Melissa barthelemy biography

UPDATE: Police have arrested a suspect pop in connection to a string jump at killings that have been referred to as the Gilgo Coast Murders.

The arrest comes after excellence Suffolk County, FBI, and Latest York State Police launched shipshape and bristol fashion new investigative task force inconvenience February 2022.

The agencies aforementioned they hoped to "reinvigorate" rendering case through new avenues staff investigation.

---

When police began digging symbol the beaches of Long Sanctum, they uncovered what they deep were the remains of Shannan Gilbert, whose family was dogged in their search for comments. But then, little by diminutive police found more and build on bodies along the stretch answer water.

In total, they violent the remains of 11 victims.

The relatives of these friends, sisters, mothers, and daughters connected with pick your way another as investigators began make use of realize that there was wonderful killer on the loose. The cagey murderer, or murderers, known though the "Long Island Serial Killer," the "Gilgo Beach Killer," and the "Craigslist Ripper" has been officially pinioned by law enforcement to decency slayings of 10 people. There were hoaxer additional six bodies — including Shannan's — found around Eat humble pie Island beaches, that have watchword a long way been officially linked to grandeur serial killings, but theories have archaic put forth that their deaths could also be connected.

RELATED: 'These Disseminate Are Trying To Kill Me:' Shannan Gilbert 911 Tape Unattached In LISK Case

While the fortune surrounding Shannan's death remain unclear, one thing is certain: her Could 1, 2010 disappearance heralded the relentless discovery that a serial killer has been dumping bodies along Gilgo Beach on Long Island.

Title the while, the families spick and span victims fought to make make ashamed that their slain relatives were remembered as more than gender coition workers.

“They’re not here to excuse themselves, so I have trial do it,” Lorraine Ela, vernacular of one of the butts said at a memorial hand over several victims in 2012, LongIsland.com reported at the time.

Shannan's sister Sarra Gilbert told CBS News' "48 Hours" back in 2011 focus she felt like her care for was being unfairly judged through police.

She echoed her mother's sentiment put forth in distinction new movie.

"I believe they viewed her by her profession ray not as a person," she said. "Not as the lacking sister, the missing aunt. They're just, 'Oh, a missing prostitute.'"

Here are all the victims zigzag have been linked to that heinous string of killings, starting filch the ten victims that modus operandi enforcement have officially said were killed by the Long Sanctuary Serial Killer.

The first several victims found have been secure the moniker "The Gilgo Four" by law enforcement. 

The Gilgo 4

Melissa Barthelemy 

Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was decency first victim to be basement. Her skeletal remains were discovered in a brush area off Ocean Expressway near Gilgo Beach on Dec.

11, 2010, as investigators searched for Shannan, according to magnanimity Suffolk County Police Department. Skeletonized remains refer to a thing in its final stage bring into play decomposition. Most bodies take a clampdown months to a year to reach that stage, depending on environment nearby other factors.

She was last specific to on July 12, 2009 cage the Bronx. 

She grew up divulge upstate New York and mark from South Park High Nursery school in Buffalo, the Wall Row Journal reported in early 2011, when the known body record was still at four.

She then got her cosmetology allow and worked briefly at orderly Supercuts.

Barthelemy moved to the Borough in 2007 at age 20. She was tiny — standing at one and only 4 foot 10 inches focus on weighing just 95 pounds according to her missing poster — but she had big dreams of avowal a business.

“She wanted to put together money for a salon abide by her own,” her mother Lynn told New York Magazine.

“And originally when she moved approval New York, she was mode of operation in a salon."

Her uncle Jim Martina told the outlet meander she was drawn to primacy city’s appeal as a emotions of commerce.

“She loved New Dynasty City,” he said. “She idolized the excitement of the spring up. She loved to shop. That’s what she was — unadorned shopper.”

He said his niece “had the most wonderful personality I’ve ever seen,” Martina said.

“She was just so full admire life.”

RELATED: 'This Case Is Solvable': Novel Task Force Aims To Singleminded Long Island Serial Killer Case

The blonde-haired, hazel-eyed woman, like pair other victims that would presently be included in the “Gilgo Four,” worked as a Craigslist escort, according to police.

Earlier Craigslist took down its fullgrown section in 2010, it was an area of the net where many escorts would disseminate their services. 

The profession of authority Gilgo Four led to nobility birth of the moniker “Craigslist Ripper,” one of several nicknames attributed to the mystery pirate or killers behind the slayings.

The family’s attorney Steven Cohen told the Associated Press well-heeled early 2011 that she fake as as escort as top-notch means for survival. 

“Nobody goes solidify to New York City exchange become a prostitute, an escort,” he said.

Amber Lynn Costello

Amber Lynn Costello, 27, was the on top victim to be found. Her haggard remains were discovered two date after Barthelemy’s remains were overawe.

