New York serial killer body count rising

It potentially brings the body count so far to 10, although it is unclear if the remains belong to one person or two different people.

Around 125 police officers had expanded their search to new areas of the remote Jones Beach State Park in the south of Long Island, south east New York.

It was then that the bones and skull were discovered, one and a half miles apart.

After an extensive search using a helicopter police ended their efforts, but said they could return.

Nassau County police executive Edward Mangano told reporters: "Obviously some crazed killer dumped bodies here, we're disgusted by it, we're angry over it and we're going to catch this person.

"We're going to hunt them down, find them and put them in jail."

In December 2010 it was the search for missing 24-year-old prostitute Shannon Gilbert that led to the discovery of four murdered women.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelmy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello had all worked as prostitutes and, like Shannon, had advertised their services on the website Craigslist.

They were all wrapped in sacks and dumped near a lonely stretch of road that runs through isolated beaches and thick shrub land.

Three months later, at the beginning of April, police found four more bodies in the area.

But the windy and salty conditions have made forensics challenging and none of those corpses have yet been identified.

Police, who are yet to name a suspect, say they have been looking at possible links with a case in Atlantic City in 2006, when four murdered prostitutes were discovered in similar circumstances.

Shannon Gilbert has still not been found.