The estranged wife of the man accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer attended one of his court hearings on Wednesday, the first time she has appeared in court.
The woman, who will not be named since The Daily Wire isn’t naming her husband, filed for divorce just six days after her husband was arrested for allegedly killing three prostitutes and dumping their bodies on Gilgo Beach. The woman’s attorney suggested she would begin attending every court date so that she can see the evidence against her husband, ABC News reported.
The estranged wife also visited her husband in jail recently and is reportedly under contract with a production company, ABC reported.
The court appearance on Wednesday allowed attorneys and prosecutors to handle future scheduling matters.
The suspect’s estranged wife talked to reporters for the first time in July after investigators finished searching the property, the New York Post reported at the time.
“If you want to take pictures, go ahead. I’m OK with it now,” the woman told reporters, according to the Daily Mail. “If you want to stand up here and wait for something. I have a lot of work to do.”
“The sheer depression of what I saw was enough trauma,” she added.
After filing for divorce, the woman’s attorney, Bob Macedonio, told Fox News that the arrest had taken a toll on the family.
“This is all still a whirlwind,” Macedonio told the outlet. “Her and her children’s lives have been completely turned upside-down.”
Macedonio further said that about an hour after the 59-year-old suspect was arrested, authorities went to his house and informed his family. They then seized the family’s passports, computers, phones, and iPads.
“They were home and the cops came in, and they were completely blindsided, and they told them what was going on,” Macedonio told Fox.
Police investigating the Gilgo Beach serial killings are operating on the theory that the suspect committed the murders in his own home, a source told CNN.
The theory is based on the fact that the suspect’s family was out of town during the murders, suggesting he may have lured the victims to his home, a source involved in the investigation told CNN.
Authorities are operating under this theory, the source said, as they continue to search the suspect’s home for trace evidence of the victims. Killing them at his own home would have allowed him to control the environment while having easy access to the materials found along with the victims at Gilgo Beach on Long Island, such as tape and burlap bags.
The 59-year-old suspect, who remained unidentified for more than a decade, was arrested on July 13 for the murder of three women whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach in Long Island, New York, in 2010.
Four bodies were found within days of each other. The body of Melissa Barthelemy was found on December 11, 2010, during a police training exercise with a K9, according to a bail application obtained by the Daily Beast. Two days later, police searched the area and discovered the bodies of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. So far, the suspect has not been charged for Brainard-Barnes’ death but is the prime suspect.
If convicted, he faces multiple life sentences without parole.