The Hunt for the Long Island Serial Killer | Full Episode

foreign [Music] remember the last time you spoke with your sister I do she called me Sunday night at 11 30. at a train station in New York [Music] from Penn Station [Music] I could hear the motion from the train station so you don't think she knew she was in danger at that time that she called you no from the time that she called me it was poof she was gone my sister's missing like this isn't normal there was a ping from her phone after she went missing on Long Island [Music] they knew that there was something very very wrong here the young lady was reported missing Shannon Gilbert [Music] the missing persons unit had been involved in trying to locate this young lady find out what happened to our foreign [Music] human remains that seemed to be wrapped in burlap which didn't make any sense everyone assumed it was Shannon Gilbert but it wasn't was it no the crime scene gets expanded and called and the chief we found another set of remains they find another one and another one we were dealing with a serial killer but they're all four foot 11 very petite hazel green eyes this killer has a type right does he want the petite body because he wants to feel more empowered and More in control is it easier to dispose of a lighter body investigators have found 10 sets of human wholesome Discovery 10 victims in all things started to click as I was watching that I have a feeling that this is Murray one of them Mari I just had a feeling [Music] the detectives came to my house and just said that Maureen has been positively identified as one of the victims on Ocean Park with I have my sister Jeff always on the back of my mind killer or killers still are loose no justice has been done it's a symbol of the complete failure of the police department to do its job my name is Jerry Hart I'm the commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department so it's again a very complex case but I can tell you that we are fully committed to this investigation We Believe that the belt was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims we're working very hard that we're dedicated to this investigation what I want most is answers and Justice and I also want that the world to know like my sister mattered [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] thank you it's really really hard I miss her so much Melissa can will never forget that wintry day 10 years ago when she got the devastating news we want answers we just want answers the remains of her older sister Maureen Brainerd Barnes missing for more than three years have been discovered on Long Island was there any relief in at least knowing what happened to your sister or was it worse it's worse you're waiting I don't know I don't know what I'm waiting on she'll never come back okay good morning everybody former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer was stunned to have found the remains of four young women on an isolated stretch of Long Island's Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach it looks like a car pulled up and opened the door and the bodies were dumped into the bushes eventually police would find 10 sets of remains in the area Maureen and three others were found first and dubbed the Gilgo 4. discarded in a similar fashion roughly 500 feet apart each of them swabbed in burlap I think burlap was selected because its ability to take dampness moisture and breathe which would promote Decay as well as act as camouflage Dominic Veron was chief of the Suffolk County detectives in 2010. everybody knows the chief he's retired from the police force but is still haunted by the man who Got Away the Long Island serial killer it was probably the biggest case we ever had and we put a tremendous amount of effort into that case Maureen was the first of the Gilgo 4 to disappear that summer night in 2007. her sister Missy believed Marina gone to Manhattan for a modeling shoot and when she was on her way home made that call from Penn Station I'll see you in the morning love you that was the last time I talked to her I don't think it's a coincidence that four bodies ended up in this area Long Island serial killer 48 Hours has reported on the Long Island serial killer from the beginning my sister was a wonderful person and over the years Missy talked to us about Maureen she was very smart very creative she liked being a mom she loved being mom but she faced obstacles as a single mom of two with no driver's license nor college degree Murray would come and use my laptop and she would go and look for the help wanted ads these are all the jobs that she applied for she was looking for fast food jobs grocery store jobs telemarketer jobs I mean over and over and over again yeah by early 2007 things seemed to be looking up for Maureen she had got a job at a telemarketing place and she was doing really well and um she got her own apartment she was really proud she was a very giving person and very loyal and she made a new friend Sarah Carnes we were office besties you could never ever ever be bored around her when Maureen went missing in 2007 her sister was filled with Dread I had a drive in me to be like Oh I'm gonna find my sister like I'm not gonna stop until I find my sister Missy called the police reported Maureen missing in her hometown of Norwich Connecticut and also in New York City she didn't run away someone has her this isn't normal my sister is gone [Music] logged into Maureen's email accounts and got a shock in the days before Maureen disappeared she was under enormous Financial pressure Maureen was about to be evicted from her apartment and was facing an ugly expensive Court battle for custody of one of her young children from her emails I could see how