THE daughter of the Happy Face Killer has launched a fundraiser to help the family of Gilgo suspect Rex Heuermann as they attempt to salvage what remains of their lives after his arrest and stave off financial and emotional ruin.
Melissa Moore told The U.S Sun she is one of only a few people who can understand the feelings of isolation, shame, anger and anguish that Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, and her two adult children will be battling right now.
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Moore's father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, is a truck-driving serial killer who in 1995 was convicted of raping and murdering at least eight women across multiple different states.
Now 44, Moore was just a teenager when her father was arrested. She said she grew up shouldering the burden of her father's sins and saw the toll it also took on her mom and two siblings.
So when she saw images of a downcast and defeated-looking Asa sitting on her front porch with her two children, hours after police vacated their family home in Massapequa Park following an exhaustive 12-day search, Moore said she felt compelled to reach out with a hand of compassion and help them.
Late last week she launched a GoFundMe for Ellerup and her two live-in children, Victoria and Christopher, to help keep them afloat in the aftermath of Heuermann's arrest.
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Heuermann, 59, has been charged with the murders of three women whose remains were found wrapped in burlap and dumped along Gilgo Beach, on Long Island, New York, in late 2010.
So far, as of Wednesday afternoon, the fundraiser has amassed more than $19k from 470 donations.
In addition to helping them buy basic necessities, such as new furniture and other household items, the money raised will also help to pay for Asa's legal fees for her divorce from Heuermann and cover the cost of any therapy needed for her and her children.
Moore said she also hopes to raise enough funds to build a privacy fence for the family so they can relax in the front yard of their home away from the prying eyes of photographers and news cameras.
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Explaining her decision to start the GoFundMe, Moore told The U.S. Sun: "I felt uncomfortable seeing photos of Asa and her adult children visibly suffering.
"They’re victims in that they have their worlds ripped apart in an instant. Nothing in their life is or will ever be the same.
"Their childhood home and their sense of certainty have been destroyed. Then the burden to restore their lives and home is fully on them in the middle of a crisis that makes them temporarily unemployable due to the stress of the trauma and court proceedings.
"No doubt, Rex was the family breadwinner," she added, "so all income has ceased.
"This is a tremendous new burden on people innocent of any crime."
SINS OF OUR FATHER
Less than a week after Rex was arrested, Asa filed for divorce after more than 20 years of marriage.
In a statement at the time, an attorney for the family told The U.S. Sun that their lives had been turned completely upside down and they were struggling to get to grips with the allegations against Heuermann.
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Then, over the weekend, Ellerup issued a desperate statement through her attorney begging for peace and privacy from the press so she and her neighbors can establish some sense of "normalcy".
Ellerup then broke her silence for the first time in an interview with the New York Post on Monday, telling the outlet that her children have been crying themselves to sleep and their home has been destroyed by investigators.
“I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering [...] anxiety," Ellerup said.
"My children cry themselves to sleep. I mean, they’re not children. They’re grown adults but they’re my children, and my son has developmental disabilities and he cried himself to sleep."
Ellerup said that while her home feels unlivable it's the only thing she and her children have left.
“We did get another chair out from the basement and upstairs so me and my son can sit and talk. He’s so distraught and doesn’t understand, and as a mother, I have no answers for him.
“But I said, ‘We’re together, That’s really what matters right now. That you and me are sitting here together and we will get through this.'”
Moore, like Ellerup and her children, says she and her family were completely blindsided when the extent of Jesperson's violent crimes was laid bare to them in the spring of 1995.
The Canadian-born truck driver confessed to killing eight women across California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, and Wyoming in the early 1990s.
Jesperson, who claimed to have killed as many as 185, became known as the Happy Face Killer for confession letters he'd sent to police and the media which he'd signed off anonymously with a smiley face.
Moore said the moniker in particular played on her mind in the aftermath of her father's conviction.
"One of the hardest things was the title of my father's moniker: Happy Face. I felt like I could never put on a happy face in public because it would be a slap in the face of face of the victims," she said.
