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americancoldcases · 5 years ago

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The Long Island Serial Killer (Long Island Ripper) or LISK:

The case of The Long Island serial killer is as grim as it is horrifying. This unidentified serial killer was believed to have killed 10 to 16 people over a period of nearly 20 years. With his victims mostly prostitutes, he left their bodies in areas on the South Shore of Long Island, New York. He has also been recognized by the grim nickname THE LONG ISLAND RIPPER.

• • •

Timeline of Events:

**Due to a variety of scattered human remains found at various crime sites, a condensed and categorized list of identified, unidentified, and possible victims, as well as their last known location, will be mentioned. Identified bodies will be featured alongside bullet points (•). Unidentified who have succumb to the hands of the killer will be listed alongside an asterisk (*). Possible victims who are identified/unidentified but might be similar with the identical motif of the LISK will be paired alongside a dash (-) and question mark (?).

• December 2010:

Of the ten bodies or sets of remains found since late 2010, the four discovered in December 2010 have been identified as missing prostitutes who all advertised their services on Craigslist. It has been theorized by a former investigator on the case that the killer shopped for look-a-like victims through Craigslist ads. Each had been strangled and her body wrapped in a burlap sack before being dumped along Gilgo Beach. All are believed to have been killed elsewhere.

• 1. Maureen Brainard-Barnes (25) of Norwich, Connecticut was an escort who advertised her services online. She was last seen on July 9th, 2007, saying that she planned "to spend the day in New York City." She was never seen Shortly after her disappearance, a friend of Maureen's, Sara Karnes, received a call from a man on an unfamiliar number. The man claimed that he had just seen Maureen and that she was alive and staying at a “whorehouse in Queens”. He refused to identify himself and could not tell Karnes the location of the house. He told Karnes he would call back and give her the address, but never called again. Karnes said that the man had no discernible New York or Boston accent. Her body was found in December 2010.

• 2. Melissa Barthélemy (24) of Erie County, New York, went missing on July 10th, 2009. She had been living in the Bronx and working as an escort through Craigslist. On the night she went missing, she met with a client, deposited $900 in her bank account, and attempted to call an old boyfriend, but did not get through. Beginning one week later, and lasting for five weeks, her teenage sister, Amanda, received a series of "vulgar, mocking and insulting" calls from a man, who may have been the killer using Melissa's cell phone. The caller asked if Amanda "was a whore like her sister." The calls became increasingly disturbing, and eventually culminated in the caller telling Amanda that Melissa was dead, and that he was going to "watch her rot." Police traced some of the calls to Madison Square Garden, midtown Manhattan, and Massapequa, but were unable to determine who was making the calls. Melissa's mother noted that there were "a lot of calls to Manorville" from Melissa's phone around the time of her disappearance.

• 3. Megan Waterman (22) of South Portland, Maine, went missing on June 6th, 2010, after placing advertisements on Craigslist as an escort. The day before, she had told her 20-year-old boyfriend that she was going out and would call him later. At the time of her disappearance, she was staying at a motel in Hauppauge, New York, 15 miles northeast of Gilgo Beach. Her body was recovered in December 2010.

• 4. Amber Lynn Costello (27) of North Babylon, New York, a town ten miles north of Gilgo Beach, was a prostitute and heroin user who went missing on September 2nd, 2010. That night she reportedly went to meet a stranger who had called her several times and offered $1,500 for her services. Body was found in December 2010.

• March 2011:

The four additional sets of remains discovered on March 29th and April 4th were all within two miles and to the east of those found in December. They included two identified women an unidentified man, and a toddler. A skull and a partial set of remains were found on April 11th after the search expanded into Nassau County. They were found about one mile apart, approximately five miles west of those found in December.

• 5. Jessica Taylor (20) who resided in Manhattan, went missing in July 2003. On July 26th, 2003, her naked and dismembered torso, missing its head and hands, was discovered 45 miles east of Gilgo Beach in Manorville, New York; these remains were identified by DNA analysis later that year. Taylor's torso was found atop a pile of scrap wood at the end of a paved access road off of Halsey Manor Road, just north of where it crosses the Long Island Expressway. Plastic sheeting was found underneath the torso, and a tattoo on her body had been mutilated with a sharp instrument. On May 9th, 2011, it was reported that the remains of a skull, a pair of hands, and a forearm found on March 29 at Gilgo were matched to Taylor. She had worked in Washington, D.C., and Manhattan as a prostitute. Her body was found March 29th.