desperate she was to get money to be able to save herself from being evicted and save her son save custody of her son terrified because her baby was going to be taken away from her forever but she's working yep it wasn't enough working that stupid telemarketing job was not enough Maureen's emails revealed another secret she was a sex worker it wasn't modeling that brought her to New York instead she and Sarah had gone to earn extra money as sex workers advertising on Craigslist it was kind of devastating to to um learn but my main focus was to find my sister I didn't care what she was doing Sarah helped Missy reconstruct Maureen's last weekend Sarah described how they learned they have been banned from Craigslist for a few days and they couldn't post ads for clients so they decided to update their photos instead and hired a photographer she picked old 40s Hollywood glamor the way her curls fell that day just looked so 40s with the makeup and everything like that she was just so beautiful all dressed up the two young women wandered around Times Square like Carefree tourists it was just awesome we were untouchable but the next day Sarah returned to Norwich and says Maureen remained to make more money you've been flagged by Chrysalis you're not able to put your ad on Craigslist so how would Maureen meet anybody on that Sunday she had regulars so does that mean whoever took her and killed her was someone she had seen before most likely but Missy had no luck in her search months became years all she knew was that someone had taken her sister how old was this person how did this person look how did he break through her her guard [Music] miles away in Maine a 14 year old girl struggles with what happened to her mother I want them to find out who did it who vanished when she was just three years old part of you is like missing just like something's always off she tells her story on television for the very first time [Music] [Music] it's never gonna be over she's always going to be gone I can't bring her back not a day goes by the 14 year old Lily Waterman doesn't miss her mom Megan I would do anything to bring her back but I can't and it just like frustrates me so bad [Music] Lily was just three years old when Megan vanished I don't know it was last season Express Megan's family says the 22 year old from Scarborough Maine was a spunky but troubled kid who loved fashion and in this video at the time of her disappearance the family said she would never have willingly left her daughter this little girl was her life foreign do you remember when your mom disappeared yeah it's very like Blurry because it was so long ago I was just very like confused on why she like wasn't around that's all I can like remember really Lily says her memories of her mother's boyfriend Akeem Cruz are clear all things to do like remember for are bad times when Akeem was hitting her was hitting me was just being like rude it was scary you were scared for your life why did she stay with him fear Megan's Aunt Elizabeth meserve says the family encouraged Megan to leave Cruz she was afraid he would hurt her family he would hurt Liliana Cruz began taking Megan to Long Island where he pushed her into prostitution when she was away Megan called Lily every night and when she didn't call then I know that was her last day June 6 2010 Megan was seen exiting this hotel in Hauppauge at 1 30 A.M there's footage of her walking down a little side path I guess that's along the back or the side of the hotel she never returned [Music] [Applause] back in Scarborough the family heard from Cruz that Megan was missing they reported her disappearance to the police Chief Don Varone says Akeem Cruz was already on his radar he knew his background and we knew at that time that they had crushed eight lines coming from Maine to Long Island so we actually had the FBI unit involved in that case uh in in June of 2010. she set up all her dates wouldn't he know the last person she saw you would think that was a very very heavy part of the investigation Varone concluded Cruz did not know who Megan's client was that night and had nothing to do with her disappearance detectives continued their search for and in December 2010 founder one of the Gilgo four the police found her and so Lily said they found my mum so why didn't they bring her home but when Lily Grew Older and more tech savvy she typed her mom's name into the internet search bar was that tough yeah for sure I couldn't process it because my whole life I thought that she just got like stolen and she never came back I didn't realize how like the line of work she was doing how like brutal it was I didn't realize that part of it police say the remains of Melissa Bartholomew and three other victims were found in burlap bags in Shallow Graves along this beach how often do you think about Melissa every single minute of the day Lynn Bartholomew's 24 year old daughter Melissa had been missing a year and a half when her remains turned up on Gilgo Beach it just didn't happen to the girls I mean it destroyed all of our families Melissa moved from her home in Buffalo to New York City to work as a hairdresser at some point she turned to sex work when she stopped calling home in July of 2009 her mother panicked we get on the internet we start calling hospitals I didn't know what but I knew something had to be wrong about a week later her then 15 year old sister got a call from Melissa's phone we agreed not to show her face she was so excited oh my God Melissa's finally calling me and then there's a guy on the other end Suffolk County Police told 48 hours that they believed the caller was in fact Melissa's killer he called seven times threatening her younger sister and torturing her with details of Melissa's