Police find two more suspected victims of Long Island serial killer

[News_Editor]

Police find two more suspected victims of Long Island serial killer

2011-04-12 07:55:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- Two more suspected victims of a serial killer were found along a remote beach in Long Island, New York on Monday, raising the number of suspected victims to at least 10.

The first victims were found in mid-December when police found the skeletal remains of a woman along a road in Babylon, a town in Suffolk County on Long Island. Two days later, three more bodies were found in the same area as police were investigating the first remains.

Months later, on March 29, Suffolk County police announced they had found a fifth body at Gilgo Beach on Long Island. And on April 4, police found three more sets of human remains in the same area, raising the total number of victims to 8.

Police have continued to search the region since the discovery on April 4, and the search area was expanded on Monday to include neighboring Nassau County. Cops there quickly discovered three sets of bones, two of which are believed to be human and one believed to be an animal.

With now 10 victims discovered, authorities are confident that a serial killer targeting prostitutes is on the loose. Police believe the serial killer used a road along the beaches to dump his victims there at night, and at least one of the victims may have been there since July 2007.

The identities of the latest victims were not immediately known, but police previously identified the first four victims as 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes of Norwick, Connecticut, 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy of Erie County, New York, 22-year-old Megan Waterman of Hauppauge, Maine, and 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello of North Babylon, New York.

Brainard-Barnes went missing on July 9, 2007 and is believed to have been the first victim, while Barthelemy went missing about 2 years later. Waterman was last seen on June 6, 2010 when she was staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge, which is just a 20 minute drive from Babylon.

Waterman, the mother of a young girl, had placed advertisements on Craigslist as an escort and told her 20-year-old boyfriend Akeem Cruz on June 5 that she would be going out and call him later. She was never heard from again. The fourth victim, Costello, was also a prostitute and disappeared in September 2010.

Meanwhile, there are also fears for 24-year-old prostitute Shonnan Gilbert who went missing in May 2010. She had traveled to Fire Island, about a 40 minute drive from Babylon, to meet with a client and was never heard from again.

Police have not said how the victims died and they do not appear to have a suspect. The New York Times reported earlier this month, citing people briefed on the case, that the killer likely has extensive knowledge about how police work.

"Here is a guy who is aware of how we utilize technology," one investigator told the Times, adding that there is speculation that the serial killer might be in law enforcement. "People are thinking [that] maybe he could be a cop."

According to the sources, the teenage sister of Barthelemy received a series of taunting phone calls after she went missing. They were made from in or around crowded locations in New York City such as Times Square, making it impossible for police to find the caller on surveillance footage.

"Without question, this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope," the investigator told the Times, saying the calls were vulgar, mocking and insulting. "It's a guy who thinks about things."

The New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is assisting in the investigation, and police are also investigating whether the serial killings are connected to the discovery of four dead prostitutes in New Jersey in 2006.

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