FBI profilers said to join Gilgo Beach probe

FBI profilers - among the nation's top experts in criminal behavior - are advising Suffolk detectives in their probe of four dead women whose remains were found in Gilgo Beach, a law enforcement source said Sunday.

A Suffolk police spokesman confirmed the department is in "daily contact with the FBI." They have had a conference call about formally bringing in a profiler once one or more of the four bodies found wrapped in burlap in brush off Ocean Parkway is identified, or a manner of death is determined, he said.

At that point, engaging the profiler - a specialist who develops detailed outlines of suspects' personal, physical and psychological characteristics - "is a probable avenue of investigation," the spokesman said.

The FBI needs "more information to effectively begin their work," added the spokesman. "And we're waiting to complete the forensic work."

An FBI profiler has already advised Suffolk investigators on what kind of information and evidence to pursue while they await victims' identification, a law enforcement source said.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

The Suffolk police department remains the lead agency on the case, and experts said consulting the FBI for profiling help was a routine step in a serial killer investigation.

Police sources said the homicide squad is confident it has the resources and experience to effectively pursue the case with the manpower already made available, including investigators who worked on catching Joel Rifkin, the East Meadow man who was convicted in 1994 of killing nine prostitutes between 1989 and 1993.

For the second straight day Sunday, police did not return to the Gilgo Beach area to physically search for more evidence. The extensive searches late last week turned up no substantive evidence, police said.

Instead, sources said the probe had entered a new phase with detectives poring over old case files while awaiting identification of the remains, which were found on Dec. 11 and Dec. 13. Some of the bones appear to be at least 2 years old, and investigators hope they can still learn the cause of death.

Among their efforts are a fresh look at unsolved cases, with cold case detectives visiting Gilgo Beach last week to search for potential links. Meanwhile, detectives are reviewing more recent arrests and suspects in other crimes, sources said.

More than two dozen homicide detectives and supervisors, as well as five detectives assigned to major cases such as bank robberies, are already heavily involved in the case.

A spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, which is assisting in the identification of the bodies, did not return phone messages Sunday.

Who the victims are, and how they died, will be important information for FBI profilers, who are based out of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the bureau's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va., experts said.

"Without that victimology - who they were, who they associate with - you don't have any ability to make a profile," said Brent Turvey, an Alaska-based criminal profiler consulted by law enforcement across the world.

He added: "The purpose of profiling is to start narrowing down the possibilities."