoing as cops were finally able to snare him by tracing him from the resumed letters.
John Wayne Gacy – The killer clown with a knack for politics
Unlike some brutal killers who hide behind their unsuspecting relatives, notorious ‘killer clown’ John Wayne Gacy favored his career as a pretense for innocence.
While he is best known for his terrifying side gig as a children’s birthday clown, Gacy was also a successful construction contractor and politico in the Chicago Democratic Party.
The image of John Wayne Gacy as a children’s birthday clown has terrified for decades, but he also held roles in the Chicago Democratic Party and was a successful construction contractor
Gacy pictured with First Lady Rosalynn Carter on May 6, 1978, in an image which she personally signed: ‘To John Gacy. Best Wishes.’ This image was taken six years after his first murder and seven months before his final arrest
The Chicago contractor’s loud personality made him popular in his community and he was known to often host parties
Gacy killed at least 33 men and boys between 1972 and 1978, many of whom were young laborers looking for a job at his construction firm PDM Contractors.
Gacy pictured in his final arrest mugshot on December 21, 1978, after being charged with murder
Despite some men who interacted with Gacy in private describing him as creepy and pushy, Gacy built a glowing reputation in the community of Norwood Park Township, Illinois.
He was a respected building contractor teeming with clients in the area, and he employed numerous high schoolers looking for their first job.
However, his workers were also his target victim pool, and he would lure them to his home under the guise of their role.
One tactic Gacy was known to use was to pretend to show the boys a magic trick involving a pair of handcuffs, before slapping them on and trapping them in his home.
Dozens of bodies were found in the crawlspace under his home after his arrest, but Gacy was able to remain above suspicion thanks to his reputation. He was so confident in his ability to remain undetected, that he even held parties at his home and backyard while the remains rotted below.
Gacy built a reputation as an upstanding and very involved member of the community, which allowed him to remain above suspicion for years
He was known to host extravagant themed parties in his home, which was filled with the bodies of his victims
Following his arrest, many of those who knew Gacy found it hard to believe the fun-loving host and political advocate was one of the nation’s worst serial killers. He is pictured in an undated photograph from one of his many themed parties
Gacy was so confident in his ability to remain undetected that he held numerous parties in his home, which was later discovered to held the remains of dozens of young boys and men
To enhance his facade as an upstanding member of the community, Gacy also pursued politics and became a staunch Democrat.
He became a Democratic precinct captain in his Chicago suburb for much of the 1970s, and the metro’s importance to the national party led Gacy to meet First Lady Rosalynn Carter in this role in 1978 – just seven months before his final arrest.
The two took a now-famous photograph of their meeting, which Carter signed: ‘To John Gacy. Best Wishes. Rosalynn Carter.’
His themed parties in his backyard, such as Hawaiian and pirate-themed bashes, were hotly anticipated in the area, and following his arrest many couldn’t believe the fun-loving host they knew was a brutal murderer of young boys and men.
Richard Cottingham – The IT tech killer
While one of the lesser-known serial killers in America, Richard Cottingham remains a prime example of how a sadistic maniac can hold down a humdrum job.
He became known as the ‘Torso Killer’ or the ‘Times Square Killer’ after leaving numerous hotel rooms in the Big Apple hotspot in grisly condition. He was convicted of 18 murders, and claims to have killed over 100 women between 1967 and 1980.
Richard Cottingham left a trail of horror in hotel rooms filled with mutilated bodies in a 13-year spree, while also working as an IT technician
Cottingham remains behind bars in New Jersey, where he has confessed to a number of cold cases in recent years
Cottingham has admitted his fascination with the macabre started at the age of 10, and he claims to have committed his first murders while still a teenager.
After graduating as an unremarkable student, the killer entered the workforce in a Manhattan mailroom at Metropolitan Life, where his father was a vice-president, in 1964.
In 1966, the year before his first confirmed murder, Cottingham landed the everyday job that would lead many to dismiss him.
He became a computer operator for Blue Cross Shield Association, a job he held as he butchered countless women and girls in New York and New Jersey until he was arrested in 1980.
Notably, the serial killer shared his office for a time with infamous New York killer Rodney Alcala, who has been linked to eight murders and suspected of up to 130. However, there isn’t any evidence to suggest the two killers were familiar.
The killer claims to have committed his first murders as an adolescent. He worked in the mailroom for Metropolitan Life after graduating in 1964, before working in IT for 13 years until his arrest
Cottingham pictured on the first day of his first murder trial in Hackensack, New Jersey on September 28, 1982
One of his non-murderous former co-workers revealed that Cottingham would even discuss his grisly killings in the office as they made headlines in New York.
Recalling the killer’s conversations on Netflix docuseries ‘Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer’, the colleague said Cottingham remarked at one of the crimes in the news and exclaimed: ‘What kind of sick son of a b**** could do this?’
While he didn’t project the family man image that killers such as BTK tried hard to do, Cottingham was married in 1970, and he had three children.
The killer apparently didn’t create a happy household, as his wife would file for divorce after eight years citing ‘mental cruelty’ and ‘abandonment’.
As his killings escalated, Cottingham would go on to leave women headless and armless in hotel rooms, which he would often then set on fire. Many of his victims have remained unidentified ‘Jane Doe’ because of the lack of evidence he would leave.
