Police widen search for more victims of Craigslist Ripper as they believe his killing spree could have spanned over four years

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 08:32 EDT, 7 April 2011

• Police widen search to Nassau County in the search for more victims
• Long Island community may have had serial killer in their midst for past decade
• Residents are afraid to leave their homes for fear they will be killed
• Body count steadily rising, with eight bodies found and Shannan Gilbert still missing

The search for victims of the Craigslist Ripper is set to widen as police believe the serial killer, whose killing spree they believe lasted more then four years, may have more victims in nearby Nassau County.

Police said yesterday they will widen the search, combing the remote stretch of waterfront to the west of where eight sets of human remains have already been found.

The development came after they spent another frustrating day searching the underbrush along Gilgo and Oak beaches - an area of seven and a half miles - but coming up with nothing.

Afraid of what they might find: Emergency personnel search the dunes and scrub near the ocean, across the road from where eight bodies where found, near Oak Beach in Long Island today

A Nassau County policeman told the New York Post: 'Early next week we're going to be searching on our side of the county line in the same area.'

They expect to find more bodies and are hoping that one of those may belong to Shannan Gilbert, who was not among the latest four victims found. They have not yet been identified.

Investigators believe the Craigslist Ripper's first murder may have taken place before July 2007, when the first known victim went missing, and said the four newly discovered bodies appear to have been buried before the four others they had previously found.

Detectives are now trawling missing person's reports and trying to identify all the victims to determine for certain how long the killer's rampage lasted.

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The disclosure raises the chilling prospect that the community of Long Island in New York had a serial killer in its midst for much of the past decade as residents living there say they now fear going out in case they should become his next victim.

The search for Shannan Gilbert's remains continues after it was revealed the three new bodies found did not belong to the prostitute.

Police have expanded their search amid fears that the bodies of even more victims have been dumped somewhere in the dense undergrowth.

Suffolk Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone said the bodies of the four prostitutes found in December were left above the ground over a quarter-mile area.

Each was placed some 50ft from the side of Ocean Parkway and 500ft apart.

The latest four, however, were buried some distance away and much deeper in the thorny bushes.

He said: ‘They may even pre-date some of the bodies we found earlier.'

The earliest of the four identified victims went missing in July 2007 whilst the latest was September 2010.

Bird's eye view: A searcher scours the brush from a fire department's bucket ladder in Long Island

Shannan Gilbert: The 24-year-old was last seen in May 2010 in the Oak Beach area. She is from Jersey City and was known to be a prostitute

The search was originally sparked by the disappearance of 24-year-old Ms Gilbert, a New Jersey prostitute who advertised on Craigslist.

The New York Post reported today that investigators were quickly able to determine Gilbert's body was not among the remains because she had a metal implant in her upper body that would be easily identifiable.

Speaking to the paper, Ms Gilbert's sister Sherre said: 'My heart sank when I got the call from the detective.

'We have to find my sister, she’s out there somewhere.'

'Out of all the bodies we all thought one had to be her. He was shocked as well.

'Now I’m left with more questions that are unanswered.'

Sherre received the call from Suffolk County detectives at about 3pm informing her of the grim news.

Ms Gilbert was last seen fleeing a client in the exclusive community of Fire Island a few miles from where the bodies were found. At one point she emerged in the night to say to a passer-by: ‘They’re trying to kill me’ but ran off.

A few 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.

Despite the discovery of seven other bodies, she has not yet been found. The client Gilbert had arranged to meet was investigated but is not believed to be a suspect in her disappearance.

The discovery of more bodies in the Oak Beach area will add to a growing sense of terror among locals and among those working in New York's sex industry.

Elderly residents of Long Island said they are now living in terror about the prospect of becoming the next victim of the serial killer.

Some have even stopped walking in the area the bodies were found for fear they could become a target.

Laura Coletti said that she often took walks on the service road close to the search site, but not any more. Her husband Gus added that neighbours routinely call him to check he is alright.

The couple added that the area’s reputation as a quiet place to retire has been ruined.

Homes worth $1million are now going for $600,000 and at open houses there are no visitors - before there were up to a dozen.

Thorough: The discovery of more bodies in the Oak Beach area will add to a growing sense of terror among locals and among those working in New York's sex industry

Discovery: The most recent human remains were found on Cedar Beach, only half a mile away from where the other bodies were found on Oak Beach, Long Island

Police appear to have so far drawn a blank in their hunt for a man who is rapidly becoming one of New York's most prolific serial killers in recent years.

Searchers perched in fire truck bucket ladders and others on foot are scanning the tick-infested vegetation for more bodies.

Police also employed helicopters and cadaver dogs, as well as police academy cadets, detectives and volunteer firefighters, in their search through thick underbrush and evergreens on a barrier island south of Long Island.

Detective Varrone said the dogs were having a difficult time negotiating through the brush.

'They don't like getting smacked in the face with the bramble,' he said.

Police said as many as 20 officers had been infected with poison ivy during recent searches.

Hound: Police use cadaver dogs to search the thick brush on the side of the road near Oak Beach

Bodies: A police officer wades through the dense growth on the side of the road after previous discoveries of three more victims of the serial killer

The bodies of the first four women, who also worked as Craigslist escorts and were in their 20s, were found along the same highway by police searching for Gilbert in December.

Each of those bodies had been wrapped in burlap - a type of sack-like cloth - and were reportedly found clustered within five hundred feet of the other nearest victim.

But there was no sign of Gilbert.

Authorities believe the women were killed at a different location but then their bodies were dumped on the Long Island beach.

The first victim was Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who was last seen in Manhattan on July 9, 2007.
Melissa Barthelemy was 24 when she vanished two years later almost to the day.

Craigslist killer: The bodies of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, (top left), Megan Waterman (top right), Melissa Barthelemy, 24, (bottom left) and Maureen Brainer-Barnes, 25, were discovered in shallow graves in December at Long Island

She was followed by Amber Lynn Costello, who was 27 when last seen in early September last year.

The last to be identified was Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old who disappeared last June. All four were wrapped in hessian.

Last week, investigators found a fifth body about a mile east of where the first four were located.

That discovery prompted them to resume a widespread search of a seven-mile stretch of beach. This led to the discovery of three additional victims yesterday, but tests have not yet revealed who they are.

Police have now made it a priority to identify Gilbert. Twice now her family have been given reason to hope that her body had been found and that she could finally be laid to rest, only to be disappointed.

Detectives are also looking into possible links to the killings of four women found on a remote beach near Atlantic City in 2006.

Hunt: The wind whips in from Cedar Beach near Babylon, New York, where police have searched for the bodies of more victims of the Craigslist killer

Suffolk County police said that there were substantial similarities in how the four women discovered in December died but declined to reveal their causes of death at the time.

The bodies found were all in different states of decomposition and it is thought they may have been dumped several months apart.

It took more than a month to identify the four women found in December. The New York City medical examiner's office is helping Suffolk County officials investigate the latest discovery.

Because authorities have DNA samples from Gilbert's family, a comparison with the latest remains 'should come pretty quickly,' a police spokesman said.

Gilbert’s sister, Sherre, 23, told Newsday: 'You prepare for the worst, and then you find out it’s not her. How do you take it?

'I am just scared that it’s going to turn into a cold case and we’re never going to find her.'

This case is reminiscent of another Craigslist serial killer case where medical student Philip Markoff used the classifieds website to lure prostitutes to an untimely end.