The former wife of admitted Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has revealed that she still lives inside the same Long Island home where prosecutors say some of the nation’s most horrifying murders unfolded — and even sleeps in the very basement room where victims were allegedly tortured, dismembered, and prepared for disposal.

In the final episode of Peacock’s documentary series “The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,” Asa Ellerup offered a deeply unsettling glimpse into the emotional aftermath of discovering that the man she spent decades married to was secretly living a double life as a serial killer.

The revelations stunned viewers not only because of the gruesome details surrounding Rex Heuermann’s crimes, but because Ellerup explained that she intentionally moved into the basement space that investigators and prosecutors have repeatedly described as the killer’s “murder room.”

Walking down the renovated stairs during the documentary, Ellerup described how she had completely transformed the basement of the Massapequa Park home she once shared with Heuermann and their children.

“This whole basement looks very different,” she explained. “It’s been completely gutted and redone, new floor, new walls, new moldings, new doors.”

The basement no longer resembles the grim crime scene investigators spent months searching after Heuermann’s arrest in July 2023. Gone are the images of tarps, forensic teams, and evidence markers that once dominated national headlines. Instead, the space has reportedly been rebuilt in an attempt to reclaim some sense of humanity after years of unimaginable horror.

But what shocked many viewers most was Ellerup’s explanation for why she chose to live there.

When asked directly in the documentary why she moved into the basement — the same place where Heuermann allegedly butchered victims — Ellerup gave an emotional answer that reflected both grief and lingering trauma.

“The brutal truth is that Rex Heuermann said he dismembered the bodies in this room,” she said quietly. “That is the brutal truth.”

She continued by explaining that she felt spiritually compelled to remain there.

“Now there’s me, I’m in this room and I’m here because I do feel spiritual,” Ellerup said. “I am trying to say spiritually, in my own way, that I am really sorry for what these victims went through.”

The comments have sparked intense public reaction online, with some viewers expressing sympathy for Ellerup’s emotional state while others questioned whether remaining in the house could ever allow healing to begin.

For Ellerup, however, the documentary makes clear that there is no escaping what happened inside the home.

“I am haunted by dreams every night,” she admitted. “It will never go away. It will follow me for the rest of my life.”

The chilling confessions come after Heuermann formally admitted responsibility for murdering eight women whose remains were discovered along Long Island’s Gilgo Beach and surrounding areas over the course of decades. The case, which terrorized residents and baffled investigators for years, became one of the most infamous serial killer investigations in modern American history.

The hulking architect from Massapequa Park shocked the country when he pleaded guilty earlier this year to killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, and Karen Vergata.

Most of the victims were young sex workers who disappeared between the 1990s and 2010. Prosecutors say Heuermann preyed specifically on vulnerable women, carefully selecting victims far smaller than himself. Authorities described him as standing 6-foot-4 and weighing approximately 250 pounds, while many of the victims were petite women under 5-foot-5.

According to statements featured in the documentary, Heuermann admitted that only one killing happened spontaneously inside his vehicle. The remaining murders were allegedly meticulously planned and carried out inside the family home while Ellerup and the children were away.

The documentary suggests Heuermann maintained an extraordinary separation between his public family life and his secret crimes.

That contradiction appears to haunt the couple’s daughter, Victoria Heuermann, who also participated in the series.

Victoria explained that after his arrest, she confronted her father about how he could commit such horrifying acts while simultaneously behaving as a loving parent at home.

“He said that his demons got to him,” she recalled.

But one particular exchange during their conversation left her especially shaken.

Victoria said she asked her father whether he ever thought about the fact that his victims were loved by families and friends — whether he recognized them as human beings.

“I’m like, well, did you see them as somebody’s daughter?” she recalled asking.

According to Victoria, Heuermann answered chillingly: “He told me he didn’t even see them as human.”

That statement has become one of the documentary’s most disturbing moments, offering insight into the mindset prosecutors believe allowed Heuermann to compartmentalize his crimes for decades.

Victoria admitted she still struggles to reconcile the father she knew with the serial killer described by investigators.

“They were completely kept in separate worlds to him,” she said of the victims and his family life. “And he never let the two cross.”

Still, she acknowledged the horrifying reality of what occurred inside their home.

“So I’m like, OK, he’s a loving dad and a serial killer: How did he manage that the two never crossed?” she asked. “Seven women have been murdered in this house. It’s hard to stomach.”

The documentary also includes recorded jailhouse phone calls between Heuermann and his family after his arrest. While many of the conversations appeared mundane, some moments revealed what viewers interpreted as lingering control and manipulation.

In one clip, Heuermann appeared to direct the flow of a family therapy discussion while speaking on speakerphone with Ellerup, Victoria, stepson Christopher Sheridan, and their therapist.

“You need to take charge because you know how to talk about how you feel,” Heuermann instructed Christopher. He then appeared to mock Ellerup and Victoria, adding, “The other two sitting there are going to sit there and stare at each other for at least a good 20 minutes before either one of them says anything.”

The interaction fueled additional debate about the psychological grip Heuermann may have maintained over his family during their marriage.

Ellerup divorced Heuermann after his arrest in 2023, but the documentary shows how deeply the emotional devastation continues to shape her life. She repeatedly emphasizes that she never knew about the killings and insists the murders happened only when she and the children were out of town.

Authorities have similarly stated there is no evidence that Ellerup or her children participated in or knew about the crimes.

Still, the emotional fallout remains enormous.

The basement where Ellerup now sleeps has become symbolic of that trauma — a space once allegedly used for unimaginable violence now transformed into what she appears to see as both punishment and remembrance.

For some viewers, her decision reflects survivor’s guilt. For others, it raises questions about unresolved trauma, denial, or the desperate human need to reclaim a place poisoned by horror.

Meanwhile, Heuermann is expected to spend the remainder of his life behind bars. He is scheduled to be formally sentenced on June 17 and faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

But even with a guilty plea secured, the emotional scars left behind by the Gilgo Beach murders continue to spread far beyond the courtroom.

For the victims’ families, the crimes shattered lives forever. For Asa Ellerup and her children, the nightmare became realizing the man sitting across the dinner table for decades was secretly capable of monstrous violence.

And for Ellerup herself, every night spent sleeping in that basement appears to serve as a grim reminder that the horrors committed there can never truly be erased — no matter how many new walls, floors, or doors are built over the past.