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Body Found On LI Beach ID'd As Missing Maine Woman

YAPHANK, N.Y. (AP/1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- One of the bodies discovered in an isolated area of Gilgo Beach last month has been positively identified as a Maine woman who disappeared last year.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said the remains are those of Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old from Scarborough, Maine. Dormer and Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said they were very close to identifying the other remains.

Authorities have collected DNA samples and medical records from other families who contacted them after the remains were discovered in December.

"It's a little bit of closure but it's harder than we thought it was going to be," Nicole Haycock, who is dating Waterman's brother, told 1010 WINS. "Yesterday was her birthday so it makes it that much worse."

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Waterman, who advertised her escort services on Craigslist, was last seen in early June at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge where she went with her boyfriend. The hotel is about 15 miles from where the bodies were found.

Family members became worried about Waterman after not hearing from her during a trip to New York in early June, her mother, Lorraine Ela, said at the time the bodies were discovered. Waterman always called three times a day to speak to her 4-year-old daughter, Liliana, but the last call came on the night of June 5, she said.

When police searched the hotel room they found Waterman's clothing, makeup, cell phone and other belongings, Ela said.

"We had a feeling that this is how it was going to turn out just because Megan is so strong-willed, and she's a fighter and we didn't think they would've kept her around that long," Haycock said. "Megan would've fought to get out she would've done anything she could have to get back here with her daughter."

Police accidentally discovered the four bodies along a stretch of the Oak Beach community between Gilgo and Cedar beaches in December while following up on a missing persons report for alleged prostitute Shonnan Gilbert, 24, of Jersey City, who disappeared in May.

Detectives believe the four were killed elsewhere and then taken to the site, a narrow strip of land that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The four-lane parkway runs through the middle, connecting Jones Beach State Park with several state- and town-run beaches to its east.

(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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