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‘Help her start a new life’: Happy Face Killer's daughter starts GoFundMe for Rex Heuermann’s wife
Asa Ellerup recently revealed that her two children “cry themselves to sleep” after their father’s arrest.
Melissa Moore, the daughter of the Happy Face Killer, has started a GoFundMe to help alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup, 59. Asa recently revealed that her two children, 26-year-old Victoria Heuermann and 33-year-old Christopher Sheridan, “cry themselves to sleep” after their father’s arrest. She has been suffering constant anxiety as investigators allegedly turned their Massapequa Park home into a wreck, trying to find evidence.
Asa said she does not even have a bed to sleep in now. “I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering,” according to New York Post. “Anxiety.”
“My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, they’re not children. They’re grown adults but they’re my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep,” she added.
‘I have an opportunity to use my voice to help Asa’
Melissa wrote on the GoFundMe page that she is asking for help so Asa can “start a new life.” Melissa’s father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, is known as the Happy Face Killer. He allegedly murdered at least eight women in the US in the early 1990s. He notoriously drew smiley faces on various letters he wrote to the media and authorities. Keith is reportedlyserving multiple life sentences at theOregon State Penitentiary.
Melissa later appeared on the Dr. Phil show and The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about her father. “Today, Asa has broken her silence on the front porch of the home that may or may not have been a crime scene, saying she "would find it helpful for a gofundme" to help her,” Melissa wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“People may know me as the daughter of the serial killer known as the 'Happy Face' killer captured in 1995. My mother and my family were and are victims. We did not know about his double life. I have waited to create this gofundme, as I didn't want to offer support if she would not want it. I needed Asa's consent,” she continued.
She added, “Today, I have an opportunity to use my voice to help Asa, who isn't in a place to speak about the terror and horror she and her family are experiencing at this moment. While people may assume Asa has the funds to start a new life, the assumption is just that. We don't know the financial and verbal abuse she may have suffered.”
“The funds will go directly to the law firm representing Asa's divorce in her name. The funds are to assist Asa and their family to divorce her alleged serial killer husband and any extra for starting her new life, therapy, basic needs for the children, and to restore the home to whole (as evidence collection damage or destroyed many critical household items),” she said. At the time of writing this article, $23,139 USD had been raised of the $25,000 goal.
Rex’s arrest is tied to the ‘Gilgo Four,’ referring to the four women whose bodies were found within days of each other in 2010. The women in question were Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
