Bodies on the Beach: Search for a Serial Killer

we have a serial killer we have a killer in our you know community walking around free today this morning new information in the manhunt for a serial killer whose trail of terror has led police to a beach in New York's Long Island police just released sketches of two people whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway three more bodies at four unidentified bodies eight bodies ten sets of human remains have been found police say none of the bodies is that of Shannan Gilbert the prostitute whose disappearance sparked the initial search my sister went missing July 9 2007 she was from Norwich Connecticut she wants in New York and she never came home Megan Waterman was my daughter she lived in Chicago she went missing June 6th of 2010 these eleven bodies were fragments of human remains were found in search of a missing woman Shannan Gilbert it's got to come out matter how long it takes I wonder so until they find out who was responsible for my daughter's death he preyed on prostitutes he preyed on sex workers but they were human beings they didn't deserve to die hello I'm Richard French and welcome to our special report bodies at the beach a search for a serial killer now they've often lived among us we know of Jack the Ripper the Boston Strangler Ted Bundy John Wayne Gacy Jeffrey Dahmer and of course the Son of Sam whose reign of terror coincidentally claiming six lives in around New York City ended 35 years ago this month now although they lived in different times and may have had different motivations for their crimes there were all serial killers who preyed on the innocent well today many believe the same type of serial killer perhaps even more than one is on the loose in Suffolk County Long Island now the case began with the disappearance of a 24 year old young lady named Shannan Gilbert in May of 2010 now she traveled from New Jersey to Oak Beach on Long Island where as a prostitute she went to meet a client while there she made what has been described by some as a frantic call to 911 afterwards she disappeared to this day no one knows why but it was that search for Gilbert which led to one gruesome discovery after another as more bodies and body parts kept turning up in fact the search for Gilbert led to the discovery that Ocean Parkway including the well-known gilgo beach area along the Atlantic Ocean was nothing less than a dumping ground for bodies as multiple sets of human remains were found all the cases remain unsolved now over the course of the next 60 minutes we will take an in-depth look at the gruesome and grisly findings so far in this baffling murder mystery now it's a story filled with sudden twists and too often just dead ends it's also a story of emotional and devastated families who want to know how and why their loved ones died Holly here reports in bodies at the beach search for a serial killer it's a beautiful stretch of beach miles of sand and water along the Atlantic Ocean south of New York's Long but now the barrier island that connects Jones Beach State Park in Oak Beach is sinister to some since 11 sets of human remains have been found there and the search is underway for at least one serial killer maybe more yes the chilling mystery began to unfold on May 1st 2010 when 24 year old Shannan Gilbert disappeared she lived in Jersey City and made a living as a prostitute but her mother Mary Gilbert and sister Stevie Smith remember her as much more than that a loving daughter sister and aunt my favorite memory of scheana's is that she loved to cook she was a really really good cook she was very joyful you know nothing brought her down Shannon grew up in the small town of Ellenville New York one of four sisters she used to help Stevie with her homework and graduated from high school at the age of 16 she's very very very book smart too as well and her goal was to be a writer Mary cherish is a card Shannon gave her after Mary received a promotion at work the words of a daughter who loved her mother I look onto you for strength in times of my own struggles to realize anything is possible on May 1st 2010 a call from a potential client Joseph Brewer brought Shannon to the homeowners association here in Oak Beach her family says the money Shannon was being offered was more than she normally made and the rent was due I believe quite possibly she was drugged that maybe she was slipped something that she was given something to drink or to maybe eat she knew she wasn't feeling right that she possibly knew something was wrong Shannon ran off at one point knocking on Gus coletti's front door in a panic at another point knocking on another homeowner association resident barbara Brennan's door and running off again Mary and Stevie say police mishandled Shannon's disappearance from the start if she had enough strength and knowledge to call the police to scream for help to run as loot for and as long as she did at one point she dialed 911 I couldn't find her cellphones have a GPS I could have found her and they could have found her in time but police say Shannon wasn't able to give them information they could use for example saying she was near Jones Beach several miles away you know she called that morning 900 she was on the phone for 20 minutes we have that we listen to it what we heard was someone who seemed disoriented confused she did not seem rational besides Shannon Coletti and Brennan called 911 after mr. keleti called our patrol units were on the scene within 18 minutes but actually within 10 minutes after mrs. Brennan called so we had police on the scene the