Alison Winter was Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann's therapist for almost 3 years. She had no license to practice.

For nearly three years, Alison Winter had extraordinary access to Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann, counseling him each week at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead.

A recent documentary revealed the Sayville-based family therapist was at the table when Heuermann confessed to his wife and daughter that he killed eight women and was present in the courtroom when he publicly admitted his guilt eight months later.

But Newsday found the woman who became the public face of Heuermann's counseling has never held a New York license to independently practice clinical social work and was herself facing felony charges when she heard the killer's confession.

Winter, 52, of East Northport, was arrested in November 2024 and charged with three counts of grand larceny, scheme to defraud and 14 counts of unauthorized practice of a profession, all felonies, charging documents show. Prosecutors said Winter had received $60,000 in reimbursements from Cigna and other insurance companies for claims filed since 2018 despite not holding a license.

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney acknowledged his office’s pending charges against Winter — which are not related to her counseling of Heuermann and his family — when contacted by Newsday, but declined to discuss Winter or her case.

Defense attorney James Pascarella, of Mineola, whom Winter hired to represent her following arraignment, did not respond to messages left for him with staff at two offices.

No record of license

Of the $60,000 in insurance reimbursements Winter received from 2018 to 2024, more than $50,000 was billed through Cigna, according to a criminal complaint charging her with second-degree grand larceny, a Class C felony carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison.

"Between November of 2018 and May [2024] — so about six years’ time — [Winter] did practice social work in the form of mental health counseling without a license," Assistant District Attorney Cory Neunzig said at her arraignment in First District Court in Central Islip on Nov. 26, 2024, according to a transcript of the proceeding obtained by Newsday.

For inclusion in Cigna’s network, masters level clinicians who practice independently must hold a state license, according to the company’s behavioral health provider’s manual. Receiving insurance reimbursements without a license constitutes healthcare fraud under state law.

The state’s Office of the Professions, which maintains an online database of active and inactive healthcare licensees, lists no record of Winter holding a license. A spokesperson said the database is up to date. 

Winter received her master's in social work from Adelphi University in 1999, the school confirmed.

Winter, who prosecutors said has no prior arrests, also received reimbursements through UnitedHealthcare and Medicare, court records show. She is due back in court July 21.

Melissa McCardle, a licensed clinical social worker and dean of the School of Education and Human Services at Molloy University in Rockville Centre, said after receiving a master's degree psychotherapists must complete a licensing exam and work for three years under a licensed professional before applying for a licensed clinical social worker certification to practice independently.

"Nobody in New York State can practice psychotherapy as a social worker without a license," McCardle said, noting New York has among the most rigorous licensing standards in the country.

A sign that hung outside the Heritage Building at 200 Railroad Ave. in Sayville since at least September 2017 promoting Winter as a psychotherapist has been removed. Google lists the office as "permanently closed." But inside the building, which also hosts a chiropractor, law office and accounting firm, Winter’s name still appears on a wall near the main entrance and the door to Suite 4. Winter did not respond to knocks on the locked door on two occasions.

She also did not respond to phone messages left at the number on her door, a home phone number found on 2025 tax documents or a Ring doorbell camera at her East Northport home.

A man who later answered the door at Winter's home and identified himself as her son said he was unaware of any criminal case against his mother.

Heuermann documentaries

Dressed in black fur, her eyes hidden under dark sunglasses, Winter spoke with a Newsday reporter outside Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home following his guilty plea April 8, two weeks before she first appeared in the Peacock documentary series about the family.

Winter identified herself as the family therapist and said she’d been counseling Heuermann, his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter, Victoria Heuermann, for nearly three years.

"They’re good people. They’re accepting this and struggling like everyone else," Winter said of Heuermann’s family, whom she accompanied to the plea hearing along with their attorney, Robert Macedonio, of Islip Terrace.

Macedonio, a paid consultant on the Peacock series that prominently featured Winter in its most recent episode, told the filmmakers he believed the family "needed professional help with the psychological issues that they’re dealing with."

"So I brought in Alison Winter, who’s a therapist that my partner and I have known for 20-plus years and works with a lot of our clients," Macedonio said in the most recent episode of the Emmy-nominated series. "We trust her."

Winter introduced herself as a "psychotherapist and family counselor," the cameras capturing a certificate hanging in her office from a Harvard Medical School continuing education program. Scenes with her were filmed between August 2025 and last April, the documentary notes.

Winter assumes what could be considered a leading role in her episode of the series, "The Confession," which was executive produced by rapper turned media mogul Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. 

Macedonio said he could not comment for this story. He did not respond to subsequent text messages asking if he was previously aware Winter was unlicensed and facing criminal charges.

Personal belongings

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. has counted the therapist among the few people with access to Heuermann and, in an interview with Newsday following his sentencing, said she was one of the individuals the killer gave his personal belongings to before being transferred to state prison to begin serving his life sentence. Items from the killer's past have been offered as "murderabilia" by others for tens of thousands of dollars online.

In the Peacock series, Winter offered her opinions on the psychological state of Heuermann and his family members. She detailed how he told her he planned and carried out the murders and the ways Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann have each coped since his July 2023 arrest.

"When I first met Asa she was broken," Winter says in the episode. "In total shock ... denial."

One scene depicts Winter writing an email to famed FBI profiler John Douglas, whose book "Mindhunter" inspired its own streaming series and occupied a space on Rex Heuermann’s bookshelf when Suffolk police raided his home in 2023. Winter and the filmmakers also visited Douglas in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where they discussed her counseling of the killer.

"What you were able to was amazing," Douglas told her. "Getting to interview not only the subject in the case, but the family. I’ve never done that before."

NewsNation reported in 2023 that Ellerup and her two children were paid $1 million and Macedonio was paid $400,000 for their involvement in the Peacock series, figures that have since been repeated in reporting by other media outlets, including The New York Post, which produced the documentary along with Jackson’s G-Unit Films and Television and Texas Crew Productions. Variety reported exclusively in May that Peacock and Jackson are developing a scripted series based on the documentary, potentially extending the streamer's financial relationship with the family and the notoriety of Winter.

Macedonio has said the money paid to his clients protected their livelihood after Heuermann, who owned a Manhattan architectural firm, was incarcerated.

Peacock executives managing press for the series did not offer comment after exchanging emails with a Newsday reporter. They also did not respond to an email asking if they were aware of Winter's arrest or if she was vetted before appearing in the series.

The documentary’s director, Jared P. Scott, and a representative for Jackson also did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Charges of 'media exploitation'

Los Angeles-based victim rights advocate Gloria Allred, an attorney for relatives of several Heuermann victims, said when contacted by a reporter that she found it "very disturbing" Peacock did not note the criminal case against Winter when identifying her as a therapist in the Peacock series, saying "the public should have been made aware of" the charges.

"The reason for licensing of a professional, such as a therapist or a lawyer, is to protect the public so that the public may be assured that the professional has met certain legal requirements and standards of their profession," Allred said in an email.

The series and the money paid to Heuermann’s family and others had already been publicly scrutinized.

Benjamin Torres, the son of victim Valerie Mack, has filed a civil suit in Suffolk County court that seeks to reclaim the money paid to Heuermann’s family through the Peacock series, which it reduces to "media exploitation."

Heuermann’s criminal defense attorneys, Michael J. Brown and Danielle Coysh, distanced themselves from the Peacock series when asked about it following his June 17 sentencing. They declined to discuss Winter's involvement in the case.

Newsday's Robert Brodsky and John Asbury and NewsdayTV's Shari Einhorn contributed to this story.