murder the last of the Gilgo 4 to disappear was Amber Costello a sex worker who vanished from her home on Long Island in September of 2010. she was an amazing person she really was Amber's friend and former roommate Dave Schaller says she was a drug addict who used sex work to support her habit as amazing as she was was as tormented as she was Veron says Amber Megan Melissa Maureen were all asphyxiated there were other striking similarities very petite five foot or under a hundred pounds hazel green eyes you believe this killer has a specific type of woman that he was choosing to kill right Veron worked with the FBI to come up with a profile of the killer he says the fact that the women posted ads online allowed the killer to scroll through photos in search of his ideal victim if he desires a particular height and weight and eye color he can do that all right everybody ready yeah I'm married Our Father we were in heaven who are in heaven the Gilgo 4 had another thing in common ready let's go families who love them [Music] in December of 2011 they gathered at Gilgo Beach [Music] [Music] on the spot where each woman was found they erected a cross [Music] and as the sun went down they held a vigil in their honor you wanna remember Shannon for the loving daughter it was the search for Shannon Gilbert that led to the discovery of the Gilgo 4. remember her also as our girls angels and remember Shannon for Shannon and their families Embrace Shannon's mother Mary as one of their own but where was Shannon [Music] when the police found the Gilgo 4 Cherie Gilbert 22 at the time was certain her missing sister Shannon would be among them what's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Shannon her singing the jokes that we would tell [Music] like Maureen Brainerd Barnes Megan Waterman Melissa barthelemy and Amber Costello Shannon was working as an escort the night she vanished she was a talented young woman from a troubled family dreaming of a singing and acting career at the age of 16 she graduated from high school she skipped a grade smart then really smart yeah she had a lot of potential Shannon was visiting a client in the gated community of Oak Beach Long Island eight miles from Gilgo Beach when she vanished on May 1st 2010 her family filed missing persons reports and drove from home in Upstate New York to Oak Beach desperate to find her Oak Beach is a very eerie place to me it seems very desolate very isolated cold the family learned that Shannon's driver dropped her off here at her client's house at 2 A.M nearly three hours later Shannon made a panic 23-minute call to 9-1-1 still on the phone she fled the client's home and ran to a neighbor's door and then another's begging for help and then she disappeared weeks and then months passed with no word from Shannon former Chief of detectives Don Varone says the police questioned her client and dismissed him as a suspect but took her disappearance seriously K9 searched the area at Oak Beach exhaustively for Sean and Gilbert it was while searching for Shannon that they made that stunning discovery of the Gilgo 4 and in the spring of 2011 six more sets of remains victim number five Jessica Taylor an escort missing since 2003. another set of remains police called Jane Doe number six number seven to their surprise a toddler girl number eight an Asian man number nine in ten a female skull and a bag of another person's bones both found in nearby Nassau County weren't sure of these newly discovered bodies were victims of the same killer they kept looking for Shannon and in December of 2011 a year and a half after she disappeared they found the pocketbook belonging to Shannon Gilbert Shannon's purse shoes cell phone even her jeans were found in the marsh the items were found a distant apart a week later a quarter of a mile from her belongings and yellow crime scene take they finally found Shannon they get that phone call when I was in school it was just devastating and then to Sharif shock investigators said they didn't think Shannon was murdered instead based on our frantic 9-1-1 call they theorized she might have been high on drugs and had run into the marsh where she died of hypothermia or possible drowning she's running running down the street pounding onto it runs into this Marsh the Gilbert family didn't believe her death was accidental and retained Long Island attorney John Ray she was put there to retrace the path authorities believe Shannon traveled we're going into the marsh now Barone says her skeletal remains were found collapsed in thick brush to say that she drowned as was theorized is on its face and absurdity Ray also commissioned a second autopsy a private forensic pathologist determined that a damaged hyoid bone in Shannon's neck suggested she may have been strangled he said that that would be consistent with homicide Rey soon turned his attention to one Oak Beach resident a local physician Dr Peter Hackett Shannon had last been seen in the area near his home and her belongings were found scattered in the marsh behind his house and two days after Shannon disappeared Cherie says Hackett made a disturbing phone call to Shannon's mother Mary Gilbert he identified himself told Mary that he was running a home for Wayward girls and that Shannon wanted to enter the home a New Jersey detective told us Hackett told him the same story but when Mary Gilbert went out to talk to him Dr Hackett denied it I never saw him I never met her despite hackett's denials Ray believes the doctor did encounter Shannon early that morning and gave her improper medical treatment Ray filed a civil suit against Peter Hackett in 2012 for wrongful death and malpractice the wrongful death claim has been dismissed malpractice claims are still pending it wasn't