April 2011:

• 6. Valerie Mack (24) of Philadelphia, was previously dubbed "Jane Doe No. 6". A human head, right foot, and hands, found on April 4th, 2011, were determined to have belonged to an unidentified victim. The rest of her body was found on November 19th, 2000, in the same part of Manorville where most of Jessica Taylor's remains were later discovered. The victim's torso was found wrapped in garbage bags and dumped in the woods near the intersection of Halsey Manor Rd and Mill Rd, adjacent to a set of power lines and a nearby power line access road. Her right foot had been cut off high above the ankle, possibly to conceal an identifying mark or tattoo. The dismembered remains of Jessica Taylor and "Jane Doe No. 6" were both disposed of in a similar manner and in the same town, suggesting a link. In September 2011, police released a composite sketch of "Jane Doe No. 6", saying she was about 5' 2" and was between 18 and 35-years old. On May 22nd, 2020, Suffolk County Police announced that they had positively identified and on May 28th, 2020 it was announced that the remains had been identified as Mack, who had last been seen by family in Spring or Summer of 2000 in the area of Port Republic, New Jersey. Mack had also gone by the name Melissa Taylor, and had worked as an escort in Philadelphia.

* April 2011 (cont.) w/ Unidentified Victims:

* 7. "John Doe" (17)/(23) was also discovered on April 4th, 2011 at Gilgo Beach, very close to where the first four were discovered in December 2010, was the body of what appeared to be a young Asian male who died from blunt-force trauma. In September 2011, police released a composite sketch of the victim. They stated that he had likely been working as a prostitute and was wearing women's clothing at the time of his death. He was missing four teeth and had been dead for or between 5 and 10 years. He is believed to have lived as a woman, perhaps being killed when the killer found out he was not a woman, and to have had some kind of musculoskeletal disorder which would have affected his gait.

* 8. "Baby Doe" was the third body found on April 4th, 2011, about 250 feet away from the partial remains of "Jane Doe No. 6,". The remains were that of a female toddler between 16 and 24 months of age and had already decayed into a skeletal form. The body was wrapped in a blanket and showed no visible signs of trauma. DNA tests determined that the child's mother was "Jane Doe No. 3", whose body was found 10 miles east, near Jones Beach State Park, just days after this discovery. The toddler was reported to be African-American and was wearing gold earrings and a gold necklace.

* 9. "Peaches/Jane Doe No. 3" was discovered on June 28th, 1997. The dismembered torso of an unidentified young African-American female was found at Hempstead Lake State Park, in the town of Lakeview, New York. The torso was found in a green plastic Rubbermaid container, which was dumped next to a road along the west side of the lake. Investigators reported that the victim had a tattoo of a heart-shaped peach with a bite out of it and two drips falling from its core on her left breast. On April 11th, 2011, police in Nassau County discovered dismembered skeletal human remains inside a plastic bag near Jones Beach State Park, nicknamed "Jane Doe No. 3". DNA analysis identified this victim as the Mother of "Baby Doe"; she wearing gold jewelry similar to that of her daughter. In December 2016, Peaches and Jane Doe No. 3 were positively identified as being the same person.

-? Victims Unofficially Involved in LISK murders.

*The person(s) involved have not been officially linked with the other LISK murders, and are still being reviewed by police.

-? Tina Foglia (19) was last seen in the early morning hours of February 1st, 1982 at a rock music venue in West Islip. She was a known hitchhiker. Her dismembered body was discovered by Department of Transportation workers on February 3rd, 1982 along the shoulder of the Southern State Parkway. Her remains were placed in three separate plastic garbage bags, and were found a few miles north of the Robert Moses Causeway, which leads to Gilgo Beach and Oak Beach. A diamond ring that Foglia was known to wear was missing, and the DNA of an unknown male was found on the garbage bags. Police have not ruled out the possibility that Tina Foglia was an early victim of the Long Island Serial Killer.

-? A suitcase containing the dismembered torso of an unidentified Hispanic or light-skinned African-American female washed up on a beach at Harbor Island Park, in the town of Mamaroneck on March 3rd, 2007. The victim had a tattoo of two cherries on her left breast, similar in appearance to the tattoo found on Peaches. The former was determined to have been stabbed to death. Never identified, the victim is referred to as "Cherries" by investigators. One of her dismembered legs washed up at Cold Spring Harbor on March 21st, 2007, and the other at Oyster Bay in the village of Cove Neck the following day. "Cherries" was dismembered in a fashion similar to three other victims (Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and "Peaches") meaning she may be linked to the other official victims.

-? On May 17th, 2011, the New York Post reported that Long Island police were revisiting other similar unsolved murders of prostitutes. Named in the article was Tanya Rush (39) a mother of three from Brooklyn whose dismembered body was found in a small suitcase in June 2008 on the shoulder of the Southern State Parkwa zzzy in Bellmore, New York.

