As the search for the infamous “Gilgo Beach Killer” intensifies, for the first time, police have released a video they have had of one of the victims before she met her fate at the hands of the brutal murderer!
According to CBS News, twelve years after the first of 11 sets of human remains were found on a Long Island stretch of beach, police, for the first time, have released a video of one of the victims before she was killed. Officials also announced they are doubling the reward to $50,000 in the Gilgo Beach murders case.
“We are making real progress,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.
Suffolk’s new police commissioner said he is bringing transparency and, he hopes, new leads in a notorious crime spree that’s stumped police for a dozen years.
He released video never seen by the public of a lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge on June 4 and 6, 2010. Seen in a yellow top is Megan Waterman in her final hours.
“We believe she did leave the hotel that night to meet her killer,” Harrison said. “We hope that anyone who may have been in the area that night or many have seen any of the individuals depicted in these videos will reach out to our Crime Stoppers hotline [800-220-TIPS].”
Earlier this year, New York law enforcement authorities formed a special task force to capture the Gilgo Beach serial killer who has remained unidentified for more than 11 years.
Waterman was one of six sex workers killed, found along with the remains of five other people. The bodies were all found due to the initial search for missing woman Shannan Gilbert.
On Dec. 11, 2010, Suffolk County police officer John Mallia found the remains of Melissa Barthelemy along Ocean Parkway while searching for Gilbert. Two days later, the bodies of three more victims were discovered. Within the next four months, six more sets of remains were located, and on Dec. 13, 2011, Gilbert’s remains were found.
In total, ten bodies were discovered in and around Gilgo Beach — the majority of them sex workers. Several of the bodies have still not been identified.
Gilbert’s sister told CBS News that she does not think the release of the video will do much to help find her sister’s killer at this point.
“You’re releasing things that you could have released from the very beginning,” Sherre Gilbert told CBS New York. “It really doesn’t make sense that they are releasing these little bits and pieces of evidence, but none of it, to me, is really, like, helpful.”
“I think more should be coming right away,” said John Ray, the attorney for the family of Shannan Gilbert.
Ray has been pressing police to publicly release much more, including Gilbert’s 911 call, which he has heard.
“This is the first step, but it’s a very small baby step towards what should be done, which is to bring the public into this case. It’s the only way this will be solved,” he said.
Suffolk’s new police commissioner says he’s still evaluating whether releasing the 911 tape will help or hinder the investigation. Shannan’s sister and attorney say it’s more than a decade overdue.
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