Gilgo Beach victim's son files wrongful death suit against alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann and family

The son of Valerie Mack, one of the seven known female victims prosecutors said were killed by Rex A. Heuermann, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer, his ex-wife and daughter, records show.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in State Supreme Court in Suffolk County — the first known litigation brought by any of the Gilgo victims' family members against Heuermann — comes as  the 62-year-old from Massapequa Park is reportedly expected to plead guilty on Wednesday to the killings that have haunted the region for more than a decade.

Profiting from documentary

The complaint, filed by Benjamin Torres, Mack's only child, names Heuermann, his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter, Victoria Heuermann, and cites claims of wrongful death, assault, battery, false imprisonment, aiding and abetting, civil conspiracy, intentional infliction of extreme emotional distress, fraud and unjust enrichment.

The suit seeks unspecified money Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann earned through their participation in a documentary on the Gilgo murders released in July on Peacock.

"Some of the statements they have made indicate that they have such callous disregard for the victims that they're making a profit," said Miller Place attorney John Ray, who is representing Torres. "They're earning money by that callousness and by that disregard of the victims' sensibilities. They shouldn't be given money for that."

Ray has also represented the estate of Shannan Gilbert, the New Jersey woman whose disappearance set off a law enforcement search that led to the discovery of the bodies of several of the victims.

Robert Macedonio, an Islip Terrace attorney who has represented Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann since Rex Heuermann's July 2023 arrest, said his clients had no knowledge of the killings.

"This has been a decade of Johnny Ray trying to keep himself relevant in a case that his original client, Shannan Gilbert, had no involvement in," Macedonio said on Monday night. "I reiterate strenuously that my clients, Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, had no involvement whatsoever in any of the alleged crimes of Rex Heuermann."

Ellerup has not been accused of any involvement in her ex-husband's crimes, and law enforcement officials contend the killings occurred when his family, including his wife and daughter, were traveling out of town.

But the lawsuit nonetheless contends they were complicit in Heuermann's alleged crimes.

"Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann at some point in time knew of, concealed, deliberately ignored, or consciously avoided learning of material facts concerning the assault, murder, dismemberment, concealment, and disposal of Valerie Mack," the lawsuit states.

Michael J. Brown, Rex Heuermann's defense attorney, and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, did not respond to requests for comment.

A mother's disappearance

Torres was 6 years old when his mother went missing in 2000, records show. 

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Mack's biological parents put her up for adoption as an infant, police said. Her first adoptive parents died by the time she was in middle school. She went into foster care and was eventually adopted, officials said.

Mack gave birth to Torres when she was a senior in high school, and shortly thereafter got addicted to drugs, police said.

She had been working as an escort in Philadelphia under the name Melissa Taylor when she vanished at the age of 24.

Mack's dismembered remains were found near a Manorville sump discharge basin on Nov. 19, 2000, in a heavily wooded area about a half-mile west of Halsey Manor Road, police said.

But it wasn't until police found other parts of Mack's body, including her skull, off Ocean Parkway, east of Cedar Beach, on April 4, 2011, that the killing of the woman once known as "Jane Doe No. 6" was linked to the other Gilgo Beach victims.

"This action seeks recovery for the wrongful torture and murder of Valerie Mack, for the terror, restraint, pain, mutilation, and dismemberment inflicted upon her before and after death, for the concealment and mutilation of her remains, and for the profound and prolonged harm thereby inflicted upon plaintiff," the lawsuit states.

Heuermann’s relatives were reportedly paid more than $1 million to allow the documentary crew for "The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets," a three-part series, access to their Massapequa Park home and lives.

In the series, Victoria Heuermann said her father "most likely" committed the killings.

"I love him as my dad," she told the interviewer. "The hate is this other side of him that came out."

In New York, wrongful death lawsuits must be filed within two years of the date of the individual's death. 

But the lawsuit argues  the deadline should be waived because of Torres' age at the time of his mother's disappearance. Ray additionally argues Heuermann's alleged dismemberment of Mack's body, including a tattoo on her leg bearing his son's name, obscured her identification by law enforcement for many years.