-? Shannan Maria Gilbert (24) was an escort who may have been a victim of the Long Island serial killer. She left for a client's residence in Oak Beach after midnight on May 1st, 2010. At 4:51a.m. May 2nd, 911 dispatchers received a panicked phone call from Gilbert who can be heard saying that there was someone "after her" and that "they" were trying to kill her. She was last seen a short time later banging on the front door of a nearby Oak Beach residence and screaming for help before running off into the night. After nineteen months of searching, police found Gilbert's remains in a marsh, half a mile from where she was last seen. In May 2012, the Suffolk County medical examiners ruled that Gilbert accidentally drowned after entering the marsh. They believe that she was in a drug induced panic, and have concluded that cause was "death by misadventure" or "inconclusive." Her family believes she was murdered. On November 15, 2012 a lawsuit was filed by her mother, Mari Gilbert, against the Suffolk County Police Department in the hopes of getting more answers about what happened to her daughter the night she went missing. Famous Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden agreed to conduct an independent autopsy of Gilbert's remains in hopes of determining a clear cause of death. Upon examination of Gilbert's remains, Baden found damage to her hyoid bone, suggesting that strangulation may have occurred. Baden also noted that her body was found face-up, which is not common for drowning victims. Despite this, her death is still officially listed by police as an accident.

-? On January 23, 2013, a woman walking her dog found human remains intentionally buried in a small piece of brush in a sandy area along the shore at the end of Sheep Lane in Lattingtown, near Oyster Bay. The remains are believed to be of a woman between the ages of 20 and 30, possibly Asian. She was wearing a 22-karat gold pig pendant, which may be a reference in some Asian cultures to "The Year of the Pig." This leads some to believe she died at the age of 29. There was trauma caused to her bones; investigators believe she was buried before Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. Her case may be connected to the other 10 bodies found 32 miles away in and around Gilgo Beach.

-? On March 16, 2013, Natasha Jugo (31) was last seen leaving her home near Alley Pond Park, Queens. Her car was found along Ocean Parkway and some of her clothes and belongings were found in the sand near Gilgo Beach the following day. Jugo was described as 5'7, 120lbs with brown eyes and blonde hair. She was last seen wearing a black robe, pink pajamas, gray hooded sweatshirt, black coat, and black boots. Police are unsure whether the case is connected to the LISK victims. Jugo's family said that she had "a history of problems in which she thought people were following her." On June 24, 2013, Jugo's body was washed up on Gilgo Beach.

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americancoldcases · 5 years ago

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The Unsolved Cases of the Honolulu Strangler: The Honolulu Strangler, also known as the Honolulu Rapist, was Hawaii's first known serial killer and was responsible for the death of five women between 1985 and 1986.

Timeline of Events:

May 29, 1985: Vicki Gail Purdy (25) had left to go clubbing in Waikīkī that evening, but failed to meet up her friends. The next morning, her body was found in an embankment at Keehi Lagoon, wearing the clothes she was last seen leaving to the club in. Her hands were bound behind her back, and she had been raped and strangled. Her husband was cleared of any involvement in her death.

January 14, 1986: Regina Sakamoto (17) of Leilehua High School had missed her bus from Waipahu to school and was last heard from by her boyfriend at 7:15 a.m. when she called to tell him she would be late. On January 15th, her body was found at Keehi Lagoon wearing her blue tank top and white sweatshirt, but her lower body was unclothed. Her hands bound behind her back, she had been raped and strangled. This second case led police to suspect the same killer as the first because of the identical murder tactics used.

January 30, 1986: Denise Hughes (21), a secretary for a telephone company who commuted by bus and was active in her Christian church, did not show up to work on January 30th. Two days later on February 1st, Hughes was found dead in the Moanalua stream by three young fishermen. Her decomposing body was clothed in a blue dress, wrapped in a blue tarp, and with her hands bound. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Prompted by a third body, a serial killer taskforce was established on February 5th, four days after Denise Hughes was found.

March 26, 1986: Louise Medeiros (25) lived in Waipahu but had gone to Kauai to meet her extended family because of the death of her mother. Medeiros took a late night flight back to Oahu on the evening March 26th and told her family she would get home by bus from the airport. She disembarked the airplane and disappeared. Her decomposing body was found April 2nd, near Waikele stream by road workers. She was wearing her blouse, but her lower body was unclothed, and her hands were bound behind her back. Police set up sting operations using policewomen around Keehi Lagoon and the Honolulu International Airport.

April 29, 1986: Linda Pesce (36) was the fifth and last know victim to the strangler. According to her roommate, she left home on the morning of April 29th and was expected to be home late that evening, due to a pre-scheduled work meeting. The next morning, after being told that Linda had not shown up for work and that her car was parked on the side of the Nimitz-H1 viaduct, her roommate reported her missing. Police then searched the entire island and found Pesce's body. She was nude, her hands bound behind her back.

*To this day, the identity of the Honolulu Strangler remains unknown.

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