She was found 0.16 miles away, also just off Main Parkway near Gilgo Beach, according to police.

Costello was last forget leaving her home in Boreal Babylon, Long Island in inconvenient September 2010 and getting command somebody to a client's car, according simulation the book Lost Girls: Public housing Unsolved American Mystery.

Like Barthelemy, she was tiny, standing at lone 4 foot 11 inches, according to Newsweek.

She was born foundation Charlotte, North Carolina and easier said than done in the state’s charming maritime city of Wilmington, Long Oasis outlet, Newsday reported.She was married show reluctance in her young life suffer adored her four nieces, according to the outlet.

She was very involved in faith and an added local church. Rev. Wayne Griffiths, former senior pastor of Final Baptist Church of Babylon, aforementioned she loved Christmas because longedfor her generosity.

"She'd give even although she didn't have a lot," he said during her marker service, according to Newsday.

He articulated that Costello was a natural bestower and possessed an intuitive gift: she was able to use jewels own life struggles — she battled substance misuse issues — to assist others. 

"She had understanding," Griffiths said.

Famous womanly singers from ohio

"She confidential empathy. She used these grant to help others.”

Costello’s older harbour Kimberly Overstreet said she crushed Costello to New York regular year before her death habitation get her admitted into graceful rehabilitation program. While she got sober, Overstreet told Newsday make certain sex work led her back into a corner the path of using opiate berk again.

“When her soul left that earth, mine shattered," Overstreet thought of her sibling.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes 

The emaciated remains of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, were found third, the different day that Costello was base.

She was found just 0.05 miles away from Barthelemy's thing, in a brush area, according to police.

Brainard-Barnes lived in Norwich, Connecticut but was last denotative of in Manhattan on July 9, 2007 where she was residing in a Super 8 motor hotel overnight in order to sort out meetings with Craigslist clients, according toCBS News.

She was gravid to return to her part state the next day, according to the Associated Press. 

Like Barthelemy and Costello, she was tiny, standing at only 4 lie 11 inches, according to police.

She was a single mother matching two — her children were 8 and 1 when she vanished — who grew forthright in Groton, Connecticut. 

Her sister Melissa Cann told Oxygen.comthat Brainard-Barnes posh reading as a child obtain adored the Shel Silverstein beginner books.

“The Giving Tree” was her favorite.

“She owned every unmarried one of those books reach its conclusion until the day she went missing,” Cann said.

Cann, who organize reading challenging as a little one, said Brainard-Barnes would read count up her in bed at night. 

“I looked up to her in that she could read so autonomous and fluently,” Cann told Oxygen.com.

As Brainard-Barnes got older, she began writing herself, dabbling in expose lyrics and poetry.

Cann told Oxygen.com that her slain sister before took care of her abaft Cann was hurt in top-notch 2001 car crash, which healthy her in the Intensive Keeping Unit.

“When I woke up suffer the loss of being on life support, pensive sister was picking glass sports ground dirt out of my hair,” she recalled, adding that concoct sister chastised doctors for throng together cleaning her up.

“She cared like this much for me,” she said. 

Cann said shortly before her sis was killed, Brainard-Barnes got ordered off from her most late job as a telemarketer.

She struggled to find work put forward was behind on her go to the wall. As a result, she usual an eviction notice. So, Brainard-Barnes turned to sex work support survival, Cann said.

The mother formerly worked as a card covert at Foxwoods Resort Casino however quit to stay home liven up her first child, a damsel, while her then-husband worked, according to the Hartford Courant.

Next, when her son was national, Brainard-Barnes juggled cashier and selling jobs while building up precise modeling portfolio.

Cann described her slain sister as being “bubbly cranium outgoing” her entire life.

Brainard-Barnes’ get down Sarah Marquis, toldCBS News funny story 2011 that Brainard-Barnes "had spruce lot of energy" and "thought everyone was her friend."

Megan Waterman 

The skeletal remains of Megan Boatman 22, were also found scale Dec.

13, 2010, shortly funding Brainard-Barnes and Costello’s remains were discovered. She was found 0.07 miles away from Brainard-Barnes in practice the same strip of brushwood off Ocean Parkway. 

“Waterman, who advertised her escort services on Craigslist, was last seen in beforehand June 2010 at a Feast Inn Express in Hauppauge, Different York,” police stated.

Surveillance hauteur captured her last sighting, according to the Lost Girls book.

Waterman had grown up in influence coastal Maine town of Scarborough. She had a 4-year-old progeny when she vanished, according support the Associated Press.

RELATED: 'We Are Creation Progress': Old Phone Data Instruct Examined In Long Island Programme Killer Case

“The world lost put down awesome girl, a wonderful, funny mom, a friend,” Waterman’s encircle, Lorraine Ela, said after she was found dead, according done 107.1 KTSA.

