Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann was 'momma's boy'

Publish date: 2024-06-11

He’s a “Psycho.”

Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was bizarrely close to his “controlling” mother while he was an adolescent, according to sources.

Heuermann, 59, was a “momma’s boy” and would tell friends “things like, ‘I have to get home to my mother,’ ” said a former classmate who attended Berner High School in Massapequa with the suspect.

“I always got the impression he was close . . . to his mother. The mother seemed to be his all,” the former classmate said of Dolores Heuermann, now 93. 

The extremely close ties between the pair may have influenced Heuermann’s decision to buy his childhood home in Massapequa Park from his mom for $170,000 in 1994 — shortly after his first marriage, to Elizabeth Ryan in 1990, failed.

He never left.

Heuermann — who pleaded not guilty on July 14 to murder charges in connection with the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 22, and Megan Waterman, 27 — found himself the man of that house at the young age of 12.

His father, Theodore Heuermann, who served in World War II and in the Air Force as a second lieutenant, died in 1975 at the age of 50.

The younger Heuermann, who founded his own architecture firm, RH Consultants & Associates in 1994, curiously never spoke about his late father around his friends, the classmate recalled.

Heuermann came across as a “momma’s boy” to former Berner High School classmates when he was a teen. ZUMAPRESS.com
Heuermann’s relationship with his mother may have influenced his decision to purchase his childhood home from her. Dennis A. Clark

Later in life, however, he boasted that his dad had worked as an “aerospace engineer who built satellites” — but also built cabinets and taught his son how to construct furniture.

The architect continued to live in his boyhood home, where he raised his daughter and his stepson with his second wife, Asa Ellerup, whom he married in 1996.

She filed for divorce last week, six days after her husband was arrested in connection to the grisly killings.

His father, Theodore Heuermann, died when the younger Heuermann was just 12 years old. ancestry.com
Rex Heuermann boasted that his dad (pictured as a teen) had worked as an “aerospace engineer who built satellites” and was a cabinet maker. ancestry.com

Criminologist Scott Bonn, who accurately profiled the accused Gilgo Beach killer back in 2011, said that Heuermann was a “psychopath” and had heard his mom was “controlling and domineering,” which could have shaped his twisted persona.

“He had a kind of an unusual, incestuous [relationship], in an emotional sense, with his mother, [which] could be a contributing factor to his pathology,” said Bonn, who has extensively interviewed David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, who had his own set of mommy issues.

“Who knows what was ticking beneath the surface,” the criminologist added. “He may [have been] projecting the loving doting son, when in fact there may have been some deep-seated resentment toward Mom.” 

Criminologist Scott Bonn had heard Heuermann’s mom was “domineering,” which could have shaped his twisted persona. Rex Heuermann Consultants & Associates

Neighbors at a senior housing complex in Toms River, NJ, where his mother previously lived, said she had left recently and moved in with one of her daughters.

When The Post visited one of the daughter’s homes in South Jersey, a man shook his head at a reporter and slammed the door shut.

Relatives did not return messages seeking comment.

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