Cops: Craiglist Escort May Be Among L.I. Beach Bodies
OAK BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Police say the four bodies discovered near Long Island's Gilgo Beach were all women.
Now, one family is waiting to hear if their missing daughter was one of the victims.
The FBI has offered all available resources in support of the homicide investigation as medical examiners identified all four bodies found dumped near Gilgo Beach as female.
One of those bodies may belong to 22-year-old Megan Waterman of Scarborough, Maine. Her family said they've been told to prepare for the worst.
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"Now that we are actually waiting for DNA results to come back, I think this is harder on my family than Megan just being missing," Waterman's mother, Lorraine Ela, said.
She told The Associated Press that a Scarborough detective told her he was "leaning toward one of the four victims being Megan, but he's not 100 percent guaranteed."
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Waterman was last seen in June in Hauppauge, N.Y., where she went with her boyfriend.
Waterman's aunt, Elizabeth Meserve, told 1010 WINS' reporter Mona Rivera that waiting for the bodies to be identified is excruciating.
"I'm trying not to really dwell on... could it be Megan...could one of the bodies be Megan," she said.
Police in New York are considering the possibility that a serial killer may have dumped the four bodies along a quarter-mile stretch of road not far from Long Island's Jones Beach. The site is about 15 miles from where her daughter went missing.
Investigators believe they're searching for a serial killer.
"It looks like a car pulled up and opened the door and the bodies were dumped in the bushes," said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer.
Tensions were high Wednesday as investigators ordered members of the media away from a new possible search scene.
Homeowners Douglas LeMaitre spotted small bones sticking out of bags while walking along Oak Beach Road. He presumed the bones belonged to dogs.
"I only reported it today because of all the fuss that's going on around here, where they're finding four different bodies," LeMaitre said. "If there's bones around, I think they should know about it."
Police say they appear to be animal bones, and they took them away for DNA testing.
Authorities are asking the public to remain vigilant, as the location is less than one mile from where prostitute Shannon Gilbert went missing. The 24-year-old Jersey City woman answered a Craigslist ad and hasn't been seen since she ran screaming from the house, calling 911.
"I don't understand the world today," Oak Beach neighbor Ralph Esposito said. "Some people are just crazy, that's all there is to it. It's a shame."
Prosecutors in Atlantic City said they're in contact with investigators on Long Island to see if there might be some connection to a series of unsolved prostitute murders that occurred there four years ago.
Families are hoping for a resolution to the unsolved disappearances, but fear a serial killer may be walking among them.
"You think you're buying in a safe neighborhood and then you hear this, it's upsetting," said Colleen Monahan of Wantagh.
