Irishman leads hunt for US serial killer

AN Irishman is leading the investigation into a suspected serial killer following the discovery of eight bodies buried on a Long Island beach in the north-eastern state of New York.

The remains of four prostitutes, aged 22 to 27, who worked through online ads posted on the internet site Craigslist, were discovered in December near Gilgo beach, 75 kilometres east of New York City. The young women disappeared on different dates between 2007 and 2010.

Investigators found three more decomposing bodies earlier this week. And the body of the eighth victim turned up on Wednesday in the brambles that separate the beach from a 15km stretch of road known as Ocean Parkway.

A native of Newtown Crettyard, Co Louth, Richard Dormer, who is Suffolk County Police Commissioner is heading the investigation.

Asked if his police department, with more than 2,500 officers, is searching for a serial killer, he said: “We just don’t know. I was asked that question last week and I said it could be a serial killer. The experts are saying that it looks like a serial killer, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

The first four bodies were discovered stuffed into bushes on a quarter-mile stretch of waterfront property on Oak Beach, indicating “they were dumped there by the same person or persons,” said Dormer. “It’s too coincidental that there were four bodies in the same location.”

The four recently discovered bodies were taken to the New York City medical examiner’s office, which is conducting DNA tests.

“All the remains are here. We are doing anthropological review and DNA testing,” said Ellen Borakove, the medical examiner spokesperson.

“We need at least a couple of weeks, we don’t even know the sex of the victims,” she told AFP.

Suffolk County investigator Dominick Varrone told reporters that the most recently recovered bodies may have been victims killed before the four women whose bodies were found earlier.

“Until they are identified we cannot link the discoveries,” said Varrone.

Police have no suspects.

A possible ninth victim, Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old prostitute from New Jersey, has been missing since May 1, 2010.

A little before 5am that day, she banged on the door of Gus Coletti, 76, a resident of nearby Oak Beach.

“I hear somebody screaming and bang-bang on the door,” he said. “I opened the door, and she stood right there. I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ And she kept saying ‘Help me,’” he told the New York Times.

But Coletti said she ran off when he went to call police. “She took off, and that was the last I saw her,” he said.

Gilbert’s family insists she should be easily identifiable because she had a metal brace in her jaw.

Dozens of investigators are engaged in a macabre sweep of the beach with cadaver sniffing dogs.

Fire trucks were used to extend ladders horizontally over hard-to-reach areas and dangle searchers over them in gondolas.

“Any time you have an abundance of bodies found in the same vicinity, it’s very unusual,” Jay Salpeter, a former New York City homicide investigator told Long Island Newsday. “If you look at other serial killers, most times bodies are left in different locations and even different states. This is unique because the killer is using this (Gilgo Beach) as a dumping ground.”

If the serial killer theory is confirmed, it would be the third such case in the region over the past 20 years.