Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

L.I.S.K.: The Long Island Serial Killer

Bittrolff was arrested in 2014, linked by DNA found on two prostitute homicide victims, Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee, whose bodies were found in 1993 and 1994, respectively. (The match had been made through DNA submitted by his brother, who was convicted in 2013 in an unrelated case.) Bittrolff was convicted in May 2017 of these murders, and in September sentenced to consecutive terms of 25 years for each murder. The Suffolk County police did not comment on the prosecutor's statement, due to the active homicide investigation of the LISK murders. Bittrolff's attorney rejected the prosecutor's assertion.

A married carpenter, Bittrolff had lived in Manorville, three miles from where the torsos of LISK victims Jessica Taylor and "Jane Doe No. 6" were recovered (see victims in section below). Biancavilla said that Bittrolff was a hunter who was said to enjoy the killing of animals.

The grown daughter of Rita Tangredi, one of Bittrolff's known victims, was reported to be "best friends" with Melissa Barthelemy, one of the Gilgo Beach victims. Barthelemy's mother said that her daughter Melissa "had a lot of calls to Manorville from her phone" before her death.

Joseph Brewer

Joseph Brewer, an Oak Beach resident, was one of the last people known to have seen Shannan Gilbert alive. He hired her as an escort from Craigslist on the night of her disappearance. Brewer said that shortly after Gilbert arrived at his residence, she began acting erratically and fled into the night. Gilbert was reportedly seen running through Oak Beach, pounding on the doors of homes in Brewer's neighborhood. Around this time, Gilbert called 9-1-1, saying that "they were trying to kill her". However, police did not find any evidence of wrongdoing, and Brewer was quickly cleared as a suspect.

Dr. Peter Hackett

Two days after Gilbert's disappearance, Dr. Peter Hackett, an Oak Beach resident and neighbor of Brewer, called the woman's mother, Mari Gilbert. She later recounted that he said he was taking care of Gilbert, and that he "ran a home for wayward girls." Three days later, he called the mother again, denying that he had any contact with her daughter, and that he had called Mari Gilbert. Investigators later confirmed through phone records that Hackett called Mari twice following the disappearance. The marshy area where Gilbert's remains were found was also noted as near Hackett's backyard. Gilbert's family filed a wrongful death suit against Hackett in November 2012, claiming that he took Gilbert into his home that morning and administered drugs to her, facilitating her death. Later police revealed that Hackett had a history of inserting himself into, or exaggerating his role in, certain major events. Police also noted that Hackett's wife and two children were home on the night of Gilbert's disappearance. Police later ruled out Hackett as a suspect in the deaths of Gilbert and the LISK victims.

Victims

Of the ten bodies or sets of remains found since late 2010, the four discovered in December 2010 have been identified as missing sex workers who all advertised their services on Craigslist. 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.

Identified

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Connecticut, was an escort who advertised her services online. Maureen, who was four feet eleven inches tall and one hundred five pounds, was last seen on July 9, 2007, saying that she planned "to spend the day in New York City." She was never seen again. Maureen, a struggling mother, worked as a paid escort via Craigslist to pay the mortgage on her house. She had been out of the sex industry for seven months, but she returned to the work in order to pay her bills after receiving an eviction notice. Her body was found in December 2010. 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 he never called again. Karnes said that the man had no discernible New York or Boston accent.