big mystery was what happened to her I believe they didn't take the matter serious Shannon's disappearance remained unsolved so Mary Gilbert investigated on her own visiting Oak Beach and looking through her daughter's records as Mary and her family waited for news of Shannon's whereabouts there was a major development in December 2010 a police dog and handler looking for Shannon found human remains along Ocean Parkway which leads to Oak Beach not far from where Shannon was last seen but it was not what anyone was expecting December 11th 2010 which was a Saturday the cadaver dog across the highway from Oak Beach came a cron upon the remains of a body at that time everybody assumed and I got the call from the chief of detectives it was assumed that it was Shannan Gilbert Richard dormer was Suffolk County's police commissioner at the time in an exclusive interview with FiOS 1 news he recalled getting the news that Officer John Mallia and his canine found remains then dormer got the news that the remains belonged to someone else they determined it wasn't Shannan Gilbert because she had a titanium plate in her jaw and this remains that were found did not have that two days later they made even more grim discoveries former commissioner dormer told us what it was like as the investigation unfolded this was a shock I mean one body was disturbing enough but then on that Monday when I got the call from the chief of detectives we found another remains and sometime later he calls and says we found more remains in January 2011 police announced they had identified the remains all women Maureen Brainerd barns last seen in New York City in July 2007 Melissa barthelemy who went missing from the Bronx in July 2009 Meghan Waterman who disappeared June 2010 from happauge and amberlynn Costello last seen in North Babylon in September 2010 our investigation indicates that each of the victims had been posting ads on computer websites for various escort and other services prior to the disappearance and death it was I believe it is yes Megan Waterman 's mom Lorraine Ella remembers when she first learned her daughter was missing when me my mom got the call at 7 o'clock on June 6 that my daughter was missing I knew deep down inside that they were not gonna find her alive I just knew it um I've told a lot of people that but I also had to keep that little bit of hope that they would have found her alive and then she got the call in December 2010 that remains had been found I didn't want to believe that it was my daughter I just didn't want to I still had that little bit of hope um and then two days later we got a call that they found three more bodies and I I just knew Megan was a wonderful mom a wonderful daughter um anybody that met Megan fell in love with Megan her smile you could be so depressed so upset crying but you look at Megan and when she's smiling and your whole a parent changes Melissa can received a similar call about her sister Maureen Brainard Barnes it's hard it gets harder every day it doesn't they say that time heals all wounds and that's not true it gets worse you just get used to them not being there but you experience more memories without the merit she told us about Maureen's life prior to her disappearance my sister at the time that she went missing she was struggling to find a job there was so much more to my sister than just why the reason why she was in New York in the first place she was bubbly you know alive full of you know spirit she wrote poetry she was loving throughout the tragedy Lorene and Melissa have given each other emotional support they say it's their lost loved ones who have brought them together we were all had the same goal in mind which is justice and we're all together for us to support each other Maureen was here in Maine was right here they were this close to each other so I think they're the ones that brought me and Melissa together as close as we are because they were found so close together in the spring of 2011 investigators made even more disturbing discoveries I think no one was more surprised than the police to continue finding human remains the more they searched the more they found the search for a missing escort from New Jersey turned up four sets of human remains along isolated Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County in December 2010 an official started talking about a serial killer winter weather conditions forced the search to stop for several months in the spring of 2011 the effort resumed and along with milder temperatures came more shocking news you know we were still looking for Shannan Gilbert and the thought was that she was out there someplace and we also were concerned that there were more remains out there and so I sat with the task force with the Chief of Detectives and we decided that we were going to go back in there with a very comprehensive detailed search using fire trucks canines and manpower police searched through miles of thick brush they combed the beach and divers searched the water along the north side of the barrier island and by homes in the oak beach homeowners association former police commissioner dormer says the discoveries kept coming very soon into the search March 29th k-9 officer found the remains so now we have five remains the search continues and on April 4th three more bodies were found or remains were found now it's eight I mean this is getting bigger by the month in April 2011 the search expanded to Nassau County and county and state police made two discoveries in one day in the areas by Jones Beach approximately 11:20 a.m. state trooper using