"But then I started to disassociate myself from my father's crimes and realize that I obviously didn't do anything wrong and that if I smile - if I'm happy - that's okay.
"And I also realized that I have one life to live - just as [Heuermann's] children and his wife have one life to live."
'IT GETS BETTER'
Moore has been in direct contact with Asa Ellerup's attorney to notify him about her fundraiser.
She said since launching the page she has been overwhelmed with comments and emails from members of the public, voicing their support and sympathy for the family.
Moore said she plans to collate the well wishes and send them directly to Ellerup in an attempt to boost her spirits.
When asked what her own message to Ellerup would be, Moore said she'd tell her: "It gets better."
"The biggest impact is of course emotionally, when you feel ostracized by the general public.
"[After my father was arrested] I also didn’t know there were others 'like me' out there, so I wanted Asa and her adult children to know they aren’t alone and the GoFundMe is a way the community can also express the sentiment.
"The public and media can make you feel like you’re a spectacle, as you’re 24/7 on display with intrusive cameras in your personal space.
"The insomnia from all the stress and with the daily requirements to run your life, such as grocery shopping while being followed can make you feel more hopeless that this crisis may never let up. Thankfully it does, but it’s a multi-year endeavor.
Moore continued: "Life will never be the same. I hope to show them they will be okay, eventually. The support from the community will expedite their healing.
"The community is here for you; let them embrace you.
"There is a life after that can be beautiful and full of meaning."
LONG ISLAND SERIAL KILLER CAUGHT?
Until two weeks ago, Heuermann was living a quiet and seemingly unremarkable life in the peaceful enclave of Massapequa Park, in Oyster Bay, with his family.
But on July 13, he became a household name after being arrested by a swarm of officers outside his midtown Manhattan office, bringing a tentative end to one of America's most notorious unsolved serial killings.
Heuermann was charged the following morning with three counts of first and second-degree murder in connection to the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello.
Investigators also believe he may be responsible for the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes and are "confident" of soon filing charges.
Known collectively as the Gilgo Four, all of the women were sex workers in their 20s whose remains were found wrapped in burlap and dumped within a quarter-mile of each other near Gilgo Beach, on Long Island, in late 2010.
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Heuermann first landed on the radar of investigators last year, just weeks after the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office launched a new task force to investigate the women's deaths.
He was partly linked to the murders by DNA recovered from a discarded pizza crust that was positively matched to DNA left on the body of Waterman.
Prosecutors said hair belonging to Heuermann's wife was found with the remains of three women. One of his hairs was also found on one victim.
Various calls made from a burner phone - including to one victim's sister - were traced back to his office, home, and a Tinder profile of his operated under a fake name.
And Heuermann also made a series of disturbing and incriminating internet searches in the months preceding his arrest, including searches for child pornography, images of the Gilgo victims, and updates about the investigation, police say.
The towering six-foot-four architect appeared in court on Tuesday, looking disheveled as he stood in front of a judge in handcuffs.
During the proceedings, prosecutors claimed to have gathered a vast trove of evidence against him, including DNA and 8 terabytes of digital material.
Heuermann's attorney, Michael Brown, meanwhile, continued to protest his client's innocence as he sparred with reporters outside of court.
“The press has convicted my client without seeing a shred of evidence,” Brown said.
"Have you ever considered they may have the wrong guy?
"What we’re going to do is defend this case in a courtroom. … Where we have 12 fair and impartial jurors, where we have a fair and impartial judge.
“Where words like ‘presumption of innocence’ and ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ where words like that reign every day. That’s where we are going to try this case.”
Heuermann didn't speak during the hearing.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is due back in court on Sept. 27.
THE HAPPY FACE KILLER
For Moore, the fabric of her life as she knew it unraveled in the spring of 1995 when she was just a teenager.
Her mother informed her and her siblings that their dad, whom she'd divorced a few years earlier, had been arrested and likely wouldn't be back to visit them any time soon.
