Police Arrest Suspect in Long Island Serial Killings

Police on Long Island have arrested a suspect in connection with a series of murders that began in 2010, News 12 Long Island reported.

Suffolk County, Nassau County and state police were on the scene Friday morning in Massapequa Park on the south shore of Long Island.

Multiple sources confirmed to News 12 Long Island that police had a suspect in custody in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders, which started Dec. 11, 2010 when the first of 10 bodies were found.

Gilgo Beach is located in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County.

Fears of a serial killer developed after the body of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was found along Ocean Parkway. The remains of three other women were found in the following days.

The so-called “Gilgo Four” — Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — were found whole, wrapped in burlap about one-tenth of a mile apart from each other on the beach, the New York Post reported.

All of them worked as escorts using Craigslist, Daily Mail.com reported.

By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10 — eight women, an unidentified man and toddler.

One victim, 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, was found dead in a swamp in nearby Oak Beach in 2011. Her neck had been broken before she was killed and had a puncture hole in it that could have been caused by a drill, according to her family’s attorney, Daily Mail.com reported.

Police were searching for Gilbert when they discovered the “Gilgo Four.”

Last year, Suffolk County police disclosed information about the murders in the hopes of generating new leads. They released three 911 calls related to the death of Shannan Gilbert, and released where the “Gilgo Four” victims were from, what tattoos they had, where they met their clients and where they were last seen, News 12 Long Island reported.