Metro

Cops eyeing suspect in grisly Long Island murders

(
)

Police believe they know the identity of the Long Island Ripper, The Post has learned.

Cops on Long Island are “looking at somebody,” said a law-enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.

He refused to elaborate.

The stunning revelation comes as police are exploring a possible link between the serial killer — suspected of dumping the bodies of eight victims along a remote Suffolk beachfront — and the grisly murders of four hookers in Atlantic City in 2006.

“Our homicide detectives are in touch with the [Atlantic City] police,” a Suffolk police spokesman told reporters.

The Post reported yesterday that one of the New Jersey victims spent five weeks on Long Island with her husband shortly before she vanished on a bus to Atlantic City.

Hugh Auslander said yesterday he and his wife, Kim Raffo — a crack addict and prostitute — moved from Florida to a motel in Jericho, LI, in September 2006 to work for a friend and attempt to regain custody of their two children, who had been placed in foster care in New Jersey.

Raffo fell apart when she couldn’t get her kids back, he said.

“That drove her nuts and she started doing crack again. We were fighting, and she hopped on a bus to Atlantic City. I never saw her again,” Auslander said.

Meanwhile, sources told The Post the Long Island psycho changed his m.o. during his bloody spree — altering the way he dumped his victims near Oak and Gilgo beaches.

The four remains discovered in December — all later identified as Craigslist hookers — had been wrapped in burlap.

But the new discoveries — one found last week and three more Monday — were dumped in a different manner, and were also found farther east off Ocean Parkway, the source said.

Cops have not determined how long the remains had been there, and the new discoveries may predate the others, they said.

“We don’t know their sex, we don’t know their age, we don’t know anything about them,” Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said from the mobile command center at Oak Beach.

Suffolk cops found nothing new as they completed their search yesterday of the barrier island — but said they’d be back.

“It is possible we missed something,” Dormer said.

He also issued a warning.

“We tell people they should be careful with any contact they make with strangers, especially women involved in the escort business,” Dormer said.

Nassau and State police will launch a search Monday along either side of Ocean Parkway west of where the remains were found.

They will use ladder trucks from area fire departments and officers on horseback to search the dense brush

“They’ll be on horseback so they can get a better view,” said Detective Lt. Kevin Smith.

larry.celona@nypost.com