FBI special agent Laurie Giordano uses genetic genealogy to solve mysteries surrounding the Gilgo Beach case

When FBI special agent Laurie Giordano adopted her son more than a decade ago, she had no idea her decision to become a parent would make her the “angel” who helped solve some of the mysteries surrounding the Gilgo Beach killings.

“I started doing genetic genealogy as what's called a ‘search angel,’ " Giordano told Newsday in an exclusive interview last week. “Search angels help adult adoptees find their biological parents by analyzing commercial DNA testing results.”

After the 2013 adoption of her nearly 11-year-old son — whose name she asked be kept confidential — Giordano began to help others do genealogical searches related to their own adoption experiences. That passion led her to become an expert genetic genealogist working with members of the Gilgo Beach task force, which arrested suspected serial killer Rex A. Heuermann in July.

Originally a counterterrorism special agent, Giordano began using genetic genealogy, an investigative technique that creates family history profiles — biological relationships between or among individuals — by using DNA test results in combination with traditional genealogical methods.

Once the special province of people seeking details of family histories, genealogy is a craft that involves sometimes arduous and tedious searching through public records, old newspaper articles, obituaries and making numerous telephone calls. At times, long-forgotten family documents may connect people to their ancestors. 

A career epiphany

In the summer of 2018, things suddenly changed in Giordano’s world. It was then that authorities in California revealed they had used genetic genealogy to arrest Joseph DeAngelo Jr., the “Golden State” killer. DeAngelo, a former California police officer, was accused of numerous murders and rapes over a period of decades.

DeAngelo’s arrest was an epiphany for Giordano.

“I know how to do that,” an excited Giordano thought, as she digested the news about how DeAngelo was identified. A career reinvention started for Giordano.

Giordano, who was a Legal Aid Society attorney before she joined the FBI in 1997, became a trailblazer for the agency, which formed a special group of agents trained in genetic genealogy. For security reasons, Newsday is withholding her age and hometown, except to say she is a resident of Nassau County.

Impact on Gilgo case

Using her newfound expertise in genealogy, Giordano has solved several cases of unidentified crime victims in the metropolitan area, including two of the Gilgo Beach victims: Valerie Mack and Karen Vergata. She also has helped identify potential criminal suspects, a job she continues to do for police agencies around New York State.

“She has been a game changer for the investigation and been extremely instrumental in identifying bodies we had not identified,” said outgoing Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, who made the Gilgo case a priority when he joined the department two years ago.

Identifying remains in criminal cases is important because it may lead to associates, intimate partners and other aspects of a person's life that may lead to a killer, Harrison said.

Investigative genetic genealogy, as the method is called, has had a significant impact in the Gilgo Beach investigation. Among the 10 victims were five whose remains stayed unidentified since they were found in various locations between 2010 and 2011 along Ocean Parkway. They included women known as Jane Doe 6 and “Fire Island Jane Doe,” a female known as “Peaches” because of a tattoo on her body, her toddler daughter and an Asian man.

Giordano, who grew up on Long Island and graduated with a law degree from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, could not talk specifically about the Gilgo investigation, which led to the arrest of Heuermann, 60, of Massapequa Park, on charges he killed three of the victims: Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello and Melissa Barthelemy. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutors say he is also considered a prime suspect in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. A special grand jury is looking at the evidence in the Brainard-Barnes case, which the district attorney said would have a resolution soon. Heuermann is expected back in court in February.

A first major breakthrough

But through numerous interviews, Newsday was able to piece together the steps into how Giordano used investigative genetic genealogy in her first major public breakthrough for Gilgo, uncovering the identity of Valerie Mack, the 24-year-old victim known as Jane Doe No. 6. Mack’s dismembered remains were found in 2011 in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway.

In the case of the Mack, her relatives told Newsday that Giordano and the FBI discovered a cousin of the dead woman had a profile in a genealogy database. That led to two additional relatives in New Jersey, an aunt who had been the sister of Valerie’s long-dead mother and a half sister.

