Possible serial killer link on NY beach road
Photo: AP
BABYLON, N.Y. — Along a desolate, wind-swept stretch of highway that on
sunny summer days transports thousands to the white sands of Long Island's
Jones Beach, four bodies were systematically dumped, perhaps over a period of
18 months or longer, police say.
Homicide detectives on a freezing December day were scrambling to learn the
identities of the victims. The first of the decomposed corpses was found
Saturday by an officer and his cadaver dog. Three more, all scattered within
a quarter-mile, were found two days later.
Now, authorities want to apprehend a possible serial killer.
"We're looking at that — that we could have a serial killer," Suffolk
County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told reporters at a briefing before
officers and the cadaver dog resumed searching in and around the Ocean
Parkway for possibly more victims. "I don't think its a coincidence that four
bodies ended up in this area."
Tuesday's search on a highway about 45 miles east of New York City ended
without any additional discoveries, but police intend to press on with an
investigation, including working with neighboring police agencies and asking
the FBI and the New York City medical examiner's office for help in
identifying the victims.
Police found the decomposed remains just feet from the roadway during an
ongoing search for a missing prostitute last known to be headed to nearby
Fire Island. At least two of the bodies are female, but authorities say they
haven't determined the gender of the other two. Dormer also said there is no
indication yet that either of the female victims is the 24-year-old from
Jersey City, N.J., who was reported missing May 1.
Suffolk County detectives also have been searching for a Maine woman who
worked as an escort and was last seen in June at a hotel in Hauppauge, N.Y.,
where she went with her boyfriend.
Police believe the four were killed elsewhere and then brought to the site,
a narrow strip of land that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic
Ocean. The four-lane parkway runs through the middle, connecting Jones
Beach State Park with several state and town-run beaches to its east.
Dormer said the search of the vast, remote area could take days or longer.
The discovery drew comparisons to a 4-year-old New Jersey case in which
four prostitutes' bodies were found in a drainage ditch in Egg Harbor
Township, just outside Atlantic City and about a mile from the beach. Those
killings remain unsolved.
Atlantic County Prosecutor Theodore Housel said Tuesday that Atlantic
County detectives were still investigating the bodies found in November 2006 and
had spoken with authorities in New York about their case.
"We have been in contact with authorities in Suffolk County, New York," he
said. "It would not be fair for us to comment on their investigation."
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