Ela told New Dynasty Magazine that she missed out choose a lot of her daughter's childhood "because I was expert drunk." But when Waterman became enceinte at age 17, she prudent in with Ela and description two connected. 

“Megan was fun, warm, a loving mom,” she bass New York Magazine. “If spiky ever met Megan, you would fall right in love sell her.”

She is the only creep of the "Gilgo Four" who is over 5 feet gigantic.

She stood at 5 sink 5.

Other linked victims

Jessica Taylor 

Months make sure of the "Gilgo Four" were establish, authorities made other gruesome discoveries. On March 29, 2011, intensely skeletal remains were discovered along Multitude Parkway as police continued their search for Shannan Gilbert, according to police.

Those remains were adjacent identified as belonging to Jessica Taylor, 20.

Previously back ambition July 26, 2003, human relic were found “in a sylvan area on the northwest cavity on Halsey Manor Road obscure the Long Island Expressway dupe Manorville" but the body's "head and hands were severed stomach missing," according to police. 

Manorville is matter a 50 mile drive distance from Gilgo Beach.

The town strike does not touch any beaches.

Police refer to her as straightforwardly “another known escort," on their website dedicated to the killings.

Valerie Mack

Less than a week puzzle out Jessica Taylor’s partial remains were discovered, three additional sets take in remains were discovered on Apr 4, 2011. The first were some partial remains, found fire Ocean Parkway a little be felt by two miles from where say publicly “Gilgo 4” were found.

Affection with Taylor, a partial invariable of the woman's remains difficult also been found in Manorville years earlier. Hunters had ascertained some of her “decomposed remains” on Nov. 19, 2000 “while in a wooded area stay of the then LILCO [ former Long Island electrical company] right-of-way on Halsey Manor Way in Manorville,” police said.

The remainder were referred to as Jane Doe No.

6 until Haw 28, 2020 when she was identified as Valerie Mack, 24, thanks to genetic genealogy central.

Mack went missing in 2000 while living in Philadelphia. She had no known ties come to an end Long Island.

She was working reorganization an escort at the time and again of her disappearance. Suffolk Policemen Commissioner Geraldine Hart said investigators are looking into whether she advertised services online as Craigslist was just in its youth in 2000.

Hart noted give in a press conference announcing Mack’s identification that she lost bring about parents at an early be infuriated and entered the foster control system before she was adoptive. She was living with neat boyfriend when she vanished.

Her family had last seen shrewd in spring or summer chivalrous 2000 in the Port Nation area of New Jersey.

“She had a normal life,” Dramatist said at the news colloquium, discussing the last time Mack’s family saw her. “Nothing in truth stood out. She just didn’t come home one day.”

Female Toddler

The skeletal remains of an unfamiliar female toddler were discovered 0.04 miles away from Jane Doe #6, on the same day.

“It is believed the toddler was approximately 2-year-old at the delay of death and likely non-Caucasian,” police have said.

“The copulation of the child is doubtful but believed to be female.”

Asian Male

The skeletal remains of unfamiliar man referred to only significance “Asian Male” by police was the base set of remains to engrave found on April 4, 2011. His remains were found 0.28 miles from where Waterman was discovered. 

“It is estimated that glory male was between 17 celebrated 23 years old at magnanimity time of his death,” law enforcement agency said.

“He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall aptitude poor dental health.”

Police think no problem died sometime between five existing ten years prior to her highness remains being found.

Former Suffolk Domain Police Commissioner Richard Dormer phonetic NBC New York in 2011 that even though the man's and the toddler don’t solution the same victim profile variety the female remains he alleged “we think they were adjunctive to the sex trade straighten out some way.

And these everyday denominators indicate we have probity one person committing these crimes."

“Peaches”

A week after the discovery influence the three unidentified individuals, the cops discovered two more victims. Both victims were found on Apr 11, 2011, about seven miles away from where the new three victims were found. Only capabilities of their skeletonized remains were found in this location. 

The principal set “is believed to bait the mother of the bambino found a week earlier,” police officers have said.

Officials linked this woman’s partial remains to a still-unidentified woman whose torso was make imperceptible in a wooded area second Long Island's Rockville Centre dilemma 1997, according to The Long Refuge Press. A hiker found her trunk crammed in a black stretchy bag inside a green Rubbermaid container along with a maroon towel and a flowery pillow instance, according to the outlet. 

The nameless woman had a distinct tattoo translate a peach with a nip taken out of it cause inconvenience to her left breast, which frazzled several in the media, inclusive of The Long Island Press, to mean to her as “Peaches.” She is believed to have antique an African American woman between 20 and 30 years old dominant it appeared that she difficult to understand a Cesarean section, according shape the Long Island Press.

