Here is the Newsday article on the 4 bodies found off the Ocean Parkway in Oak Beach. Two of the bodies could be girls that advertised their services on Craigs List. The SCPD mentioned the possibility of this being the work of a serial killer.
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Top cop: 'We could have a serial killer'
Originally published: December 14, 2010 4:07 PM
Updated: December 14, 2010 4:31 PM
By MATTHEW CHAYES. AND ANDREW STRICKLER.
It could take weeks to determine the identities of four people - at least three women - who may have been victims of a serial killer, after the discovery of their remains in thick brush along the north shoulder of Ocean Parkway in the Town of Babylon, police said.
The bodies - three of which were discovered Monday, two days after another set of skeletal remains was found nearby - were dumped from a vehicle at different times, perhaps beginning as much as a year and a half to two years ago, Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said Tuesday at the frigid, windswept scene.
As police continued to search the area between Gilgo and Cedar beaches for more evidence and bodies, Dormer acknowledged "we could have a serial killer."
Severely decomposed remains will complicate and lengthen the forensic investigation for weeks, Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky of Suffolk's Homicide Squad said.
One of the bodies has been definitively identified as a female and two more preliminarily identified as women, he said. The gender of the fourth was still unknown.
The police department is working with a forensic anthropologist from New York City's medical examiner's office to determine gender, age range and height - the basics needed to begin making comparison with missing persons, Pelkofsky said.
Authorities were focusing on two missing persons in particular - Shannan Gilbert, 24, of Jersey City, N.J., and Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine. The young women have been missing since the spring.
Making a positive identification is likely to be a lengthy process, Pelkofsky said. A forensic expert will have to try to gather mitochondrial DNA from the skeletal remains, which can then be compared to a DNA swab taken from a family member, he said. A DNA swab is already in place for Gilbert, and one has been gathered in Maine for Waterman, he said.
The first body, discovered Saturday, was found a few feet into the brush off the parkway, police said. One body was found 500 feet west of the first body and another was 500 feet east of the first body. A fourth body was found about 1,000 feet from the first body.
Dormer asked that anyone with information about suspicious vehicles in the area call the county's Crime Stoppers line, 800-220-TIPS.
Police were combing the area Tuesday to make sure nothing was missed. Nothing substantive was found, police said.
"We're going to continue to search in this area to find out if there's any more evidence, forensics, that kind of thing, and if there's possibly more bodies," Dormer said.
Robert Nardoza, spokesman for Eastern District U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, said his office "is closely monitoring the situation." Sources familiar with the investigation said that federal prosecutors and FBI agents were standing by to help, but at the moment there was no actual involvement by the U.S. Justice Department in the case.
Dormer said police were not sure if one of the bodies is that of Gilbert, who police have said was a prostitute. Dormer said Gilbert was known to have been traveling to Fire Island to meet a client before she disappeared in May.
Police will be interviewing Gilbert's alleged pimp and client from that day, Dormer said. He would not identify them or give other details.
Dormer said police have no suspects in the case.
Also, a Maine detective said Tuesday he was waiting to hear from Suffolk authorities on whether one of the bodies is related to his missing persons case.
Det. Donald Blatchford of the Scarborough, Maine, police said he had talked with Suffolk police Monday and was expecting to hear if one of the bodies was that of Waterman, who was last seen June 6 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.
The area where the bodies were found "is close enough to be of interest," Blatchford said.
Blatchford said he has been in regular contact with Suffolk authorities since Waterman disappeared. She and her boyfriend had traveled from Scarborough to Long Island after placing an ad for an escort on Craigslist.
Blatchford said Suffolk police already have DNA evidence in the Waterman case from belongings left at the Hauppauge hotel.
Blatchford said he hasn't received any indication from Suffolk police that Waterman may be among the victims found on the beach.
Blatchford said he has made some progress recently in the case, but could not elaborate without compromising the case. Police had questioned her 20-year-old Brooklyn boyfriend and continued to treat the disappearance as a missing-person case.
A Jersey City police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a missing-person report was filed for Gilbert and said detectives had done "extensive work" on the file.
"They're in contact with Long Island police right now," the source said Monday night, declining to elaborate.
Neighbors at Gilbert's modest apartment building on Christopher Columbus Drive in Jersey City said Tuesday morning they didn't know her.
Jose Delarosa, who lives on the fourth floor, said Tuesday he sometimes could hear Gilbert quarreling with her boyfriend, but "never anything bad."
Ruby Aparicio, who lives on the first floor, said she'd seen Gilbert a couple times around the building, but they had never spoken. Her third-floor apartment is now occupied by a family that said they moved in three months ago and had never met her.
On Monday night, Pelkofsky said there was a strong possibility that the four people were homicide victims dumped there by the same person or people.
"Common sense tells us it's not a coincidence," he said.
The first set of remains was discovered Saturday by a canine unit searching in the area on a missing-persons case as well as for training purposes.
The remains, in the underbrush, were about six to 12 feet from the road's shoulder.
Detectives and other police officers Monday searched a stretch of more than a mile on both sides of the parkway and a median, and officers and a cadaver dog found a second decomposed body about 500 feet from the initial body, also in heavy underbrush near the roadway.
The area is near a strip of Ocean Parkway with beachfront facing the Atlantic on one side, and marshlands, thick brush and a chain of small islands on the bay side between South Oyster Bay and the Robert Moses Causeway.
Two of the three bodies found Monday were wrapped in burlap, a source familiar with the investigation said.
The skeletal remains all appear to have been there at least a month, but "some appear to be have been there longer than others," Pelkofsky said.
No paper identification, such as driver's licenses, has been found, Dormer said.
