According to a review of public records and court documents, the architect accused in a string of Long Island killings has been years late in paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, frequently filed lawsuits alleging drivers injured him in car accidents, and still resides in his childhood home.
According to a 2018 deposition, Rex Heuermann, who police allege killed at least three people, continued to reside in the home he grew up in, a few miles across the bay from the beach where bodies were discovered more than a decade earlier.
Heuermann filed four lawsuits in New York courts between 2014 and 2022 against motorists he claimed had struck him with their vehicles, resulting in “serious and permanent personal injuries,” according to court records. The most recent lawsuit is still pending, while the other three were settled or ended.
Heuermann spoke about his life and career during his April 2018 deposition in one of the lawsuits. He claimed to have resided in his childhood home in the Long Island suburb of Massapequa Park with his wife of the time—22 years—his daughter, and stepson.
When questioned about playing any sports during the deposition, he responded, “Really, the only thing I competed in was competition rifle.” Heuermann appears to have struggled to pay his taxes for more than ten years. According to Nassau County documents, the IRS filed six tax liens against Heuermann between 2010 and 2021. Heuermann owed more than $425,000 in total for unpaid taxes dating back to 2005, according to the liens.
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The IRS later issued tax lien releases, with the most recent being submitted in October 2022, showing that Heuermann had paid off or was no longer liable for around $215,078 of that obligation.
Heuermann and his wife, Asa Ellerup, also owe the state of New York a total of more than $81,500 in personal income tax, with the tax debt accruing since November 2020, according to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
Heuermann stated in a 2018 civil court proceeding that his work is “general architecture” and that he assists customers in resolving conflicts with the state Department of Buildings. An acquaintance said the process was “not enjoyable. In that regard, I don’t want to be Mr. Heuermann for a second.
Fire inspectors ordered two dozen households to leave a Harlem apartment block that Heuermann had been paid to refurbish in September 2007 after it was deemed unsafe, according to a story from the New York Daily News at the time. According to the Daily News, the New York City Buildings Department commissioner stated that the department was looking into whether Heuermann had misrepresented the building as being vacant.
On city documents pertaining to the building that state it would be unoccupied during construction, Heuermann is listed. Despite conducting audits of numerous projects where Heuermann served as the architect of record in 2007, the buildings department, according to a representative for the department, did not uncover “any pattern of false filings nor significant disregard for DOB regulations,” and no disciplinary action was taken.