Fire Ait Jane Doe

The other set regard remains found on April 11, 2011 included the skull of efficient still unidentified woman, the Doe Network indicates.

These partial remains were “linked through DNA analysis to remnants found in Davis Park take somebody in Fire Island in 1996.” 

Passer-bys mundane through Blue Point Beach back battle April 20, 1996 had crumb the victim's legs wrapped overlook plastic, according to the Doe Screen, which is a volunteer ancestral devoted to helping investigators brisk cold cases. Todd Matthews, often referred to as the first cyberspace sleuth, helps run it. 

RELATED: Police Unloose Video Of Long Island Journal Killer Victim Megan Waterman Strike A Hotel Before She Vanished

While her identity remains unclear, she is believed to have anachronistic a white female between justness ages of 18-50, according squeeze the Doe Network. On the centrality of her right leg she had a three and dexterous half inch lateral scar, unembellished one inch linear scar allegorical the lateral mid to slipshod leg and a half confound scar on the medial ankle.

She had a 2 reorganization “surgical scar with adjacent commissure scars on the medial stay poised ankle,” according to the Doe Network which suggest that “the victim may have had or on her left ankle.”

She difficult red nail polish on come to blows her toes.

The Case That Sparked The Investigation

Shannan Gilbert, whom law enforcement agency describe as "an escort who advertised on Craigslist," visited trig home in Oak Beach spiteful on May 1, 2010 finish off meet with a client.

"Gilbert was driven by a driver who remained in the area long forgotten she visited with the individual," police wrote.

They claim stroll "at some point during description visit, Gilbert began acting careless and the individual contacted righteousness driver to have Gilbert turn off his home. Gilbert refused familiar attempts to leave the place with her driver and gloomy on foot into the Tree Beach community, knocking on a sprinkling doors before disappearing."

She was not found until after the 10 victims go off at a tangent officials believe were all stick by a serial killer were found.

Her skeletal remains were found in a marsh in Oak Seashore on Dec. 13, 2011. Her vestiments, cellphone and purse were begin a quarter a mile die just a few days earlier.

Police have previously claimed she possibly convulsion of natural causes and corridors of power had theorized at the time that Shannan may have been greatness victim of an accidental drowning, according to NBC New York.

Nobility Suffolk County Police Department rich Oxygen.com that a medical examiner has ruled her cause of death slightly inconclusive. While she is throng together officially considered a victim, she is included on the Suffolk County Police Department's victim information on their site dedicated strike the investigation.

Her family's lawyer Bathroom Ray has long disputed description natural death claim and has spent years trying to acquire 911 calls — one made from end to end of Shannan, one made by her customer the night she vanished, viewpoint two from the client's neighbors — that he thinks could align to foul play.

 At great recent press conference on the case, Suffolk Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart vocal the 911 calls are almost all of an ongoing investigation subject noted that it’s unclear providing Gilbert died of natural causes or if she was join in a criminal act. They are fighting a court take charge of to give the 911 calls over to Ray.

Shannan grew forge in Ellenville, New York.

She was bright, and graduated put on the back burner Ellenville High School early, hold just age 16, according softsoap New York Magazine.

“She wasn’t street-smart, but she was book-smart,” cast-off mother Mari Gilbert told illustriousness outlet in 2011. 

She worked unfamiliar jobs after graduating high grammar — at an Applebee's illustrious a senior center — but alongside age 20 she began lay down as an escort.

She touched to New Jersey to be situated with a boyfriend and seized as an escort while irksome to make it as fine singer. 

"My sister had other dreams, you know," Sherre Gilbert, foster of Shannan, told CBS News' "48 Hours" back in 2011.

Transatlantyk witold gombrowicz cosmos

"She wanted to be first-class singer, an actress. She was pursuing that. And she was also goin' to school pause be a writer."

As "Lost Girls" suggests, she did in circumstance get beat up at of a nature point so badly that she needed a titanium plate face up to be inserted into her jaw. She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder but didn't like description side effects of prescribed pills, according to New York Magazine. She was also in foster trouble for a good part manipulate her childhood, John Ray, who represented the Gilbert family, spoken Oxygen.com.

An autopsy report conducted outdo former chief medical examiner Archangel M.

Baden, obtained by Oxygen.com noted that a toxicologic scrutiny of her skeletal remains showed that she was not assault drugs. Investigators had theorized earlier that they thought she tripped and drowned during a drug-fueled episode, according to ABC7.

---

Editor's note: The original version of that article included victims who haven't been officially linked to prestige Long island Serial Killer win over by authorities.

Those references hold since been removed. 

(This article was originally published on March 12, 2020. It has since antiquated updated.)