The pastor cousin of accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann was himself accused of sexually abusing a young girl for seven years.
The Rev. Kenneth Heuermann, a pastor at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in upstate Camillus, drugged and sexually abused the girl starting from when she was 8, allegedly using clerical stoles to bind her, the victim claims in a 2019 lawsuit.
Now an adult in her early 70s, “R.W.” sued the Evangelical Lutheran Church for $45 million in damages. She claimed she suffers from dissociative identity disorder due to the years of “ritualistic” abuse she’d endured.
The first attack happened when the girl’s mom dropped her off at the church for play rehearsal — she was picked to portray the Virgin Mary in the church’s annual Christmas pageant.
From then on, Kenneth Heuermann, known as “Pastor Ken,” abused her between 1961 and 1968 — usually in the presence of other male congregants and one of their wives, according to the lawsuit.
The alleged sicko used stones during the sexual assaults that either had letters written on them or were arranged to spell specific words, according to the lawsuit.
The victim failed to elaborate on what was allegedly written on those rocks, or what words they spelled once laid out.
The assaults sometimes occurred inside the church — on the altar or in the sanctuary, she claimed in court documents.
The victim told several church leaders about the alleged abuse, yet they did nothing to stop the pastor — and instead, protected him, she claimed in the lawsuit.
The victim also said Rev. Heuermann had threatened to harm and kill her, the victim claimed.
During a deposition, Rev. Heuermann was asked if he’d ever touched the victim, and responded, “Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.”
The lawsuit is pending in Onondaga County court. Rev. Heuermann died Nov. 4, 2024, at an assisted living facility in Camillus, near Syracuse.
The victim approached the Onondaga County prosecutor’s office in 1991 about the alleged abuse, but she was told the statute of limitations expired.
She was only able to sue the church after the adoption of the Child Victims’ Act, which went into effect August 2019, opening up a year-long window for adult survivors of child sexual abuse to file claims against their perpetrators, regardless of when the crimes occurred.
Rex Heuermann‘s grandfather, William Heuermann, and Rev. Heuermann’s father, Alfred Heuermann, were brothers, according to public records. However, the pastor’s obituary fails to name Rex, 61, as a surviving relative.
Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murders of seven of the 11 people investigators found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
