What Does The Rex Heuermann Wrongful Death Lawsuit Mean For His Family?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers' half year in review. A look back at some of the most compelling cases of 2026 so far.
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke.

**Tony Brueski** (0:17)
Well, one of the biggest ogre-like nutterers of the group, Rex Heuermann, stood in a Suffolk County courtroom, hands shackled behind his back and admitted to taking the lives of eight women across a killing spree that lasted from 1993 all the way to 2010 After nearly three years of maintaining his innocence after he was caught, but if we're looking at the full timeline of living a life, we're talking three, almost four decades of maintaining that innocence.
The man prosecutors called the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer has changed his plea. Guilty on all counts. In a hearing that lasted roughly 30 minutes, it was quick, it was in, it was out, families of the women. He killed Wept as he spoke very bluntly, very plainly. Yes, he pled guilty.
His own estranged wife and daughter sat in the back row. But a guilty plea isn't the same as answers. And the questions this case leaves behind may be more unsettling than the ones that it actually resolved. We're going to go through this in two parts today. We're first going to talk about Heuermann's guilty plea and exactly what happens next. Then in our next part of the conversation, we will dive deeper into the area of Asa Ellerup. His wife, she made a statement at the end, a lawsuit that has now come up against her and her daughter.
And the questions that people have there, not to accuse or anything of that nature, but just to discuss everything that's going on around this case. So joining us this morning to have this conversation, Eric Faddis, defense attorney, former prosecutor, and of course, my co-host, Robin Dreeke, retired FBI Special Agent, Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. Eric, let's start here. He pled guilty to seven murders and admitted to killing an eighth woman as well. Karen Vergata, this was one that had been kind of sitting there in the ether, like is it going to be tagged onto him? And the last moment, it was, but it was as part of a deal, but not formally charged with her death. So he admits to it, but not formally charged. Help us understand. My first question is literally kind of the dynamics of what this actually is, as a former prosecutor, walk us through what that trade actually looks like behind closed doors. And what did prosecutors get in exchange for not charging him with Vergara's murder? And did her family just get shortchanged?

**Eric Faddis** (2:45)
It's rather unusual to build into a plea that a person is going to admit to a crime, but never be charged or convicted of that crime.
You know, is it sort of lip service to the family? I hate to put it that way, but trying to have some kind of accountability without real accountability legally, it's rather unusual. And so, what are prosecutors getting out of it? I guess they're getting out of it some closure, hopefully for the victim's family, in terms of what happened to this person, but no legal charge, no legal conviction. A little strange.

**Tony Brueski** (3:21)
So what does that mean to the case itself of Vergara's case? If there's not a conviction, if there's not a charge, is it a cold case? How does it get classified going forward in a legal, because there's got to be a mark on this on the file somewhere.

**Eric Faddis** (3:40)
Yeah. I would imagine that it's just like a closed case at this time without any legal resolution. Now, it seems like there is a admitted factual resolution, but quite unusual.
I can't imagine where that family is at with that. Is this satisfying to them? Is this bringing what they're looking for? I'm just not sure about that.

**Robin Dreeke** (4:03)
Yeah. Eric, still the striking thing with all this, as all these things are with Heuermann is, what is he getting out of this? Because again, death was never on the table. The only thing I can still think of is the currency is knowledge aspect of it. What do you legally thinking that his defense team was able to get in some benefit, anything except notoriety for Heuermann?

**Eric Faddis** (4:30)
Robin, Heuermann's attorney did make a statement after the plea hearing and essentially said the reason Heuermann did this was to not put the victim's families through the horrible crucible trial, whether that was a real motivation or not, that's questionable, to not put his own family through the gruesome details of what these acts that he committed. But I think also that things were just mounting against him. He lost this important motion trying to exclude the DNA evidence. I think that might have been the nail in the coffin and perhaps he was just tired of fighting. But there's no real tangible legal or otherwise benefit that he's getting from this.