A special meeting was scheduled for Tuesday with Suffolk detectives, the district attorney's office, a member of the county crime lab team and a representative of the county medical examiner's office to go over what has been found so far and to put together a plan for identifying the bodies.
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Top cop: 'We could have a serial killer'
Originally published: December 14, 2010 4:07 PM
Updated: December 14, 2010 4:31 PM
By MATTHEW CHAYES. AND ANDREW STRICKLER.
It could take weeks to determine the identities of four people - at least three women - who may have been victims of a serial killer, after the discovery of their remains in thick brush along the north shoulder of Ocean Parkway in the Town of Babylon, police said.
The bodies - three of which were discovered Monday, two days after another set of skeletal remains was found nearby - were dumped from a vehicle at different times, perhaps beginning as much as a year and a half to two years ago, Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said Tuesday at the frigid, windswept scene.
As police continued to search the area between Gilgo and Cedar beaches for more evidence and bodies, Dormer acknowledged "we could have a serial killer."
Severely decomposed remains will complicate and lengthen the forensic investigation for weeks, Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky of Suffolk's Homicide Squad said.
One of the bodies has been definitively identified as a female and two more preliminarily identified as women, he said. The gender of the fourth was still unknown.
The police department is working with a forensic anthropologist from New York City's medical examiner's office to determine gender, age range and height - the basics needed to begin making comparison with missing persons, Pelkofsky said.
Authorities were focusing on two missing persons in particular - Shannan Gilbert, 24, of Jersey City, N.J., and Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine. The young women have been missing since the spring.
Making a positive identification is likely to be a lengthy process, Pelkofsky said. A forensic expert will have to try to gather mitochondrial DNA from the skeletal remains, which can then be compared to a DNA swab taken from a family member, he said. A DNA swab is already in place for Gilbert, and one has been gathered in Maine for Waterman, he said.
The first body, discovered Saturday, was found a few feet into the brush off the parkway, police said. One body was found 500 feet west of the first body and another was 500 feet east of the first body. A fourth body was found about 1,000 feet from the first body.
Dormer asked that anyone with information about suspicious vehicles in the area call the county's Crime Stoppers line, 800-220-TIPS.
Police were combing the area Tuesday to make sure nothing was missed. Nothing substantive was found, police said.
"We're going to continue to search in this area to find out if there's any more evidence, forensics, that kind of thing, and if there's possibly more bodies," Dormer said.
Robert Nardoza, spokesman for Eastern District U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, said his office "is closely monitoring the situation." Sources familiar with the investigation said that federal prosecutors and FBI agents were standing by to help, but at the moment there was no actual involvement by the U.S. Justice Department in the case.
Dormer said police were not sure if one of the bodies is that of Gilbert, who police have said was a prostitute. Dormer said Gilbert was known to have been traveling to Fire Island to meet a client before she disappeared in May.
Police will be interviewing Gilbert's alleged pimp and client from that day, Dormer said. He would not identify them or give other details.
Dormer said police have no suspects in the case.
Also, a Maine detective said Tuesday he was waiting to hear from Suffolk authorities on whether one of the bodies is related to his missing persons case.
Det. Donald Blatchford of the Scarborough, Maine, police said he had talked with Suffolk police Monday and was expecting to hear if one of the bodies was that of Waterman, who was last seen June 6 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.
The area where the bodies were found "is close enough to be of interest," Blatchford said.
Blatchford said he has been in regular contact with Suffolk authorities since Waterman disappeared. She and her boyfriend had traveled from Scarborough to Long Island after placing an ad for an escort on Craigslist.
Blatchford said Suffolk police already have DNA evidence in the Waterman case from belongings left at the Hauppauge hotel.
Blatchford said he hasn't received any indication from Suffolk police that Waterman may be among the victims found on the beach.
Blatchford said he has made some progress recently in the case, but could not elaborate without compromising the case. Police had questioned her 20-year-old Brooklyn boyfriend and continued to treat the disappearance as a missing-person case.
A Jersey City police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a missing-person report was filed for Gilbert and said detectives had done "extensive work" on the file.
"They're in contact with Long Island police right now," the source said Monday night, declining to elaborate.
Neighbors at Gilbert's modest apartment building on Christopher Columbus Drive in Jersey City said Tuesday morning they didn't know her.
Jose Delarosa, who lives on the fourth floor, said Tuesday he sometimes could hear Gilbert quarreling with her boyfriend, but "never anything bad."
Ruby Aparicio, who lives on the first floor, said she'd seen Gilbert a couple times around the building, but they had never spoken. Her third-floor apartment is now occupied by a family that said they moved in three months ago and had never met her.
On Monday night, Pelkofsky said there was a strong possibility that the four people were homicide victims dumped there by the same person or people.
"Common sense tells us it's not a coincidence," he said.
The first set of remains was discovered Saturday by a canine unit searching in the area on a missing-persons case as well as for training purposes.
The remains, in the underbrush, were about six to 12 feet from the road's shoulder.
Detectives and other police officers Monday searched a stretch of more than a mile on both sides of the parkway and a median, and officers and a cadaver dog found a second decomposed body about 500 feet from the initial body, also in heavy underbrush near the roadway.
The area is near a strip of Ocean Parkway with beachfront facing the Atlantic on one side, and marshlands, thick brush and a chain of small islands on the bay side between South Oyster Bay and the Robert Moses Causeway.
Two of the three bodies found Monday were wrapped in burlap, a source familiar with the investigation said.
The skeletal remains all appear to have been there at least a month, but "some appear to be have been there longer than others," Pelkofsky said.
No paper identification, such as driver's licenses, has been found, Dormer said.
A special meeting was scheduled for Tuesday with Suffolk detectives, the district attorney's office, a member of the county crime lab team and a representative of the county medical examiner's office to go over what has been found so far and to put together a plan for identifying the bodies.