When pressed as to why, Moore's mother said it was because he'd killed someone.
Moore immediately ran to her room and wept uncontrollably on her bed, wondering how her father could be capable of doing such a thing.
But that wouldn't be the end of the bad news; the rug would continue to be pulled from beneath Moore and her family over the following weeks and months as investigators discovered more and more victims.
The first victim identified by police had been Jesperson's most recent kill: his girlfriend, 41-year-old Julie Ann Winningham, whom he strangled to death in Washougal, Washington, on March 10, 1995, having apparently grown convinced she was only with him for money.
After two failed suicide attempts, Jesperson handed himself in hoping it would result in leniency during his sentencing.
However, during his time behind bars, he began confessing to multiple murders and, in a letter penned to his brother days before his arrest, he confessed to killing eight people in five years across several different states.
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While Jesperson would at one point claim to have killed more than 180 victims, only eight victims across California, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming have been discovered.
His first known victim, Taunja Bennett, was murdered in January 1990, near Portland, Oregon.
Jesperson introduced himself to 23-year-old Bennett at a bar and later invited her back to his home. An argument ensued and Jesperson beat her, raped her, and strangled her before disposing of her body.
An investigation was launched within days after Bennett's partially nude remains were found at the side of the road with a rope around her neck.
Early in the probe, a woman with a track record of making false police reports, Laverne Pavlinac, came forward to confess, insisting she had murdered Bennett at the direction of her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske.
The couple was arrested on March 5, 1990, and they were both convicted of her murder the following February.
After sentencing, Pavlinac admitted to the false confession, but her claims were ignored for years.
Jesperson, meanwhile, roamed free. But apparently incensed that someone was attempting to take credit for his kill, he began writing taunting messages in rest stops, to the media, and to police, confessing to being the real culprit.
Jesperson would claim his second known victim in August 1992, when the body of a woman he raped and strangled was found near Blythe, California.
The woman, who has not been identified but whom Jesperson calls "Claudia," met him at a truck stop and was attacked shortly after he offered her a ride.
A month later, in Turlock, California, the body of Cynthia Lyn Rose was discovered. Jesperson claims she was a sex worker who entered his truck at a stop when he was sleeping.
His fourth victim was another sex worker, Laurie Ann Pentland of Salem, Oregon. Her body was found in November of that year. According to Jesperson, he strangled and raped her after she attempted to charge him a high fee.
Two more Jane Does would be found in 1993, in Santa Nella, California, and Crestview, Florida, both of whom were deemed to have been killed by Jesperson. The first of those women was finally identified in 2022 as Patricia Skiple through genealogy DNA.
His seventh victim, Angela Subrize, 22, met her tragic fate during a weeklong road trip with Jesperson from Washington to Indiana.
According to Jesperson, Subrize became impatient with how long the journey was taking and asked him to speed up because she wanted to see her boyfriend.
Jesperson responded by raping and strangling her. He then strapped her to the underside of his truck and started driving, dragging her face down to "grind off her face and prints," he'd later tell police.
Two months later, he'd kill Winningham, ultimately leading to his arrest.
'ONLY THE BEGINNING'
Jesperson was eventually sentenced to life without parole and is serving his sentence in Salem, Idaho.
Reflecting on her experiences, Moore said: "It seems strange to say this, but we were sort of eased into it.
"We knew of one murder and then it slowly turned into a serial killing. We just always felt like the rug was being pulled out from underneath us because just as we would learn about one murder, we'd learn about another.
"And with Rex Heuermann, I feel like there could be more victims.
"So the family is possibly going to learn more as this investigation goes on, and I think we're only at the very beginning."
Moore continued: "[For me] it felt like every day I woke up afraid of what I was going to learn next. You were just waiting for the next shoe to drop.
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"But if I found out tomorrow there were another two victims of my dad's, it wouldn't shock me anymore.
"You get to a place where you accept anything is possible."
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