a cadaver dog did locate some bones and tow Bay Beach at around 3:30 officers discovered about 96 feet North off the Parkway all right what appears to be a human appears to be a human skull in all a total of ten sets of human remains had been found along Ocean Parkway and to really throw a monkey wrench into the investigation the anthropologist from New York City the medical examiner through our medical examiner came back and said that there was a toddler who's one of the four and an Asian male now we were dealing with females before that the remains of young females and so now we had to change gears we're thinking you know to more than one killer is there something else going on here is this a dumping ground for different killers the area in and around Gilgo Beach has been used to discard human remains for some period of time in May 2011 authorities revealed that the beach area was linked to another dumping ground in Suffolk County about 40 miles away in Manorville the partial remains of Jessica Taylor had been discovered in Manorville in 2003 the district attorney announced searchers on Ocean Parkway found the rest miss Taylor's remains were missing her head hands and forearm the remains that we found on March 29 2011 are the remains the head hands and forearm of Miss Taylor authorities say she also worked as a prostitute a sixth person known as Jane Doe number six also had partial remains found in Manorville and at the beach in September 2011 Suffolk police released a sketch of what she may have looked like in an effort to figure out who she was despite our best efforts we have still been unable to identify Jane Doe number six police have also had a difficult time identifying the remaining victims including a female toddler and a woman who's believed to be her mother both were jewellery an Asian male who police say was wearing women clothes and a woman whose partial remains were also found off Fire Island in the 90s a retired detective called a homicide squad and said in 1996 I handled a case where two legs were in a bag women's legs off Davis Park Fire Island check out the DNA see if it's connected to your case and it did Zhang Zi hua is a forensic pathologist in Union County New Jersey medical examiner he's not working directly on the Gilgo cases but has handled many murders the main thing is try to get the body identified if you identify body certainly you can rat you're actively going backwards talk to a family when was lost missing last seen a lie since surco friend and he can can trace down lots additional information law says that although the remains found along Ocean Parkway may have been there for a long period of time DNA testing is still possible cut inside the bone marrow is a good source of DNA dr. hua adds it's not like TV crime shows with quick solutions and he says the job is especially hard if the person was never reported missing in the first place if you're missing no one really report your missing since certainly become a dead end as investigators continue to work to identify the remains police made another grim discovery the person they had originally been looking for Shannan Gilbert was found and rather than provide answers the list of questions grew even longer you the Suffolk County Police Department search for a missing escort from New Jersey turned up 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway leading some to call it a dumping ground for bodies finally in December 2011 Suffolk police brought in heavy machinery to search through a swampy area near the Oak Beach homeowners association the place where 24 year old Shannon Gilbert was last seen alive we went in with the idea that we were going to do this one last time to see if we could find anything and we did k-9 officer John Mallia discovered items which included a pocketbook with identification into pocketbook belonging to Shannon Gilbert today during the search they found a cell phone which they believe may belong to Shannon Gilbert then on December 13 2011 exactly one year after the remains of three other women were found the search for Shannan Gilbert was over we have this day at approximately 914 a.m. located a set of skeletal remains we believe at this time to belong to the missing Shannan Gilbert after a year and a half of searching for answers Shannon's mother found the news hard to believe till I heard positive confirmation that it was my daughter I'm gonna believe us not until I know for sure officials positively identified the remains as Shannan Gilbert but there was something else that was even harder for Mary Gilbert and many others to believe as police described the marshy area and the theory that she died after getting stuck in the marsh we have officers abruptly drop to their waist or deeper in that muck essentially like quicksand and they've been unable to extricate themselves without the assistance of fellow officers she traveled at least a half a mile three-quarters of a mile on foot through that through that muck mud brambles thick area and it would be very easy to get exhausted and fall down and not be able to move any further we took a walk with dormer in the area two years after Gilbert disappeared you can see the terrain here how thick it is how difficult it would be for to make your way through in the darkness this area that we're standing in right now has been cut down so we could make entrance to the crime scene but May first two years ago it was thick like this it was rough atrocious terrain this young lady you know disoriented trying to make her way through this marshy area would become you know overcome by the