Remains believed to be human are undergoing analysis after being found on Jones Beach Island, about one mile down the road from where the bodies of four online prostitutes were discovered in December.
Suffolk County police investigators made the latest discovery Tuesday while continuing their search for Shannan Gilbert, the 24-year-old Jersey City woman who police were looking for when they found the bodies just off Ocean Parkway. Gilbert was last seen May 1, 2010 screaming and running into the brush in Oak Beach, a secluded seaside community where she had met a client.
“Remains that appear to be human were located by an officer from the Marine Bureau off Ocean Parkway, west of Cedar Beach,” police said in a statement Wednesday. The remains were taken to the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office in Hauppauge investigators are working to learn their identity—a process that can take a month or more.
Click here to see more pictures from the serial killer investigation.
A K-9 officer and his dog uncovered the skeletal remains of one woman in Gilgo Beach on Dec 11. Two days later, police found nearby three more dead women in their 20s, leading police to believe a serial killer may be responsible.
Gilbert was quickly ruled out as being among the original remains. No suspects have been identified in the deaths of the women.
The search in the Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach areas is continuing Wednesday while Homicide Squad detectives are continuing the investigation.
Police first identified Megan Waterman, 22, of Portland, Maine, who last seen at a Hauppauge hotel on June 6, 2010.
The family of one of the victims, 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy, who was last seen on July 12, 2009 in the Bronx, said they had received taunting phone calls shortly after her disappearance.
The other two victims were identified as:
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Conn., last seen on July 9, 2007 in Manhattan.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27, last seen on Sept. 2, 2010 in her hometown, North Babylon. She was never reported missing.