an accident if it were an accident her belongings wouldn't have been found behind Peter hackett's home her genes wouldn't have been removed Dr Hackett declined our request for an interview previously he wrote us saying quote I never treated her she was never in my home he says he only called Shannon's family to offer support and we didn't pay that much attention to him I don't think we missed anything Chief verone says he doesn't think Hackett is a murderer he says some call him a Storyteller I do not think Suffolk County has put any effort into investigating Peter Hackett to this day [Music] and in 2015 John Ray helped the Gilbert family bury Shannon Amen in a Long Island Cemetery not far from Oak Beach it was sad you know my mom was really really really emotional and we all were and it was just basically like our final goodbye to Shannon we come to perpetuate shot him are you surprised that she's chosen for this higher purpose of Justice well I'm not the murderer will be outed I have to prove it and I intend to prove it Shannon rest now we all have much to do [Music] go inside the case at 48hours.com [Music] Shannon would still be alive today if Suffolk County Police had actually done their job in early 2012 weeks after the discovery of Shannon Gilbert's remains her family's Attorney John Ray dug in trying to understand what had happened to her the Suffolk County Police Department failed to protect the lives of these people who are now gone yet with 11 dead and no killer in custody the Suffolk County Police Department went through an upheaval that would have a lasting impact on the case we won't know for certain first chief of detectives Dominic perone suddenly found himself out of a job I get a phone call that I'm being told to retire within 15 days or I'd be demoted to Captain I'm yanked off the case I was pushed out verone had been spearheading what would become the largest unsolved murder case in New York's history I had a tremendous amount of knowledge in the case and he says he was not allowed to share what he knew about the serial killer with the new investigators that had to hurt The credibility of the investigation that hurt the investigation and the Public's perception a new regime led by James Burke took over the department don't become a statistic Burke was named the new Suffolk County Police Chief he was extremely powerful for police chief longtime newspaper reporter Gus Garcia Roberts is writing a book about Burke he was Charming it's an individual split-second decision and then another situations intimidating and sort of brutish more akin to like a a mob boss than a police chief Burke had an unlikely rise of the ranks in part because he had a powerful backer Suffolk County district attorney Thomas spota they had their own little fiefdom there Burke and spota met in 1979 when the brutal murder of a boy found behind this school rocked the peaceful suburb of Smithtown Long Island there's a lot of pressure to solve the case the victim was 13 year old John Pius Jr Tom spota was the young sort of ambitious prosecutor his specialty was getting that witness who said exactly what the case needed in order to sort of clinch it James Burke was just 14 at the time everybody called him Jimmy back then Burke and others testified against four teenage boys Tom Spoto by then had taken a shine to the kid and had taken him under his wing to some extent the ambitious young spoda later became district attorney of Suffolk County James Burke became a cop and by age 27 was already a sergeant in the police department to one of the highest paid departments in the country former Suffolk County detective John Oliva who investigated gang violence says Burke's background set him apart from most other cops there a lot of professional guys you know most guys have a college degree or they were in the military I heard that James Burke had none of that Burke's unprofessional behavior set him apart too he's a reckless character driven by sex in the early 1990s he had sex with a prostitute in his police car and also failed to safeguard his weapon he'd left his gun behind and she recovered his weapon Internal Affairs investigated the incident but Burke kept his job Oliva suspects foda May have protected him wouldn't something like that end most cops careers something like that should end most cops careers I mean he became police chief the chief of the department four-star and the man test with finding the elusive serial killer we have 11 dead people and nobody's found anybody connected to them something that frustrates Attorney John Ray the man who patronized sex workers is in charge of the investigation of murdered sex workers Burke ended cooperation with the FBI on the serial killer case was it because Burke didn't want to share credit or was it to keep out prying eyes it could be a combination of both many believe losing FBI technology and expertise slowed down the investigation if I'm the chief of department and I've got dead bodies on the side of the road I would take any help I could get but James Burke soon had other problems beginning One Night in December 2012 when a petty Thief named Christopher Lowe picked the wrong SUV to rob it happened to be James Burke's police truck and Logue didn't know that Loeb stole Burke's duffel bag contained his gun belt porn and sex toys Loeb was arrested locked into a room and chained to the floor according to court testimony detectives began to beat him before Burke himself took over he starts slapping Chris Loeb choking him grabbing him by his ears yelling at him threatening him that he's going to give him a hot shot which is a laced heroin injection which would be fatal every time I asked for a lawyer I got hit again I got hit again I got choked I got choked