3 More Sets of Human Remains Found in Suspected NY Serial Killer Case!

Suffolk County police continue to search this area after finding eight bodies along the remote beach area in New York since December.

 

Searchers scouring dense undergrowth for more victims of a suspected serial killer along a remote New York beach area have now found a total of eight sets of human remains, authorities said Monday.

Searchers perched in fire truck bucket ladders and others on foot had scanned the tick-infested vegetation, resulting in the discovery of three more people's remains. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said the search was expected to resume Tuesday.

One person's remains were found last week along the highway that leads to popular Jones Beach, about 45 miles east of New York City. That victim has not been identified, and police have not positively connected it to the bodies of four prostitutes found nearby in December.

Police also employed helicopters and cadaver dogs, as well as police academy cadets, detectives and volunteer firefighters, in their search through thick underbrush and evergreens on a barrier island south of Long Island.

Dominick Varrone, Suffolk's chief of detectives, said the dogs were having a difficult time maneuvering through the brush. "They don't like getting smacked in the face with the bramble," he said.

Police said as many as 20 officers had been infected with poison ivy during recent searches.

The four dead prostitutes were found in December in the area, a 4-foot-tall tangle of sea grass punctuated by scrubby pine trees. Police suspect a serial killer, but so far have no suspects.

It took more than a month to identify the four women found in December. The New York City medical examiner's office is helping Suffolk County officials investigate the latest discovery.

Investigators have searched the area, roughly 7.5 miles, several times since December. Dormer said the discovery of the latest remains gives investigators new possible leads into the killings of all the victims.

Forensic testing determined that the body found last week was not that of Shannan Gilbert, a missing Jersey City, N.J., woman. Because authorities have DNA samples from her family, a comparison with the latest remains "should come pretty quickly," Dormer said.

Gilbert, 24, was last seen in Oak Beach on May 1, 2010, after apparently meeting a client she had booked through Craigslist. The bodies of the four other women, who worked as Craigslist escorts and were in their 20s, were found along the same highway by police searching for Gilbert. The latest discovery was about a mile east of where the other four were found. The four dead women's remains were strewn about 500 yards apart from each other.

Gilbert had arranged to meet a client in Oak Beach. A resident of the gated seaside enclave has told authorities a woman believed to be Gilbert came to his door around 4:45 a.m. May 1, pleading for help.

The man said that when he tried to call police, the woman fled.

A few moments later, an unidentified man in a sport utility vehicle drove past the house and said he was looking for the woman, but then took off. Neither the woman nor the man was seen by the neighbor again.

The client Gilbert had arranged to meet was investigated but is not believed to be a suspect in her disappearance.

"We still believe that Shannan Gilbert is in this area," Varrone told reporters, although he did not elaborate.

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9/11 Mastermind, 4 Alleged Henchmen to Face Military Tribunal

 Yielding to political opposition, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged henchmen will be referred to military commissions for trial rather than to a civilian federal court in New York.

The families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks have waited almost a decade for justice, and "it must not be delayed any longer," Holder told a news conference.

Holder had announced the earlier plan for trial in New York City in November 2009, but that foundered amid widespread opposition to a civilian court trial, particularly in New York. Congress passed legislation that prohibits bringing any detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States.

Monday, the attorney general called the congressional restrictions unwise and unwarranted and said a legislative body cannot make prosecutorial decisions.

Most Republicans applauded the turnabout, but Holder said he is convinced that his earlier decision was the right one. The Justice Department had been prepared to bring "a powerful case" in civilian court, he said.

In New York on Monday, the government unsealed and got a judge to dismiss an indictment in the case that charged Mohammed and the others with 10 counts relating to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The dismissal was because the accused will not be tried in civilian court.

The indictment said that in late August 2001, as the terrorists in the United States made final preparations, Mohammed was notified about the date of the attack and relayed that to Osama bin Laden.

Some 9/11 family members supported the change to military commissions.

"We're delighted," said Alexander Santora, 74, father of deceased firefighter Christopher A. Santora. The father called the accused terrorists "demonic human beings, they've already said that they would kill us if they could, if they got the chance they would do it again."

Republican lawmakers, who led the opposition to a trial in civilian court, welcomed the administration's shift.

"While it is unfortunate that it took so long to make this announcement, I am pleased that the Obama administration has finally heeded those who rebuked their decision and that the trial is being held where it belongs," said Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

New York Republican congressman Peter King, who has opposed trying the 9/11 conspirators in federal court, said Monday's decision is a vindication of President George W. Bush's detention policies. Some Democrats also said holding a trial in New York was the wrong way to go.

The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the administration's decision.

Cases prosecuted in military commissions now "are sure to be subject to continuous legal challenges and delays, and their outcomes will not be seen as legitimate. That is not justice," said ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero.

Holder said it is unclear whether the five men could receive the death penalty if they plead guilty in military court.

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