Serial killer theory returns to beach corpses case

Published : Jan 31, 2011 - 14:20 Updated : Jan 31, 2011 - 14:20

YAPHANK, New York (AP) _ The four women whose bodies were dumped along a desolate beachfront strip on Long Island were all prostitutes who booked their clients online and were probably slain by a serial killer, authorities said Monday.

This combination of photos provided by the Suffolk County Police Department shows, from left, Melissa Barthelemy, of New York's Erie County; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, of Norwich, Conn.; Megan Waterman, of Scarborough, Maine; and Amber Lynn Costello, of North Babylon, N.Y. Investigators returned Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 to their theory that all four young women were slain by a serial killer and dumped on a desolate stretch of a New York barrier island, as authorities said all the bodies have been identified as those of prostitutes who advertised online. (AP-Yonhap)

Investigators did not identify a suspect, or say how the women were killed, but were looking into what clients they might have met shortly before they disappeared. One of the women was reported missing nearly 3 years ago; another was seen as recently as last September.

``Their deaths are a direct result of their business as prostitutes,'' District Attorney Thomas Spota told reporters. ``I sincerely hope that people who are engaged in a similar business as these four young women would come forward. They certainly must have some information.''

Police had wavered over whether a serial killer was involved; Police Commissioner Richard Dormer initially suggested that scenario when the bodies were found in December, but detectives later became tight-lipped about a cause.

But on Monday, Spota said that ``the actual cause of deaths appear to be substantially similar'' and that ``it appears the same person or persons are responsible.''

Spota and Dormer refused to say how the women died. In December, they had described the remains as skeletal.

The women identified Monday were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, of Connecticut, Melissa Barthelemy, of New York state, and Amber Lynn Costello, of Long Island. Brainard-Barnes was last seen in Manhattan on July 9, 2007; Barthelemy reportedly was living in the Bronx when she disappeared on July 12, 2009, police said. Barthelemy's relatives filed a missing-persons report in New York shortly after her disappearance because they had been unable to contact her.

Brainard-Barnes was 25 when she disappeared; Barthelemy was 24 and Costello was 27.

The fourth woman, Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old Craigslist escort from Maine, was last seen in June at a Holiday Inn Express on Long Island. Waterman disappeared after traveling to New York on Memorial Day weekend with Akeem Cruz, a 21-year-old man described as her boyfriend. Cruz is now serving a 20-month sentence at the Maine Correctional Center for drug trafficking.

A woman matching Costello's name, birth date and appearance failed to appear in February in a Flordia court, on theft charges and was briefly jailed there twice in 2009 for shoplifting. She was last seen in North Babylon on Sept. 2.

Police search in the brush by the side of the road on Cedar Beach, near Babylon, N.Y., Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010.(AP)

Police found the first body in mid-December just steps from a 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch of beachfront highway that leads to the popular Jones Beach State Park. The other three women were found two days later during a follow-up investigation.

The victims ``were probably in that location for some period of time,'' Spota said. But investigators believe they were killed elsewhere and their bodies dumped along the beach highway.

Calls and messages left for family members of Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Bethelemy were not immediately returned Monday.

No one answered the door at the address listed for Barthelemy, and a man with the Costello surname in North Babylon said he had no relation to the dead woman.

Police were looking for another missing Craigslist escort when they happened upon the bodies near the beach. They have since said that the person they were originally looking for, a woman from New Jersey, was not among the dead. Authorities said Monday that case is still under investigation.

``What activities these victims may have engaged in prior to their murders does not matter,'' Dormer said Monday. ``They were young women whose lives were cut tragically short.''

The case has some similarities to a 2006 New Jersey case, in which four prostitutes' bodies were found in a drainage ditch just outside Atlantic City and about a mile from the beach. Those killings remain unsolved.

Atlantic County Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Madelaine Vitale said Monday that her office had been in contact with Suffolk County investigators from the early stages of their investigation, but she would not comment directly on the news from Long Island. New York law enforcement authorities also declined to comment on any possible connection.

The highway sits on 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 with several state- and town-run beaches to its east.

<한글 기사>

美해변서 연쇄살인범 소행추정 여성시신 4구 발견

(야팡크 뉴욕 AP=연합뉴스) 미국 뉴욕주 동남부 롱아일랜드 섬의 인적이 드문 해안도로 변에서 지난해말 20대 여성 시신 4구가 잇따라 발견돼 수사한 결과 이들은 모두 매춘부였으며 연쇄살인범의 소행으로 보인다고 수사 당국이 24일 밝혔다.

검찰은 "이들의 사인은 상당히 유사하다"며 "같은 사람이나 사람들이 범행한 것으로 보인다"고 말했다.

경찰은 지난달 중순 해안도로에서 불과 몇걸음 떨어진 곳에서 버려져 있던 시신 한 구를 처음 발견한 후 이틀만에 시신 3구를 한꺼번에 찾아냈다.

이들은 지난 2007년 7월 실종부터 지난해 9월 실종에 이르기까지 실종 시기가 각기 다르며, 다른 곳에서 살해된 뒤 이곳에 버려진 것으로 수사관들은 보고 있다.

경찰은 이들 외에 또 다른 실종 매춘부를 찾고 있다.

이번 사건은 뉴저지 애틀랜틱 시티에서 매춘부 시신 4구가 하수구에 버려진 채 발견됐으나 아직 범인이 잡히지 않은 지난 2006년 사건과 유사점이 일부 있다.

<관련 사건 기사>