A suspect is in custody in the Gilgo Beach murders, a law enforcement official and two government officials said Friday, in a case that captured national attention and confounded police on Long Island, New York, for more than a decade.
The Suffolk County police and the Suffolk County district attorney are leading the investigation. A spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said Friday morning there was a “significant development in the case” but declined to comment further until after a court proceeding later this morning.
The suspect is from Massapequa, which is in neighboring Nassau County.
The news was first reported by News 12 Long Island.
Eleven sets of human remains have been found on a stretch of highway in Suffolk County after police began searching along Ocean Parkway for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished in 2010 after leaving a client’s house in Oak Beach.
During the search, the remains of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, were found Dec. 11, 2010. Two days later, three more bodies were discovered — Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
In March 2011, Suffolk police found the partial remains of Jessica Taylor along Ocean Parkway. Eight years earlier, remains also belonging to Taylor were found in Manorville, police said in 2020.
In April 2011, police uncovered three additional sets of remains. They were of Valerie Mack, 24, a female toddler and a man.
The shocking discoveries continued when two additional bodies were found in Nassau County.
Mack was not identified until 2020.
Gilbert’s remains were eventually discovered by police on Oak Beach in December 2011. According to NBC New York, Gilbert was not the only victim who was a sex worker.