I got punched I got slapped I got kicked the rumor Mills were running wild it was out there that this had occurred when the FBI investigated Burke with the help of his mentor district attorney Tom spota began a cover-up other investigations including the serial killer case languished his first priority clearly wasn't this serial killing on his turf his top priority was staying out of prison prison Mr spot is there anything that you can say to us sir do you plan to resign sir spoda was eventually convicted of obstruction of justice witness tampering and conspiracy in the Chris Loeb case a tumbling fall from Greece political shock waves on Long Island tonight and in February 2016 James Burke pleaded guilty to violating loeb's civil rights and conspiracy to obstruct Justice he was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison he got what he deserved Burke declined our request for an interview there's always been throughout his career this thin line between being a cop and being a criminal [Music] killer case seemingly stalled graffiti appeared accusing the former Chief of being the serial killer investigators don't believe Burke had anything to do with the murders but that hasn't stopped the gossip it speaks to a complete absence of trust in the law enforcement system in Suffolk County which regardless of any veracity of that graffiti I think it's completely deserved [Music] [Applause] why are these serial killers cases harder than regular homicides is there a stranger to the victim which is unusual in homicide cases Geraldine Hart a career FBI agent was assigned to the Long Island Bureau when the agency was cut out from the serial killer investigation not having the FBI involved consistently from the beginning has uh has definitely hindered this investigation and in 2018 Hart became the Suffolk County Police Commissioner we are fully committed to this investigation we are utilizing every technique available every technology that we can today we are announcing that Jane Doe number six has been positively identified as Valerie Mack using new genetic genealogy tools investigators were finally able to identify one of the victims found on Ocean Parkway she has a name and she's a person and she has a family Valerie Mack who was 24 years old in 2000 when she went missing was described as five feet tall and approximately 100 pounds with brown hair and Hazel Eyes many of these characteristics are shared by the Gilgo 4. identifying Valerie gave investigators New Leads new Associates and friends and family to talk to people who can tell us her whereabouts and her connections the department also released images of evidence a black leather belt embossed with the letters hm or wh was recovered during the initial stages of this investigation Hart says the belt belonged to a large male it's an item that we feel was handled by the suspect did not belong to any of the victims and was found at one of the crime scenes along Ocean Parkway to attorney John Ray it's too little too late why isn't there an explanation of as to why after nine years the initials of the belt were finally for the first time revealed what's more Ray says he has offered Shannon's computer papers and cell phones to the department Hart has declined to look at them saying there's no way to know if the evidence has been tampered with but Hardin says Shannon case is still open so you're saying that they're still investigating her death certainly as a possible hummus as a possible homicide Ray fought for M1 access to the 9-1-1 calls made that night he's forbidden by court order from sharing the contents but insists they shed light on Shannon's disappearance foreign he'll never stop fighting for Shannon [Music] John tell me why you become emotional even talking about this it's hard to say I've put a good part of my life devoted to this case it just seems to me that this this young lady this human being it's a woman Shannon Gilbert deserves Justice that's what keeps Shannon's sister Sheree going to do you think at some point you're going to know what happened to your sister I hope I pray but I don't know it's the same feeling 14 year old Lily Waterman is grappling with she thinks about her mom Megan every day if I could talk to her I would just want to tell her that like I love her I never got to really say those words and like know what love really was like understand how much I really care about her I just want her to know like she has a special place in my heart no one can ever replace her or come like above her Maureen Brainerd Barnes was the first of the Gilgo 4 to disappear Maureen's friend Sarah Carnes can't believe they haven't found her killer in all these years it's been 10 since I found her and they haven't found him like I don't want to wait for that phone call Maureen's sister Missy canned will wait as long as it takes because this person whoever killed my sister thought that they were taking away my sister's voice but he didn't know that my sister had a sister like me so whether he's caught five months from now 10 years from now I just hope he knows that I'll be sitting in that corner and he didn't weaken me or my family he just strengthened me [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] Moriarty 48 hours and this is my life of crime subscribe on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts the role of a journalist is to bring Americans a greater understanding we have to make sure that we're right that we're fair but also hopefully bring Americans closer together [Music]

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 1,276,777

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news

Id: feHZ-lSovcw

Length: 41min 30sec (2490 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023