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When news broke that architect Rex Heuermann was arrested in connection with the slayings of several women whose bodies were found along Long Island’s south shore, Kerri Rawson knew what lay ahead for the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer’s family.
Rawson — the daughter of convicted serial killer Dennis Rader, known as the BTK Killer — met with Heuermann’s family, including his now ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, daughter Victoria Heuermann, and stepson Christopher Sheridan, in front of cameras on Peacock’s The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets.
Rawson explains why she wanted to connect with the family in the three-part documentary, which features interviews with Heuermann’s loved ones and arrives nearly two years after the suspected serial killer’s shocking 2023 arrest.
Heuermann is currently awaiting trial for charges related to the killings of seven women. He’s pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Who is Kerri Rawson?
Kerri Rawson is the daughter of Dennis Rader, the infamous Kansas-based serial killer who earned his moniker “BTK Killer” because he bound, tortured, and killed no less than 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
Not unlike what Heuermann is being accused of, Rader lived a double life for decades and skillfully blended in as a church-going family man who loved his community.
Rawson contacted Heuermann’s family in July of 2023, following news of Heuermann’s arrest, because “immediately, my thoughts went to the family,” she said in The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets.
She said she recognized similarities between Heuermann’s situation and family when he was arrested, and her own family when her dad Rader was arrested in 2005.
“On the day that Rex was arrested, my PTSD hit right away because of what my family had gone through and I was concerned, especially when I heard he had a family,” Rawson said in the documentary.
BTK Killer’s daughter sees similarities between her family and Rex Heuermann’s
“Rex was 59 when he was arrested,” Rawson explained. “My dad was 59. They both had had long marriages. His daughter was 26, the same age I was when my father was arrested. My heart just like broke in two. I was shocked by the similarities.”
Rader himself had also previously made comparisons between himself and Heuermann in a chilling letter he sent to Fox News Digital in July of 2023, in which he referred to Heuermann as “a clone of me.”
Why did Kerri Rawson want to meet Rex Heuermann’s family?
Like Heuermann’s wife and daughter are seen doing in the documentary, Rawson grappled with the news that her father, whom she’d known as a family man, was accused of committing horrific crimes.
“My father lived a double life,” Rawson said. “He was hiding in plain sight for 31 years.”
She added to the documentary’s producers, “I know what it’s like to live with a psychopath. So maybe I can actually lend some support.”
Rawson joined Heuermann’s wife and kids in front of cameras at their Massapequa Park, New York, home — about 40 miles east of Manhattan and about 15 miles north of Gilgo Beach. The home is where prosecutors believe that Heuermann killed his alleged victims before leaving their bodies in and around the Gilgo Beach area.
Rawson stressed to producers the importance of victim and trauma support for relatives blindsided by their loved one’s arrest and suddenly being thrust into the spotlight.
“It traumatizes the family,” Rawson says of home searches
“In my case, there was one interview with the FBI and then they left my family,” she said. “They didn’t help us. They didn’t get us victim support. We had no trauma support — nothing.”
After Heuermann’s arrest, the family’s Massapequa Park home was thoroughly searched and an excavator was seen digging in the backyard.
“And you’re looking at Asa’s family and they came in and completely trashed their home,” Rawson said. “And I understand that they needed to come in and get evidence. But they should have sent a team in to fix it because it traumatizes the family. When you’re talking about a father, their actions get placed on the family.”
In the documentary, Heuermann’s daughter Victoria expressed being “on the fence” about whether her father could have done what he’s being accused of. A week before The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets debuted on Peacock, Victoria told the producers “that based on publicly available facts that have been presented and explained to her, she now believes her father is most likely the Gilgo Beach killer,” according to text shown on screen at the end of the documentary.
Can’t “separate ourselves from our fathers”
Rawson told producers that she grappled with similar conflicting emotions. “Her and I’s reality is we’re never gonna be able to separate ourselves from our fathers… ,” Rawson said of what she believes Victoria is going through. “I know in the bottom of my heart, my father loved and cared for us and protected us, but he also, I know, in the bottom of my heart, committed murder. You’re never ever gonna be able to wrap your head completely around it. I just can’t.”
Victoria told Rawson that she’d visited her father once since he’s been in jail awaiting trial.
“What’s scary is, even when I saw him or when I visited him in jail, he just seemed like himself, how he always is,” Victoria said. “And it’s so hard to even believe the fact that he’s this sick killer. But at the same time, because I was so young at the time, I also don’t know that he’s not this sick killer. At this point, I just mentally prepare myself or mentally protect myself for the ultimate outcome.”
To learn more about Heuermann’s family and what they’ve experienced, watch The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, available to stream now on Peacock.
