THE NUMBER of victims of a suspected serial killer on New York’s Long Island has doubled in the past week after the discovery of three more bodies along a remote beach highway.
Eight bodies have now been found just steps from Ocean Parkway, a highway leading to popular Jones Beach, about 70km east of New York city. As police searched for missing woman Shannan Gilbert last December, they came across the first bodies – four missing prostitutes.
Ms Gilbert (24) of Jersey City worked as an escort and was last seen in the area almost a year ago. Her disappearance remains a mystery.
However, Suffolk County police commissioner Richard Dormer said that because detectives had been conducting a search for her, they already had her DNA and other forensic information, which should accelerate the identification process.
Last week, investigators found a fifth body about one mile east of the first four. That prompted police to resume a widespread search of a seven-mile stretch of the north side of the highway on Monday, a search that yielded the bodies of three more victims.
Mr Dormer said investigators were resuming their search, which includes police academy cadets, volunteer firefighters with extended ladder trucks and cadaver dogs. The marshy terrain features a 1.2m tall tangle of sea grass punctuated by scrubby pine trees.
Officials said at least 20 police officers had come in contact with poison ivy and the area was infested with deer ticks.
The identities of the most recent four victims have not been released and police have yet to describe their gender. However, it was determined on Tuesday that Ms Gilbert was not one of the three most recent sets of bodies found on April 4th.
The New York city medical examiner’s office is assisting Suffolk County in helping determine the identities. “We still believe that Shannan Gilbert is in this area,” Suffolk chief of detectives Dominick Varrone said.
Ms Gilbert was last seen in Oak Beach on May 1st, 2010, after apparently meeting a client she had booked through classified ads website Craigslist. The bodies of the four other women, who worked as Craigslist escorts and were in their 20s, were found along the same highway by police searching for Ms Gilbert.
The latest discovery was about a mile east of where the other four were found. The bodies were about 500 yards apart.
Ms Gilbert had arranged to meet a client in Oak Beach, a gated seaside enclave.
A resident told authorities a woman believed to be Ms Gilbert came to his door about 4.45am on May 1st, pleading for help. The man said that when he tried to call police, the woman fled.
Moments later, an unidentified man in a sports utility vehicle drove past the house and said he was looking for the woman, but then took off. Neither the woman nor the man was seen by the neighbour again. The client Ms Gilbert had arranged to meet was investigated but is not believed to be a suspect in her disappearance.
Authorities have identified the four victims found in December as Amber Lynn Costello (27), originally of Wilmington, North Carolina; Megan Waterman (22), Scarborough, Maine; Maureen Brainard-Barnes (28), Norwich, Connecticut, and Melissa Barthelemy (24), Buffalo, New York.
All were last seen planning to meet clients for sex booked through Craigslist, police have said.
Detectives suspect they are hunting a serial killer but so far have no suspects. – (AP)