Police have identified the four bodies found along a secluded stretch of Long Island beach as women and have called in the FBI to help in the investigation that a serial killer may have been responsible for their grisly deaths, authorities said today.
Cops continued to look for clues in regards to prostitute Shannon Gilbert when they discovered the remains over the weekend.
Police, however, said an early analysis shows Gilbert, who vanished in May, may not be one of the victims, although investigators have not ruled it out.
Cops have called off the search for now, but said they would resume it at a later time. Police did not specify a time the search for bodies would commence again.
Meanwhile, the mother of a Maine woman who worked as a Craigslist escort and went missing from a hotel on Long Island said cops have told her daughter might be one of four bodies found dumped along a beach.
Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, was last seen in June in Hauppauge, where she went with her boyfriend.
Waterman’s mother, Lorraine Ela, told The Associated Press today that a Scarborough detective told her he was “leaning toward one of the four victims being Megan, but he’s not 100 percent guaranteed.”
Suffolk police believe a serial killer dumped the bodies of the four women — who have not been identified by name — along Ocean Parkway.
Working with cadaver-sniffing dogs, cops completed a sweep Tuesday of the area, but called off the search once it got dark.
The theory is that a serial killer met the prostitutes on Craigslist and lured them to meet him before they were slain and dumped along the secluded stretch of beach.
As chilling new details emerged about the murderer, Gilbert’s relatives told The Post that cops believe they may already have a crucial lead in the sensational case — the identity of the last john the woman was with.
The killer’s tally is up to at least four victims — at least two of whom are believed to have been prostitutes who used Craigslist and were last seen in the area, sources said.
The family said police know the john’s name and that he lives near the stretch of Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach where the bodies were found on Saturday and Monday.
The source said the john — whose name was not released — has stuck to his story that Gilbert was at his house for several hours but became agitated.
After he coaxed her to leave, she ran out of the home and that was the last time he saw her, the source said.
Gustav Colletti, 75, a neighbor of the john in an exclusive part of Oak Beach, said a girl, who looked like Gilbert, banged on his door one May morning at 5 a.m.
“She was yelling and screaming and banging on my door. She was screaming, ‘Help me! Help!'” I opened the door and she jumped into the house,” he recalled in an interview today with The Post.
Colletti said, “When I said, ‘I’m calling the police.’ She opened the door and took off and ran into the weeds. Moments later, a dark Chevy Suburban and a male Asian told him; ‘We’re having a party and the girl got upset and ran away.'”
Colletti said when he told the man he had called police, the man said, “You shouldn’t have done that.”
He said he’s never seen the man before.
“The police finally showed up, but the girl was gone,” added Colletti. “I was probably the last person who saw her alive. If I’d known that, I would have never let her out of my house.”
Colletti said cops came to his home this past weekend after one of the bodies were discovered.
Neighbors said they knew about the party and the incident about the screaming woman.
Justin Canning, 20, who lives in the area, also recalled the last time he saw the woman.
“That was the last time she was seen. We sw her footprints in the sand. She was in a panic. We thought she was on drugs.”
Still, Suffolk investigators cautioned that they have not positively identified the victims and are waiting for the results of DNA tests, which could take weeks.
They are also working with other law-enforcement agencies to see if there are any other missing-persons cases that could be tied to the bodies found at the beach.
The FBI is closely watching the case but is not involved at this point, officials said.
Prosecutors in Atlantic City, NJ, said they have been in contact with their counterparts on Long Island to see if there might be some connection to a series of unsolved hooker homicides that occurred in their area four years ago. But sources said they do not believe the cases are connected.