elements this is our theory but Mary Gilbert and others don't accept that theory she has visited the spot where her daughter was found well when I was there um I physically walked to where her remains were found in Marsh there is no way she ran where her body was found it was lodged on the left side of a tree a very large tree that they had to cut down which means that her body flowed and stopped at that tree the Gilbert family hired a lawyer and asked the FBI to investigate they wonder why police haven't done more like look at Shannon's client records records the family still has they're also suspicious of Shannon's driver Michael pack her client Joseph Brewer and his neighbor dr. Hackett I strongly believe there is someone in the police department in the justice system that is stopping a from B to connect to C I strongly believe I think they're more concerned about the threat and the fear the public is facing with the serial killer then one individual that may be separate from being a part of serial killer case and looking to see what happened to her in May of 2012 the Gilberts heard from the medical examiner but the results only raised more questions for them I was optimistic when I first walked in but now I'm more frustrated and angry than ever it tests render their conclusion inconclusive they cannot conclude at all as to how this woman died the Gilberts lawyer john ray says at that meeting the medical examiner talked about Shannon's 911 FiOS 1 news has requested the tape under the Freedom of Information Act so far investigators have not released it in a letter in Newsday a detective who worked on the case said Shannon's demeanor was calm during the call and male voices heard on the tape were calm but Ray says that's not what he was told when we talked to the Emmie she says exactly the opposite of what that police officer wrote it and published in a public newspaper and she claims that you can hear Shannon screaming you can hear a scuffle that takes place a lengthy scuffle lasting several minutes you can hear her shannon saying that they're plotting to kill me he also says police haven't done enough to look into certain people the initial suspects would have been that the John who was Brewer the driver who was mr. pack and the doctor who's told a series of contradictory stories that would be dr. Hackett Hackett according to Mary calls Mary and in the first conversation he tells Mary that he has Shannon and that she's safe and that he has established a home for wayward girls in the second call ray says Hackett apparently tells Mary that Shannon has run away commissioner dormer insists investigators have looked at all the angles Brewer was very cooperative with the police he allowed us to search his home search his vehicle and he was very upfront about you know the issue that he had reached out to her on Craigslist made arrangements for her to come to Oak Beach dr. Hackett was also investigated by our detectives when they were investigating the missing-persons report the driver that drove her out to Long Island from the city he was vetted he was thoroughly investigated and there was no reason to believe that any of them were involved in our disappearance the situation was Shannan Gilbert it seems completely counterintuitive that she could have died accidentally dr. Casey Jordan a criminologist and professor at Western Connecticut State University has been following the Gilgo case closely in reviewing the evidence from that particular body recovery site and speaking with the police I am convinced it she suffered some kind of panic episode and did run into the marsh probably got bogged down lost her purse her shoes continue to try to get out and eventually succumbed to the elements anything is possible in these sorts of cases and I think that Shannon's family is wise to keep the questions alive because the circumstances of her death are very suspicious and the questions continue to be asked not only about Gilbert's case but about the other ten victims found along Ocean Parkway and about how many killers might be responsible we study in criminology these cases all the time we have never seen anything quite like this as police investigated the bodies on the beach a public disagreement erupted between the district attorney and police commissioner over how many killers there may be as a murderer out there and we think it's one person in November 2011 then police commissioner richard dormer told FiOS 1 news he thought one killer was responsible for the 10 sets of remains found along Ocean Parkway but current Suffolk County DA Thomas Skoda publicly disputed that theory and others also questioned it if it's only one killer they defy everything that we know in profiles of serial killers the idea that some of the bodies appear to be dismembered some of them are intact criminologist dr. Casey Jordan has studied the Gilgo case and says victims who were dismembered may be tied to other cases including a torso found in a suitcase that washed up in the Long Island Sound in 2007 I think one of the things the police may be looking at and they certainly should be looking at is that Jessica Taylor victimology the idea that her head was found in one place her torso found in another Jordan says that case is probably separate from the first four sets of remains that were found but she's not 100% sure about the number of killers you don't know as much as the police know so that's why I've always got to have a hold back that there could be information out there that would definitely change my opinion but I personally believe that it is the work of more