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Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison announced on Tuesday, Feb. 15, the creation of the Gilgo Beach task force, which will include special homicide investigators from the Suffolk County Police Department and the FBI, as well as Suffolk District Attorney’s Office and the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office.
The formation of the task force represents the first time federal, state, and local agencies will jointly dedicate investigators to solving one of the nation’s most well-known serial killer cases, the Suffolk County Police said.
Each task force member brings a unique level of expertise and will work to retrace the steps of the victims prior to their deaths, the commissioner said.
The team will also continue to utilize new scientific techniques to advance this investigation and collaborate on evidence gathered throughout the decades-long case that spans from Manorville to Hempstead.
The task force will continue to focus on uncovering the identity of the remaining victims with the ultimate goal of identifying the person or people responsible for these homicides.
“As I said on day one as police commissioner, I believe this case is solvable, and identifying the person or people responsible for these murders is a top priority,” Harrison said.
It has been more than 11 years since Suffolk County police officers, searching for missing person Shannan Gilbert, discovered the body of Melissa Barthelemy along Ocean Parkway on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010.
The bodies of three more victims, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Megan Waterman, were discovered two days later.
The search for Gilbert continued and in March 2011, remains were located belonging to Jessica Taylor, whose partial remains were discovered in Manorville eight years earlier.
Three more sets of remains were discovered on Monday, April 4, 2011—Valerie Mack, whose partial remains were located in Manorville in November 2000; an unidentified female toddler, who, through DNA testing was subsequently identified as the daughter of a woman whose remains were later found in Nassau County; and an unidentified Asian male, who was wearing women’s clothing.
A week later, the remains of two other victims, including the toddler’s mother, were found in Nassau County.
Police continued to search the area and on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, Shannan Gilbert’s remains were located.
To help solve the crimes, Suffolk County Crime Stoppers is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in this case.
Individuals can anonymously submit information online to Crime Stoppers by visiting P3Tips.com or by calling 1-800-220-TIPS.
You can also utilize the Gilgo News website, https://www.gilgonews.com/, to submit tips online.
"We encourage the public to submit information —no detail is too small to aid in this case," the department said.
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