Missing woman's family waits for answers

Elizabeth Meserve has set two Google alerts.

One is for the name Megan Waterman, her 22-year-old niece from Maine who went missing in June in Hauppauge.

The other alert is for "bodies discovered on Long Island."

Tuesday, Meserve got one of her alerts: Police on Long Island had found the bodies of four women in brush along Ocean Parkway in the Town of Babylon. They are investigating whether any of the bodies are of Waterman, or Shannan Gilbert, of Jersey City, N.J., who was last seen May 1. "I'm pretty devastated right now," said Waterman's mother, Lorraine Ela. "I'm hoping it's not my daughter."

Long before the bodies were discovered just off the desolate strip of roadway, Waterman's family has been focused on Long Island, the place where the single mother was last seen.

"It's hard, the not-knowing part," said Meserve, of Portland, Maine, who is Ela's sister. "None of us want to hear she's gone, but the not knowing . . ."

The family has been anything but quiet in their quest.

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They have had fundraisers in Maine and handed out missing-person posters and balloons in Hauppauge. They've talked with police and have a private investigator working the case locally.

They created a website and a Facebook page. A $2,500 reward has been offered.

"We're just going to keep praying that's not her, keep making other contacts, taking other avenues," Meserve said.

Maine police are also watching. "There's certainly reason to be concerned about the find," said Scarborough Police Det. Donald Blatchford, who has been in touch with Suffolk police since Waterman disappeared.

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Like Gilbert, Waterman was working as an escort, and she and her boyfriend, Akeem Cruz, 21, of Brooklyn, had traveled to Long Island after placing an escort ad on Craigslist, Blatchford said.

"She was prostituting off Craigslist," he said. "The boyfriend was the pimp."

Waterman's younger sister, Allie Pertel of Brunswick, Maine, said Waterman worked as an escort to make money to buy things for daughter, Liliana, 4. "She was in it for the money," she said. "I don't think it scared her."

Waterman's life has been troubled. She dropped out of high school, got pregnant at 17 and struggled as a single mother. Liliana lives with her grandparents, asking daily where her mom has gone. "She thinks mommy's lost in the woods," Pertel said. With Gary Dymski