Long Island serial killer

Long Island serial killer (also referred to by media sources as the Gilgo Beach Killer or the Craigslist Ripper) is an unidentified suspected serial killer who is believed to have murdered 10 to 16 people associated with the sex trade, over a period of nearly 20 years, and dumped their bodies along the Ocean Parkway, near the remote Long Island, New York beach towns of Gilgo Beach and Oak Beach in Suffolk County, and the area of Jones Beach State Park in Nassau County.

The remains of four victims were found in December 2010, while six more sets of remains were found in March and April 2011. Police believe the latest sets of remains predate the four bodies found in December 2010.

On May 9, 2011, authorities surmised that two of the newest sets of remains might be the work of a second killer. On November 29, 2011, however, the police announced their belief that one person is responsible for all 10 deaths, and that they did not believe the case of Shannan Gilbert, an escort who was missing when the first set of bodies were found, was related. "It is clear that the area in and around Gilgo Beach has been used to discard human remains for some period of time," said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

Police were initially searching for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old woman from New Jersey, who was working as an escort and was reported missing on May 1, 2010. She was last seen in the area after she ran from, rather than to, her driver, Michael Pak, who was waiting for her outside a client's house in nearby Oak Beach.

In December 2010, a police officer and his dog, on a routine training exercise, discovered the first body: "the skeletal remains of a woman in a nearly disintegrated burlap sack". This discovery led to three more bodies' being found two days later in the same area, on the north side of the Ocean Parkway. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said, "Four bodies found in the same location pretty much speaks for itself. It's more than a coincidence. We could have a serial killer."