Gilgo Seaside killer shook group for 13 years after a frantic 911 name sparked grisly discovery of 4 our bodies

The tight-knit community of Gilgo Beach on Long Island changed forever with one chilling 911 name positioned on Might 10, 2010.

“One thing goes to occur to me … there’s anyone after me… please,” 24-year-old intercourse employee Shannan Gilbert informed a dispatcher in a chaotic 911 name.

The intercourse employee from Jersey Metropolis, NJ, who met her shoppers by Craigslist, vanished after leaving a shopper’s residence on foot within the seafront group of Oak Seaside and disappearing into the marshes.

The seek for her ended eight months later however set into movement a way more grizzly thriller that will terrorize Lengthy Island and forged a shadow over the group for greater than a decade, with 10 bodies found in the area.

On Dec. 11, 2010, a Suffolk County cop and cadaver canine have been scouring a dense shrub space alongside the Ocean Parkway at Gilgo Seaside looking for Gilbert’s physique after they made the grim discovery of one other lady’s stays.

That physique was later recognized as 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy – a intercourse employee who was final seen greater than 18 months earlier within the Large Apple. 

Then, over the subsequent two days, the stays of three different ladies — Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 – have been shortly found buried about one-tenth of a mile aside from one another on the seaside.

Fears of a serial killer were quickly sparked when it was decided that the 4 ladies, who cops mentioned have been all Craigslist escorts, had been killed and an analogous style and located wrapped in a burlap sack.

The ladies – dubbed by investigators because the “Gilgo 4” – had final been seen between July 2007 and September 2010, cops mentioned. 

Because the seek for Gilbert continued, the variety of human stays uncovered close to Gilgo Seaside climbed to 10 – these of eight ladies, one man and a toddler – by spring 2011.

Gilbert’s body wasn’t recovered until December 2011, about 3 miles east of the place the opposite 10 units have been found.

Within the wake of the grim discoveries, investigators spent the subsequent few years flip-flopping on whether the 11 slain were murdered at the hands of the same sick killer.’

The response to the murders additionally prompted controversy with the police accused of not placing as a lot effort into the probe as potential as a result of the women have been all prostitutes.

Authorities had initially suspected that almost all of the deaths weren’t all linked due to the variety of victims and the truth that some have been dismembered and a few have been intact.

However the Suffolk County Police Commissioner on the time, Richard Dormer, got here out publicly in December 2011 to say they have been working off the idea that one serial killer was in charge. 

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He argued that it wasn’t uncommon for a serial killer to evolve and modify their strategies over time, however he conceded that others – together with some in his personal division – disagreed.

Authorities later mentioned they thought Gilbert’s dying was an “unlucky accident” and she or he had presumably drowned within the marsh the place her physique was discovered. They decided, nevertheless, that the deaths of the Gilgo 4 have been most likely the work of 1 particular person. 

The probe into the high-profile case began to go chilly by 2012. Annoyed FBI sources claimed Suffolk brass have been unwilling to let the feds assist in the otherwise-stalled investigation.

In 2015, the native company did an about-turn and requested the feds to tackle a major function within the probe. 

Nonetheless, it wasn’t till 2020 when then-Suffolk commish, Geraldine Hart, introduced efforts to advance the case, together with the launch of the GilgoNews web site which accepted nameless suggestions.

Investigators additionally launched a string of pictures of a leather-based belt they believed belonged to the suspect, which was embossed with the letters “HM” or “WH” and had been collected early on within the probe.

“We do consider that the belt was dealt with by the suspect, and didn’t belong to any of the victims,” Hart mentioned.

Then, final 12 months, newly appointed Commissioner Rodney Harrison fashioned an interagency job drive investigators from the FBI, in addition to state and native police departments, aimed toward fixing the case.

“I consider this case is solvable and figuring out the particular person or folks chargeable for these murders is a prime precedence,” he mentioned on the time. 

A re-examining of the proof led officers to Rex Heuermann, who fitted the exact profile of the killer composed in 2011 which they’d been in search of.

It additionally seems he had been hiding in plain sight, with the veneer of respectability working as an architect in the city and being a household man afforded in.

Now he stands accused of killing no less than three of the younger ladies swiftly buried on Gilgo seaside and police introduced Friday they’ve proof he was not solely trawling for intercourse and watching unspeakable pornography on-line, however that they feared the very worst – that he would quickly kill once more.