than one killer most likely - not as many as 3 if it is one killer it is the sort of killer that we have never really seen before but dormer stands by his single killer theory today for several reasons the FBI and the Justice Department figures out there's about a hundred serial killers in the United States overall at any one time so the probabilities that you know three or four them in Long Island I think again is over the top I don't think that that's probable as for the fact that some remains were dismembered the experts tell you that serial killers evolve they change now there's a couple of theories with that one is that they get a psychological thrill from dismembering somebody it also be that it makes it easier to dispose of them if you cut the heads and the arms off in the legs it's easier to transport and the other thing is if you spread the body parts miles away from each other it if the police find parts they don't match up they can further their investigation maybe this killer decided look they never found any of the other remains I don't have to dismember them anymore again a theory based on past serial killer cases in the more recent cases investigators say the victims advertise their services on the Internet it's all a part of doing business these girls are very ingenious and they're always looking for new ways to to use the Internet Detective Sergeant Brian Sweeney is with the Nassau County Police Department on the Vice end we're constantly on the internet looking at different websites for ads for prostitution detective sergeant Sweeney showed FiOS 1 news how easy it is to find prostitution online Craigslist has come under fire in recent years and closed one of its adult sections but ads for prostitutes are still available on the site and easy to find as a man for a woman just one night looking for a little girl and then he describes what he's looking for many of them have moved off a Craigslist onto the back page website which does have an escort section and they're very blatant about their ads oftentimes advertising EFI's and sometimes advertising there or there what they'll provide for the fees back page is owned by the Village Voice and has recently been criticized by the New York City Council and other organizations for its ads here's an ad with a woman who's dressed in lingerie and she has three hundred dollars for an incall service five hundred for an alcohol service he says investigators constantly look at the ads on these sites and others I send on the clubs in we make arrests routinely after making arrests will interview a girl and will talk to her about whether she's been a victim any other crimes and there's an added part of their investigation since remains have been found at the beach knowing about the bodies they found out in Gil go we're constantly reminding girls about the dangers of prostitution industry and asked if they have have been with anybody that may have been suspicious or that may have created them to have a fear and he warns it's a safety issue for everybody involved because police and experts believe at least one killer is still walking free so I think it's anybody from within he absolutely not let me ask you a question if you were a murderer and you killed somebody would you put him on your front lawn Gus Coletti was one of the last people who saw Shannon Gilbert alive in the homeowners association development he and many people wonder who the killer or killers might be who are responsible for the 10 sets of remains found along Ocean Parkway in most of these cases particularly looking at the the lifestyles of the women the person who is responsible for this is going to be a male most likely in his 30s but then again if if the crimes go back more than 10 years he could easily be in his 40s by now very driven by issues of power and control which we often see in serial killers some say the killer or killers had to be familiar with the Gilgo Beach area and law enforcement techniques and might be a clamor or a landscaper because of the way the first four bodies were found this is somebody who we're quite certain did not just accidentally fall into this little stretch of beach he either grew up there if he doesn't live there right now he's incredibly familiar with the area perhaps he some word there his entire life or spent many years there the landscaper clamor theories go directly to the burlap sacks that those four women were found in criminologist dr. Casey Jordan from Western Connecticut State University says the killer or killers probably blend into their communities he's definitely still out there and my guess is that he's definitely watching the news and following along with the investigation and that by itself will shape his behavior if police have gotten close to him have interviewed him have talked about their profile of who it might be in a way that hits too close to home this will definitely have a chilling effect on any activity it doesn't mean he's going to desist from soliciting women on Craigslist but it means he'll desist from killing them to the extent that he can if however he has genuine issues of power and control if that's the overriding motivation for these murders he may not be able to desist he may lose his cool and lose his temper during an encounter and end up killing another woman but if that's the case you can be very sure that he's not going to try to bury the bodies at in the same location former commissioner dormer also worries that the perpetrator may still feel compelled to kill that's a word that's a worry you know they do cool off they can go weeks months he