Police are searching 11 areas of interest along Robert Moses Causeway in the latest leg of the investigation into the discovery of 10 sets of human remains on Jones Beach Island between December and April.
New York State police are leading the latest search party Tuesday to areas around Captree Island between the eastern tip of the barrier island and the south shore of mainland Long Island. They are following up on areas highlighted by the FBI in high-tech aerial images taken in April, but have not said if the images yielded additional evidence.
Suffolk County police have said four women who worked as online escorts found dead near Gilgo Beach late last year are likely the victims of a serial killer. Six sets of remains were found during later searches this spring—four near those victims and two on the Nassau County side of the island near Jones Beach State Park and Tobay Beach.
Click here to read prior coverage of the Long Island serial killer investigation
As of last month, only half of the 10 remains have been identified. The latest ID was the head and dismembered limbs of Jessica Taylor, a prostitute last seen in Manhattan whose decapitated corpse was found in Manorville in 2003.
Another set of partial human remains found on the Suffolk half of the barrier beach belong to an unidentified woman’s mutilated body also found in Manorville in November 2000, authorities said.
Those two women have not been linked to the suspected serial killer case. Authorities suspect other killers may have also left victims along the remote Ocean Parkway, going back at least a decade.
Also found on the Suffolk half of the island were the remains of a girl no more than 24-months old, wrapped in a blanket, and a man who forensic anthropologists believe are those of an Asian man in his teens or early 20s.
Nassau County police have not released any updates on the two sets of partial human skeletal remains found on their side of the island.
Police made the initial discovery while searching for 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert of Jersey City, NJ, a prostitute who disappeared after meeting a client in Oak Beach in May 2010. She is still being sought.
Traffic will be merged into one lane on the causeway while searchers are on the scene throughout the day.