Police divers search for NY serial killer victims

Suffolk County police on Long Island closed off a stretch of scrub-covered bank leading down to the inlet at Hemlock Cove in their latest check on the grisly body count piling up in the nature reserve about an hour from New York City.

Three divers in hooded black and orange dry suits waded into the fog-shrouded water carrying digging implements and metal detectors.

County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told a news conference that aircraft would be brought in to help the search.

Investigators are officially still focusing on the search for Shannan Gilbert, a prostitute who vanished nearby in May. However, that probe has morphed into a far more chilling hunt after the discovery of at least four other slain prostitutes and possibly six more sets of human remains.

All the remains have turned up in the same stretch of thick, almost impassable scrubland and dunes lining the lonely Ocean Parkway as it runs through Gilgo State Park.

The park is part of a huge, seemingly pristine beach area that is desolate in winter, but will soon be frequented by crowds of bathers and tourists in the summer.

Police appear to have little in the way of leads so far and are being hampered by the extreme density of the seaside brush.

Police are keeping their cards close to their chest so far but are under increasing pressure from the public and media to solve the macabre mystery. Crime scenes along the desolate beach road are regularly crowded with journalists and live-TV trucks.

Despite the absence of hard facts, local newspapers are quoting unnamed police sources on lurid details that point to an ever-more complex case.

The New York Post reported that vegetation was sprouting from the latest sets of remains, indicating that they had lain there far longer than the four identified bodies of prostitutes.

These remains were possibly the work not of the current murderer but of convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin, who confessed to 17 slayings and is serving a life sentence, the report said.

Investigators have also speculated that not one, but two murderers may be using the bleak site as a graveyard.

Others have quoted police indicating that the latest killer to terrorize Long Island has covered his tracks so carefully that he must understand police methods – or even have served in uniform himself.