How cops can crack Gilgo Beach case

Four nameless victims. No witnesses. No suspects. Scant physical evidence.

Suffolk police say they have a “monumental task” in the coming weeks as detectives try to solve the deaths of four unidentified women whose bones were found wrapped in burlap off Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach — a crime bearing the hallmarks of a serial killer, criminal justice experts said.

Investigators must cast a wide net now that the initial theory of a killer targeting prostitutes was upended last week, when the medical records of a New Jersey call girl who vanished nearby did not match any of the remains.

Dep. Insp. William Neubauer said the case already is taking “twists and turns.” He added, “Sometimes we run into roadblocks. And, you know, we deal with it, and we move on.”

Authorities are pouring resources into the case. Searches of miles of sand and brush — on foot with cadaver-smelling dogs and by helicopter — turned up no more substantive clues. The sweep concluded Friday, but police said other areas still may be searched. Officials await results of tests comparing DNA taken from the bones with that of missing persons from across the country.

Neubauer stressed Friday that the hypothesis of a serial killer as the perpetrator may not prove true, days after Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said the deaths “could be” a serial killer’s work.

While running down scores of new tips, detectives are opening up old casework, re-interviewing witnesses and looking at “literally thousands” of unsolved missing-person cases, Neubauer said. Police say they do not know how the four women died.

As difficult as it appears, experts on serial killers said Suffolk police can solve the case if they follow every lead, use forensics and other evidence to develop profiles of victims and suspects, and accept help from other agencies. One lucky break could be the key.

“Every case is solvable. It’s just tenacity,” said Joseph Pollini, a former New York City police investigator of cold cases and a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “If they have enough time to pursue it and the resources, there is no question about it.”

The Scene

From the start, the crime scene presented investigators with serious challenges. The unburied bodies were exposed to the elements for months, possibly years, in the damaging environment of a windswept barrier island.

“The longer they sit there, the more they degrade,” said Capt. Nelson Andreu of the West Miami, Fla., Police Department, who has investigated five serial killers. “They are handicapped right there.”

With so little evidence, the smallest detail takes on huge importance. A discarded receipt. An old traffic ticket. Perhaps a rare plant seed found on the beach that could be matched to one later pulled from a suspect’s carpet.

The burlap wrapping presents the most significant clue so far disclosed, experts said, because it’s a direct tie to a suspect and a relatively uncommon item. It’s used mostly on farms, for home gardening and to ship goods such as coffee beans.

Fiber analysis of the burlap could lead police straight to particular businesses or even reveal writing or a label, Pollini said. “If more than one wrapped in burlap, that is an indication of one perpetrator,” said Dr. Michael Warren, director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida.

Forensics

Who the women were is the single most important clue, experts said. “Before you can do a proper homicide investigation, you have to have an identification,” said Todd Matthews, spokesman for the Doe Network, which assists police worldwide in solving missing-person cases and unsolved killings. An ID gives police friends and relatives to interview and places to search.

The bones have been sent to the New York City medical examiner’s office, where the country’s top forensic anthropologists will examine them under microscopes, looking for wound marks and clues to the victims’ age, height and race, officials said. Bradley Adams, chief of the office’s team of forensic anthropologists, said biological profiles of each body are being developed.

The women’s DNA will be extracted from bone marrow and sent to the University of North Texas’ CODIS, a databank of DNA from missing persons, their relatives and criminal defendants, Adams said. Results may take weeks, and even then may not yield a match. Teeth may be useful for comparison with dental records. Adams helped develop a computer program known as Odontosearch, which looks for unique patterns of dental work and missing teeth and compares findings with a large population sample.

Learning how the victims died is almost as important as their identities, Andreu said. Hammer blows, cut marks and slashes are often found in bones, but not always, said Dr. Turhom Murad, professor emeritus of forensic anthropology at Chico State University in California. Strangulation may break a certain bone in the throat, another potential clue. The skull will be examined for fracture patterns, he said.

The Profile

Investigators will develop a “profile” of the killer or killers with whatever physical evidence is gathered, along with information on their victims and methods, among other things, experts said.

The grouping of the women’s bodies on Gilgo Beach immediately suggests a “disorganized” serial killer — a broad category of suspect who is typically socially inept and usually leaves bodies close to home, in a place the perpetrator knows well, Pollini said.

The burlap suggests someone with a blue-collar job, which is consistent with the “disorganized” profile, he said. Serial killers tend to have an “ideal” target, so similarities among the victims will be key, experts said. If the women were prostitutes or drug addicts, for instance, the vice squad could be asked to pump their street sources for information, Andreu said. Suffolk police have not accepted the FBI’s offer of a profiler — a move that puzzled experts.

“You should get to a profiler early and provide them with as much information as possible as it comes in,” Andreu said. “Sometimes homicide detectives, they try to keep things close to themselves ... but you have to share information.” He also recommended setting up a task force whose members are briefed regularly on the case.

Suffolk police said a multitude of precinct commands and specialized squads, including missing persons, computer crimes, homicide, and major cases are involved. No task force has been set up.

A lucky break

Consider serial killers Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz. Bundy, perhaps the nation’s most infamous serial killer, was arrested in 1978 after an alert cop checked the plate on a stolen car he was driving in Florida, thousands of miles from his earliest known victims in Washington. Authorities have linked him to more than 30 killings in five states.

“Son of Sam” Berkowitz, who confessed to killing six in a spree that terrorized New York City, was caught in 1977 after a woman saw him glaring menacingly at passersby and taking a parking ticket off his car in the Bronx. Using the ticket, police traced Berkowitz to his Yonkers home, where they found a gun his car.

In Suffolk, Pollini said investigators will look at toll-booth cameras on bridges and interview people who frequent the roads near where the women’s bodies were recovered. “He dumps a body, he speeds away and blows a red light, boom, you have a traffic ticket,” Pollini said.

Still, even when things go right, a serial murder investigation can stall. Suffolk’s case initially was compared to a 2006 case in southern New Jersey. Four prostitutes’ bodies were found near one another in a drainage ditch, all missing shoes, all turned to face the Atlantic City skyline. All were identified. A suspect was identified; he maintains his innocence and never was charged. The case remains unsolved.

On Friday, Neubauer summed up the challenge of the Gilgo Beach case: “We have a monumental task for us in the weeks ahead.”