could go years between kills but it depends on his psyche if he needs that if he needs that release and he says the killer chose his victims women who sometimes work alone and meet strangers alone he's an organized killer he's not taken many risks the only risk has taken is putting their remains in his car and driving to the dumping ground even in doing that dormer says the killer worked to minimize risk well the theory is that he pulled his vehicle up here on the shoulder where we're standing right now and then carried the body in about 10 15 yards put the body down and came back got in the vehicle and took off would only take well to pull the car in I'd say about 30 40 seconds that quick dormer is still confident the killer will be caught and I've said this before that this guy has made a mistake and the job of the detectives is to find that mistake others are not as optimistic that police will succeed in tracking down the killer I really doubt at this juncture that we will find the killer I think that the age of the victims and the incredible scattered nature the lack of a pattern and the lack of any DNA evidence because of the poor condition in which the remains were found these things are almost always cleared by DNA evidence today if they have no DNA evidence of a suspect the only way this is going to be solved is perhaps if the killer attempts to kill another person another woman and she escapes in the meantime the relatives of victims are holding out for answers a big padme knows that Suffolk County police they are going to find more bodies before they find him in April of this year Melissa can the sister of marine Reynard Barnes organized a motorcycle stunt fundraiser in Connecticut called stunts for justice the event raised money for the Crimestoppers reward for information on the murders both Lorraine and Melissa are optimistic a killer will be caught I have full confidence in Suffolk County Police Department in their investigation on this case hopefully f now will be celebrating that they have caught the killer welcome back you know over the course of the past hour we've heard many things including how the search for a missing prostitute from New Jersey turned into so much more we heard how that search led investigators to discover that Ocean Parkway including the well-known Gilgo Beach area along the Atlantic Ocean was nothing less than a dumping ground for bodies we heard how multiple sets of human remains were found there also heard that some of them were dismembered and have yet to be identified and some of the remains may be as much as a decade old we also learned that the search for that missing prostitute became in fact a search for a serial killer now as Holly here reported one of the key elements in this case is that that 911 call Shannan Gilbert made on the night of her disappearance well reports are conflicting about her demeanor during the call some say it was frantic others in law enforcement say she was calm now we wanted to know we requested the release of that 911 call under the Freedom of Information Act and according to the response we received from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office quote information pertaining to individuals who are subjects of an investigation but never prosecuted are not available in quote the letter does not specify who those individuals are in a request for those tapes were denied as well in the meantime according to published reports federal agents are increasingly frustrated by the Suffolk County Police Department's apparent unwillingness to accept the FBI's help in the stalled investigation seemingly according to many going nowhere federal sources have been quoted as saying the Suffolk PD does not want to lose control of this high-profile case now we call it Suffolk County police several times for comment a public information officer told us they were aware of those reports but that no one was available to comment on the Gilgo Beach case so as we wrap up our special report bodies at the beach search for a serial killer we take a look back at what some now are calling a sinister Shore we hear one more time from some of those whose lives have been forever changed what has happened there and finally we ask you at home to take one more look at the victims and we hope that in doing so it might just jog a memory provide a clue that might help law enforcement solve these gruesome crimes and just perhaps maybe stopping a serial killer from killing again so please grab a pen or a pencil and you can contact a variety of organizations I want you to take a look at them as we go forward but before I do that I want to thank you all for joining us and I also want to thank Holly here as well for a terrific report I'm Richard French and thank you for joining us it's not easy to cope you know first you have to accept and um accepting is going to be very hard for my family because there was that period of hoping there's still times that I cry there's still tears of sorrow and myths and loss it's a day-to-day struggle it's a living hell and no serial killer should go free you you you

Channel: Richard French Live

Views: 463,280

Keywords: Richard French, Richard French Live, Holli Haerr, Gilgo Beach, Shannan Gilbert, Richard Dormer, Dominick Varrone, Suffolk County Police, Megan Waterman, Casey Jordan, Thomas Spota, John Ray, Nassau County Police, Brian Sweeney, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Serial Killer, Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, Jessica Taylor

Id: cRaripbEHkc

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 16 2012