Shannan Gilbert Not Among the 8 Bodies Linked to Long Island Beach Serial Killer
Victim who launched investigation still missing as experts profile killer.
April 5, 2011— -- A missing prostitute whose disappearance led New York police to stumble on a serial killer's dumping ground on a secluded beach is not among the eight bodies who investigators have found and identified, police said today.
Shannan Gilbert, 24, disappeared in May 2010 after arranging online to meet a client for sex. Her disappearance triggered a search in the scrub brush along a remote beach halfway between New York City and the Hamptons, a popular summer getaway spot.
In December police found four skeletal bodies, all of them women and all of them prostitutes, but none were Gilbert. This week, cops found another four bodies. Those bodies have not been identified, but Suffolk County Police said today none of the remains belonged to Gilbert.
Cops obtained DNA samples of Gilbert's family last year and were able to quickly check the remains against those samples.
The police conclusion suggests that Gilbert is possibly a ninth victim of a serial killer.
"The search of the area will continue tomorrow," Suffolk County police said in a statement today.
Cops in rain slickers searched the brush along Gilgo Beach again today looking for the bodies of more women potentially killed and dumped in the thick vegetation, while other detectives are working to create a profile of the man who is stalking prostitutes online and killing them.
Suffolk County police are keeping a tight lid on many of the investigation's details, commenting publicly only on the search efforts -- the canine units with cadaver sniffing dogs, and a dozen police recruits from the academy brought in to help search for bodies.
Experts outside the investigation consulted by ABC News, said cops are compiling a vast database of clues and working up a profile of a single serial killer suspected of killing at least eight women, most of them prostitutes, and dumping their bodies on Gilgo Beach over four years.
In December, while searching for Gilbert, police stumbled on the killer's dumping ground, an area that has turned out to be a 7-mile stretch of beach as more bodies were discovered this week.
