OAK BEACH, N.Y. | Investigators returned to a remote, densely overgrown stretch of a New York barrier island Tuesday in a search for more victims of a possible serial killer, a day after new discoveries brought the total number of bodies to eight.
All of the remains were discovered just steps from Ocean Parkway, a highway leading to Long Island’s popular Jones Beach, about 45 miles east of New York City.
Investigators faced rain, wind and fog as they resumed their search Tuesday.
The bodies of four missing prostitutes were found in December while investigators were searching for another missing woman who worked as an escort and was last seen in the area nearly a year ago.
The disappearance of that woman, Shannan Gilbert of Jersey City, N.J., remains a mystery, although Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said Monday that because detectives have been conducting an ongoing search for her, they already have her DNA and other forensic information, which should accelerate the identification process.
Last week, investigators found a fifth body about a mile east of where the first four were located. That discovery prompted police to resume a widespread search of a seven-mile stretch of the north side of the highway Monday, a search that yielded the remains of three additional victims.
Commissioner Dormer said the search included police academy cadets, volunteer firefighters with extended ladder trucks, and cadaver dogs. The marshy terrain features a 4-foot-tall tangle of sea grass punctuated by scrubby pine trees.
The identities of the most recent four victims have not been released and police have yet to even describe their gender. 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’s Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone told reporters this week.
Miss Gilbert, 24, was last seen in Oak Beach on May 1, 2010, after apparently meeting a client she had booked through Craigslist. The bodies of the four other women, who worked as Craigslist escorts and were in their 20s, were found along the same highway.
The latest discovery was about a mile east of where the other four were found. The remains of the four dead women were strewn about 500 yards apart.
Miss Gilbert had arranged to meet a client in Oak Beach, a gated seaside enclave. A resident has told authorities a woman thought to be Miss Gilbert came to his door at about 4:45 a.m. May 1, pleading for help. The man said that when he tried to call police, the woman fled.
Moments later, an unidentified man in a sport 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 neighbor again.
The client Miss Gilbert had arranged to meet was investigated but is not thought to be a suspect in her disappearance.
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