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The son of a Gilgo Beach murder victim filed a wrongful death lawsuit against suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann, his wife, and daughter — just days before he’s expected to plead guilty to viciously murdering seven women.
The wrongful death suit filed on Monday by attorney John Ray on behalf of Benjamin Torres, the only child of murder victim Valerie Mack, marks the first known litigation brought by a Gilgo victim’s family member against the 62-year-old accused killer from Massapequa Park, Newsday reported.
The suit alleged that Torres’s loss of his mother — whom Heuermann allegedly murdered some time between September 1, 2000, and November 19, 2000 — deprived him of her care and protection, according to the filing in the State Supreme Court in Suffolk County obtained by Patch.
Mack disappeared when Torres was just 6 years old. She was allegedly “tortured ferociously” and dismembered by Heuermann, the lawsuit said.
The mom had been working as an escort in Philadelphia under the name Melissa Taylor when she vanished at age 24. Her remains were discovered near a sump discharge basin on Nov. 19, 2000, in a heavily wooded area in Manorville, Newsday reported.
Her case — as well as those of several other sex workers whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach — went cold for several decades until investigators finally made a break and arrested Heuermann in July 2023.
Torres 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,” the document added.
The lawsuit also seeks compensation for profits that Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and daughter Victoria Heuermann may have made from the Peacock Documentary “Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,” released in June.
Huermann’s family reportedly made out with more than $1 million for letting the documentary crew get exclusive access to their home and lives, Newsday reported.
Ellerup has never been accused of involvement in Heuermann’s crimes, and authorities said the murders occurred when his family was not home — but Torres’s lawsuit made the bombshell claim that the wife and daughter were complicit in Mack’s death.
“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 alleged, according to Newsday.
Robert Macedonio, the attorney for Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, told Patch that the lawsuit “is a reckless attempt by John Ray to keep himself relevant in a case where his only client Shannan Gilbert, had no involvement with the Gilgo Beach homicides.”
“I am confident this matter will be dismissed. And I reiterate: Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann have no involvement and or knowledge of the crimes Rex Heuermann has been accused of,” Macedonia added.
The suit also argued that the typical two-year deadline for wrongful death lawsuits to be filed in New York after a person’s death should be waived for Torres, given his age at the time of his mother’s death and the delay in her identification due to her brutal dismemberment, which obscured many of her identifying factors.
Macedonia, Ray, and Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael J. Brown, did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment late Monday.
Sources previously told The Post that Brown and Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney are hashing out a plea deal for Heuermann to cop to the seven murders at his Wednesday appearance in Suffolk County Court.
The exact charges Heuermann would plead guilty to and other details of the deal are not immediately clear.
Tierney has tied Heuermann to the killings of Mack, Jessica Taylor, 20, Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Sandra Costilla, 28.
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