The accused serial killer Rex Heuermann is being sued along with his former wife and their daughter, by the son of one of his alleged victims.

Benjamin Torres, the son of Valerie Mack, one the victims charged in the case against Heuermann, claims his mother was “tortured ferociously, and her body dismembered”.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by attorney John Ray, said that at the time of his mother’s murder, Torres was six, and he has since been “deprived of his mother’s care, guidance, protection, nurture, society, and economic support”.

The legal action 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” upon her son.

Investigators believe Mack was murdered between 1 September and 19 November 2000. Heuermann was charged with her murder in December 2024, after he was arrested on a Manhattan street in July 2023.

Mack was a 24-year-old sex worker in the Philadelphia and Atlantic City areas at the time of her disappearance. Some of her remains were found in a wooded area near Manorville, Long Island, while others were discovered a decade later near Gilgo Beach, where Heuermann is accused of dumping the bodies of most of his alleged victims.

Mack’s identity was unknown for several years but prosecutors later said they linked Heuermann to Mack’s death through a mitochondrial DNA analysis of a hair found on Mack’s body, which the say matched the profiles of Heuermann’s wife and daughter, along with evidence found on Heuermann’s electronic devices.

The lawsuit targets money that may have been paid to Heuermann’s former wife and their daughter from a documentary they participated in – “monies they were given to exploit the slaughter of plaintiff and to publicly attenuate defendant Rex Heuermann’s atrociousness via media exploitation”.

It also claims that Asa Ellerup, Heuermann’s ex-wife, and Victoria Heuermann, his daughter, lived at the family’s Massapequa residence and “had regular access to the residence and its contents”. Prosecutors say the pair were out of town at the time the seven women were murdered.

Robert Macedonio, an attorney for Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, told Patch the lawsuit was 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.” Shannan Gilbert, 24, went missing in 2010 and her body was discovered months later. Heuermann has not been charged over her death.

Macedonio added that at the time of Mack’s killing, Victoria Heuermann was 13.

“What person in their right mind would think a 13-year-old would be involved with a homicide with a serial killer?” Macedonio said.

Heuermann has denied his involvement in deaths of Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello and Mack, in what prosecutors say was a 17-year crime spree.

Reports suggest, however, that Heuermann could on Wednesday change his plea to guilty in the seven charged murders and to the murder of an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, who disappeared in 1996.

Suffolk county prosecutor Ray Tierney has declined to comment on the negotiations to reach a plea deal.

“Nothing is done, and so we wait,” Tierney said during a public appearance last month. “It’s not my decision, and I’m not a party to that decision. There’s a presumption of innocence and a right to trial. And we respect those things and we’re just going to have to wait and see.”