The Long Island Killing Beach

Over the past 24 hours, law enforcement has concluded in press conferences that they are looking for Multiple killers involved in Long Island murder cases where remains of 10 people have been found near Jones and Gilgo beaches.

Well, to anyone who has been following the case like myself, we came to that conclusion a month ago. As I wrote on April 13, 2011, we're looking for at least two if not three serial killers (at the time, Joel Rifkin was being bandied about as a possible responsible killer for the older remains found).

Over the past 24 hours, it appears that law enforcement has divided up the remains into at least three discrete groups. There are the original four remains (all women who were apparently prostitutes via Craigslist) found last November and belongs to what I would say is one serial killer.

There are the dismembered remains of another woman, Jessica Taylor , whose partial remains were discovered on Long Island 40 miles away in 2003. That modus operandi is similar to partial remains of another dismembered woman found in Manorville, Long Island in 2003 and is highly suggestive that there's a serial killer at work in those cases. Whoever murdered and dismembered those women was doing their best to prevent anyone from ever identifying them or their murderer, up to and including trying to eliminate the presence of identifying tattoos on Taylor's body.

Then there are the remains of an Asian man and a young child, but those aren't connected to each other or any of the other remains. It's troubling that no one has apparently come forward with a missing persons report for the child, but that can be instructive as well. Perhaps the person who killed the child was a parent and the child died of neglect or mistreatment and instead of taking the child to a hospital where the parent/guardian's actions would be scrutinized, he or she buried the child along this stretch of beach.

I'd say now that we're still looking for at least two serial killers, and at least one other killer (though it's possibly two other killers since the Asian man and the child were not apparently related to the others or each other).

Despite all the evidence and remains discovered to date, one person is still missing. No one knows the whereabouts of Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance sparked the original hunt along Ocean Parkway and Gilgo Beach. These discoveries would not have been made had Gilbert not gone missing and law enforcement began a search along Ocean Parkway.

This situation has a long way to go before the case can be closed, but it is surely going to not be a happy ending for any involved.