Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings of Women Near Gilgo Beach

A suspect has been arrested in a series of killings of women near Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s South Shore, according to three people with knowledge of the case.

Police officers had cordoned off a block of First Avenue in Massapequa Park, and vehicles and officers converged on the scene.

District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney and other law enforcement officials announced a 4 p.m. news conference.

The killings terrorized residents for more than a decade as body after body was discovered in the remote area about 40 miles from Midtown Manhattan.

In May 2010, Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old from Jersey City, N.J., who was a sex worker, was reported missing on Long Island. She disappeared during an escort job in Oak Beach, a gated community three miles from Gilgo Beach.

Seven months later, Suffolk County police discovered four bodies wrapped in burlap along Ocean Parkway, three miles from where Ms. Gilbert was last seen alive. In 2011, they were identified by DNA as Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. All had been in their 20s and working as escorts. Later that year, they found remains of Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old mother from southern New Jersey who had paid the bills as an escort and had been missing for 20 years.

In all, remains of nine women, a man and a toddler were discovered in the area. The police have said they believe some of the deaths were the work of a serial killer, but the investigation bore little fruit for years.

In 2020, investigators at a news conference revealed a photograph of what they said was a significant piece of evidence collected early in the investigation: a black leather belt, embossed with a pair of letters about half an inch tall. Investigators said it spells out the initials “W H” or “H M.”

Ms. Gilbert’s remains were found in December 2011, but investigators have said they do not believe her death is linked to the serial killer. Ms. Gilbert’s family has disagreed and demanded the release of more evidence.