Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann and estranged wife reach divorce settlement
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(NEW YORK) — Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann and his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, have reached a divorce settlement, according to court records.
Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann was arrested in July 2023.
The terms of the divorce settlement, filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court Thursday night, are not public. A judge will review the settlement and must sign off on the divorce to make it final.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women whose remains were found discarded on Long Island between 1993 and 2011.
Prosecutors with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office have said Ellerup and the couple’s children were out of town when the victims were killed.
Heuermann is expected back in court Friday as his lawyers ask a judge to disqualify some of the DNA evidence pertaining to nuclear DNA results obtained from hairs recovered from six victims: Maureen Brainard Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The new DNA technique is whole genome sequencing of the DNA within a hair; scientists take all the fragments of DNA and assemble them on the human genome.
Traditional DNA sequencing looks at 15 to 24 points of comparison, while whole genome sequencing looks at 100,000 or more points and the methodology yields only one possible donor.
Heuermann’s defense argued the new DNA methodology has never been tested in New York courts, but prosecutors have said the technique is already used in the medical community and is consistent with what the court system has allowed.
(WASHINGTON) — In a recent court filing, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has submitted what they believe is a document that the Trump administration uses to identify members of a Venezuelan gang and remove them under the Alien Enemies Act.
The filing is part of their request for a preliminary injunction to bar the administration from deporting migrants under the act.
The document, titled “Alien Enemy Validation Guide,” appears to be a checklist that the administration is using to identify Tren de Aragua (TdA) members with a points-based system, according to the filing.
ACLU attorney Oscar Sarabia Roman submitted a declaration, stating that the organization believes the document is used “to determine whether Venezuelan noncitizens are members of Tren de Aragua and subject to summary removal under the Alien Enemies Act.”
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The checklist submitted by the ACLU is divided into six categories including “Criminal Conduct and Information,” “Self-Admission” and “Judicial Outcomes and Official Documents,” and assigns varying quantities of points to different types of evidence that can be used to score the migrants.
Migrants who score eight points and higher are “validated as members of TdA,” the document says. But the document also appears to leave a lot to the discretion of ICE officers conducting the review, stating that even migrants who only score six or seven points may still be considered members of the gang after the officer consults with a supervisor and the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor and “reviewing the totality of the facts, before making that determination.”
The document indicates that individuals who score five points or less should not be validated as a member of TdA but encourages officials to initiate removal proceedings under other existing authorities.
Communicating electronically with a known TdA member is worth six points, in other words, it appears to be enough evidence for an official to classify a person as a member of the gang.
One of the categories labeled “Symbolism” includes a section about “tattoos denoting membership/loyalty to TdA” and social media posts by the subject displaying symbols of TDA. According to the document, individuals with tattoos that are believed to be associated with TDA are worth four points.
The document informs officers to consult with supervisors before classifying migrants as TdA members or initiating removals if they score eight points or more on the “Symbolism” or “Association” categories alone.
In their motion for preliminary injunction, the ACLU also claims intel gathered across different agencies on TdA are “internally contradictory.”
One document submitted by the ACLU — that they state is from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — includes photos of tattoos that they say HSI considers identifiers of TdA which include tattoos of crowns, trains, stars and clocks. Additional identifiers, according to the document, include “often wear sports attire from U.S. professional sports teams with Venezuelan nationals on them” and “dressed in high-end urban street wear.”
But a separate document the ACLU alleges is from the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector Intelligence Unit says they “determined that the Chicago Bulls attire, clocks, and rose tattoos are typically related to the Venezuelan culture” and are not indicators of being members or associates of Tren de Aragua.
The ACLU also submitted a document called the “Notice and warrant of apprehension and removal under the Alien Enemies Act” claiming the government may require each alleged TdA member to sign. They say that the five plaintiffs represented in their lawsuit did not receive the document.
“You are not entitled to a hearing, appeal, or judicial review of this notice and warrant of apprehension and removal,” the document states.
(PHILADELPHIA) — At least seven people were killed and 19 others injured after a medical transport plane, carrying a child, her mother and four other people, crashed in Philadelphia Friday night near a busy mall, according to city officials.
Everyone aboard the flight was killed in the crash and one person was killed on the ground, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said at a press conference Saturday.
The Learjet 55 crashed near the Roosevelt Mall in northeast Philadelphia around 6:30 p.m. after departing from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, according to authorities.
“Many people on the ground — in parking lots, on streets, in cars and homes in the area — were injured,” the office of Mayor Parker said Saturday. “A number of people were transported to Temple University Hospital, Jeans Campus in the Northeast.”
