News: More Remains Found at Gilgo Beach
(Long Island, N.Y.) Today’s search for evidence in the investigation of a possible serial killer and the disappearance of a missing woman expanded west to the Nassau County line after three more sets of remains were discovered Monday. The recent findings were discovered within five hours of yesterday’s search in the underbrush between Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach.
The investigation set for today will place a police command center vehicle along the parkway and will include marked and unmarked officer cars in various areas. These additions to the search were scheduled to arrive after nine this morning. Though the rainy forecast of today was enough to delay a full-scale search in the manner that last week’s was delayed, yesterday’s discoveries have kept it on.
What’s under investigation is the seven-and-a-half mile area of land between Oak Beach and the Nassau County border near the popular Jones Beach. Police are waiting for the medical examiner’s report from their Suffolk County office in Hauppauge. DNA testing in the presence of a forensic anthropologist should shed more answers for detectives assigned to the investigation.
Also on the scene were twenty-five police recruits and three canine units. Members of the North Babylon, Babylon, and Islip Fire Departments brought tower ladders to the search site in order to give investigators a more advantageous view of the area. Once again, westbound lanes between the Captree Bridge Causeway to the Nassau County line will be closed. Eastbound lanes will remain open, but authorities urge residents to keep in mind that the area is being considered a crime scene.
More questions have been raised following the discovery of the three new sets of remains. Police have yet to announce the gender of the remains and whether any of the three belong to missing person Shannon Gilbert. Police are also dealing with the question of whether the victims are the work of a single killer. The proximity of the remains and the use of the area as a dumping ground suggest that only one individual is responsible for the slayings.
Once the identities of the remains are determined, police will search for links among each of the victims. Commonalities between lifestyles, hometowns, and acquaintances will be analyzed to determine how they have been targeted. Friends and family members of Gilbert have questioned the thoroughness of the previous searches, wondering how police could find so many remains in such a short span of time. One report detailing the circumstance of Gilbert’s disappearance claimed she made an incoherent 911 phone call after arguing with a client on the last night she was seen.
Other concerns regarding the investigation include the issue of time. Spring foliage will bloom in the area, making the search site even more obscure for investigators. Also, the landscape of the area has cadaver dogs constantly hit in the face with heavy brush and bramble. Rainy weather could also interfere with the performance of cadaver-sniffing dogs. Some reports have estimated that at least twenty officers have suffered from poison ivy, and tick infestation is another great concern for those involved with the search.
In response to the investigation, residents have to present identification to enter the area and all other drivers are ordered to stay away. Police have deducted that the crimes most likely occurred during the middle of the night when the killer sought out an isolated location to serve as the ideal dumping ground. They say that the killer most likely pulled onto the shoulder of the westbound lane and dragged the bodies out of his vehicle less than twenty-five feet from the roadside. This poses the question of where the killer might reside.
