Police Think Long Island Serial Killer May Be Ex-Law Enforcement

Police Think Long Island Serial Killer May Be Ex-Law Enforcement


The Long Island serial killer who has dumped up to eight bodies along a Long Island barrier beach may be an ex-cop or other law officer according to law enforcement officials familiar with the case, ABC News reports.

April 5, 2011: In this file photo emergency personnel search the dunes and scrub near the ocean, across the road from where eight bodies where found, near Oak Beach, N.Y.

The idea that the killer may be a former law enforcement official, or someone familiar with law enforcement techniques, is based on evidence that the suspect may be knowledgeable of investigators' procedures, according to officials.

Police have been looking into numerous people with possible links to the four slain women who have been identified since the investigation began, and are also looking at people with regular access to the beach where the bodies were found, according to ABC News.

Investigators are also exploring possible links to the serial killer who murdered prostitutes in New Jersey, officials have said.

One investigator familiar with the case and the behavior of serial killers believes the serial killer is organized and methodical about his procedures, probably above average intelligence. He said it appears the killer usually lures people, kills them in one place and then disposes the body in another, ABC News reports.

This killer is often social, according to the investigator, and would appear to have a normal life with family and friends as opposed to being a loner.

The disappearance of 24-year-old N.J. resident and Craigslist escort Shannan Gilbert led investigators to the Suffolk County beach spot late last year where they found four skeletal bodies of female prostitutes. Four more bodies that have yet to be identified were found when officers returned to the area in the past two weeks, but all eight were found within a three-mile radius on the north side of the parkway, MyFoxNY.com reports.

None of the found victims, however, is Gilbert, whose case remains open.

A Suffolk County investigator who declined to be identified because of the ongoing case told The Associated Press that detectives are taking a methodical approach to finding the suspect, poring over credit card records of the victims to track their movements and where they spent their money in the area, MyFoxNY.com reports.

Cell phone calls made by the women are also being tracked, and computer records of their communications and appointment records have also been viewed.

"These kinds of investigations have to take slow steps; you don't want to jump to conclusions," Katherine Ramsland told MyFoxNY, a professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa., and author of "The Human Predator: A Historical Chronicle of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation."

"They are looking at the evidence to determine what may be similar about the victims, but they also want to look at dissimilarities," she said.