“Right now, we’re just asking for prayers,” Parker told reporters Friday night. She urged residents to stay away from the scene.
In a statement, Shriner’s Hospital said the child had received care from the Philadelphia hospital and was being taken back to her home country of Mexico along with her mother on a contracted air ambulance when the crash happened.
The flight was headed to Missouri and was only in the air for a short period of time before something went wrong, according to Parker.
The company that operated the flight, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, said in a statement there were four crew members on board.
“At this time, we cannot confirm any survivors,” the company said in the statement. “No names are being released at this time until family members have been notified. Our immediate concern is for the patient’s family, our personnel, their families and other victims that may have been hurt on the ground.”
The air ambulance was en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, according to Flight Radar24 data.
“I regret the death of six Mexicans in the plane crash in Philadelphia, United States,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a statement Saturday. “The consular authorities are in permanent contact with the families; I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support them in whatever way is required. My solidarity with their loved ones and friends.”
A large fire burned in the wake of the crash, prompting a significant response.
“We heard a loud explosion and then saw the aftermath of flames and smoke,” eyewitness Jimmy Weiss told local ABC station WPVI near the scene.
He added, “It felt like the ground shook .. it was a loud boom. It was startling.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.
An NTSB investigator arrived at the scene Friday night with additional team members expected to arrive Saturday.
Temple University Hospital told ABC News it had received six patients hurt in the crash, although it was not clear if they were in the plane or people who were on the ground.
Three of those patients were treated and released and three remain hospitalized in fair condition, the hospital said.
Speaking at a follow-up press briefing Friday night, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said dozens of state troopers and other state personnel were on on hand to offer help and praised local responders and community members.
“We saw neighbor helping neighbor. We saw Pennsylvanians looking out for one another,” he said.
In a statement posted to social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump said: “So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged. First Responders are already being given credit for doing a great job. More to follow. God Bless you all.”
Immediately after the crash, the FAA issued a ground stop at Northeast Philadelphia Airport due to “an aircraft incident.”
The FAA had initially reported there were two people on board the aircraft but later corrected that report.
The investigation into the crash remains active and ongoing.
ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A New York resident making s’mores in their backyard is suspected of accidentally igniting a series of wildfires over the weekend that swept through hundreds of acres of the Pine Barrens region of Long Island, authorities said Monday.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said the “operating theory” is that a fire was started at about 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday when a resident used cardboard to start a fire to make s’mores, a confection that includes toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers.
“The individual making s’mores was unable to get the fire lit due to the winds, but they used cardboard to initially light that fire,” Catalina said during a news conference on Monday. “The person subsequently discovers that the fire does ignite in the backyard area and all goes up in fire.”
Catalina said the initial fire was extinguished by 10:30 a.m., but investigators believe embers blew about an eighth of a mile southeast of the s’mores fire and started a second blaze just before 1 p.m. in the Manorville community of Suffolk County.
Northwest winds of up to 45 mph quickly spread embers from Manorville, igniting a fire in Eastport and another fire in the publicly protected Pine Barrens region of West Hampton, according to Catalina.
“It was initially reported that there were four separate fires, or reported at one time,” Catalina said. “All of those fires are in a direct line with the strong northwest wind that was blowing that day. And it is believed that the embers from each fire traveled and continuously started more fires. So that is the operating theory right now.”
Catalina said the department has 25 arson investigators probing the blaze to determine the exact cause of the fire, but added, “So far, our investigation is pointing strongly toward an accidental origin for Saturday’s fires.”
The combined fires burned about 600 acres of wildland and prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency. At least two commercial structures were damaged, officials said.
Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said Monday that two volunteer firefighters were injured battling the blazes on Saturday, with one being airlifted to Stony Brook Hospital in Stony Brook with second-degree burns to the face. The other hospitalized firefighter suffered a non-life-threatening head injury, Romaine said.
The fires in Suffolk County are “100% contained,” Amanda Lefton, the acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said. Firefighters will remain on-scene over the next few days to prevent any spot fires from igniting, Lefton said.
Romaine said that at one point during Saturday’s blazes, firefighters feared the blaze would jump Sunrise Highway and spread into the more populated communities of Suffolk County.
He said the fire was fueled by hundreds of dead pine trees in the Pine Barrens region.
“Without the combined efforts of everyone involved, we would not have been able to stop this fire,” Romaine said. “This was a fire that could have been far more serious than it was.”
More than 600 firefighters from 80 volunteer Suffolk County fire departments responded to the blaze, battling flames and smoke visible from as far away as Connecticut, Romaine said.