Valerie’s aunt Ellen Munnings recalled in a 2022 interview that, in 2019, FBI agents came to her home in south New Jersey unannounced. “I thought, ‘What did my son do?’ “ Munnings said.

The agents reassured Munnings that no one was in trouble but that they were inquiring if any of her female relatives might be missing. Munnings told the investigators no one had heard in years from Valerie, whose mother, Patricia Fulton — Munnings' sister — had died some years earlier in Chicago. Before leaving, the agents took a cheek swab from her, Munnings recalled.

Since two of Valerie’s half sisters were still alive, Giordano paid them a visit, recalled Tricia Hazen, one of the siblings who lives in New Jersey. In an interview, Hazen said during her talk with Giordano, the agent was told about Valerie and her adoptive family. Giordano then took a cheek swab from her, Hazen remembered.

“She was very courteous, very informative,” Hazen said of Giordano.

A family's closure

The cheek swabs taken from Munnings and Hazen were apparently done to confirm the two women’s genetic links to Mack. Giordano also was informed Valerie’s adoptive parents, Ed and JoAnn Mack, were still living in New Jersey, and were interviewed.

The Macks recently told Newsday that Giordano, along with some Suffolk County police detectives, visited them in 2019 and told them about the preliminary identification of Valerie.

The police interview with the Macks revealed the crucial fact Valerie had a son as a teenage girl, a young man who was in his 20s. The son consented to a giving a DNA sample, which confirmed Valerie was his mother.

“We have our closure,” Ed Mack said.

“She was fantastic and really moved the ball,” former Suffolk Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, also a former FBI colleague, said of Giordano.

The moment she discovers a crime victim’s identity brings up a special feeling of deep satisfaction. “Here is why I have the greatest job in the world,” Giordano said. She added there is also a thrill associated with breaking a case: “I know I am the only person in the world who knows.”

Other major cases

There have been other mysteries Giordano has solved for numerous state and local law enforcement agencies.

In 2022, it was revealed that Giordano’s genealogical analysis led to the identification of Christine Belusko, 29, a woman known as “the girl with the scorpion tattoo,” whose body was found dumped along a roadside in Staten Island in 1992.

Another major case involved the murder of 20-year-old Eve Wilkowitz, of Bay Shore, in 1980. A secretary who worked in Manhattan, Wilkowitz’s battered and raped body was found not far from her apartment along a residential roadside.

Giordano’s work led authorities to suspect Herbert Rice, who had died of cancer in 1991 and whose remains were exhumed. To further zero in on Rice’s identity, detectives got a cheek swab from the dead man’s son, which confirmed Rice was the killer, officials said.

“Her hard work and dedication to solving Eve’s murder means the world to me,” said sister Irene Wilkowitz of Giordano in an email. “I know that her work was very tedious and time-consuming, and she was determined to keep working hard to get answers.”

Painstaking, challenging work

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, whose office pursued Rice's exhumation that led to the case's conclusion, also praised Giordano.

“Her work on Wilkowitz was very important and painstaking work,” Tierney said. “She clearly is very good at what she does.”

Giordano continues to juggle cases as she focuses on the Gilgo investigation. She stresses genealogy can help find important leads that still need to be verified by additional DNA samples from living relatives or suspects.

In July, Giordano used genetic genealogy to identify the remains of Karen Vergata, the 34-year-old woman known as “Fire Island Jane Doe.”

Along the way, there have been reminders how difficult the Gilgo case can be, Giordano said.

The investigation of Gilgo Beach victim “Peaches” has been particularly challenging. In October 2022, the FBI took the unusual step of asking the public for help in identifying “Peaches,” going so far as to release a photo of her unique tattoo. The FBI also disclosed the identity of a Georgia man who died in 1963 and who appears to have some kind of family connection to the dead woman.

Giordano said she is committed to building family trees that may lead investigators to solve mysteries. She said she knows her work is important because it can give families closure and peace of mind.

Just the kind of result a “search angel” would hope for.

“It is a great job,” Giordano said.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.com

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.