Welcome back to Tales of True Crime. I’m your host, Troy Larson, and if you’ve been listening to Tales of True Crime, you know I did a three episode special on the Long Island Serial Killer about ten episodes back. There have been developments since then, however, including the revelation of some new evidence, and I am long overdue to talk about it.
What’s new in the case of the Long Island Serial Killer?
Tales of True Crime, episode 020
Update and New Evidence on the Long Island Serial Killer
In January, 2020 Suffolk County authorities held a press conference to announce a website where the public could review evidence in the case of the Long Island Serial Killer and submit tips. They also released photos of a compelling piece of evidence, previously unknown to the public. However, before we get to that, take a listen to Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart as she recaps the events so far.
[soundclip: Commissioner Hart recap 1:51]
Before I get into specifics, let me review the chronology of what has brought us here today. It has been more than 9 years since Suffolk officers searching along Ocean Parkway for Shannon Gilbert, who had been reported missing months earlier, discovered the first set of remains belonging to Melissa Barthelemy, on December 11th of 2010. A further search of the area two days later led to the discovery of three more bodies, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Watermann and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. The search for Shannon continued and in March 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were located, nearly 8 years after Taylor’s partial remains were located in Manorville, in July of 2003.
Three more sets of remains were discovered on April 4th, 2011. Jane Doe #6, whose partial remains were previously located in Manorville in November of 2000, the remains of an unidentified female toddler, believed to be approximately two years old, who through DNA testing has been identified as the daughter of a woman whose remains were located in Nassau County, and finally an undientified Asian male believed to be between 17 and 23 years old.
A week after these three sets of remains were found in Suffolk, the remains of two additional victims were located in Nassau including the toddler’s mother. Police continued their effort to locate the woman whose disappearance had initiated the search, and on December 13th, 2011, the remains of Shannon Gilbert were located on Oak Beach.
So there you have a recap of the events that are today collectively known as the case of the Long Island Serial Killer. As many in the true crime community have pointed out, it is a complicated case. There are plenty of questions and doubts, not the least of which is whether the murders just summarized by Commissioner Hart are the work of a single killer, or more than one predator. The question is explored even further in a recent movie, Lost Girls, which was released in early 2020 and focuses on the Shannon Gilbert case, which launched the entire investigation.
If you listened to my previous episodes on the Long Island Serial Killer, then you know one of the biggest challenges in the investigation so far has been corruption on the part of several former Suffolk County law enforcement officials, including Chief James Burke, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and violating a victim’s civil rights and was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and Government Corruption Bureau Chief Christopher McPartland were convicted of obstructing a federal civil rights investigation. Among others, these were the people in charge of the investigation into the Long Island Serial Killer.
So, when Commissioner Hart spoke in January 2020, many considered it a reset of the investigation. A new beginning. The first new endeavour announced was a website dedicated specifically to the case.
[soundclip: Commissioner Hart website :47]
Today, we are launching a website, dedicated to sharing information with the public about these unsolved murders and also providing a new way for the public to provide us with tips.
To that end we are asking the public to carefully consider the information provided on the website and whether they may have any information that could bring this case forward. As appropriate, we will share additional information via the website, with the hope that with its release, the public will generate new tips and new investigative leads. The website will be dynamic with evolving content posted over time. From the onset there will be a section to enable the submission of tips anonymously should the tipster choose to do so.
The launch of a website where the public could review evidence and submit tips was welcome news, however it hasn’t turned out to be the valuable, dynamic tool the authorities promised. I’ll get back to that. Let’s get to the new evidence.
[soundclip: Commissioner Hart belt :59]
Today we are releasing the first piece of new information that will be featured on the website, a significant piece of evidence found at one of the crime scenes along Ocean Parkway.
A black leather belt, embossed with the letters HM or WH was recovered during the initial stages of this investigation. We believe that the belt was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims. We are not providing the specific location where the belt was found, and additional information on this item will not be available at this time. However, we do anticipate releasing photographs of the belt via GilgoNews.com when appropriate.
We are hopeful that this photograph will bring somebody forward with information about the origin of that article.
The embossed letters on the belt found at one of the Long Island Serial Killer crime scenes on Ocean Parkway. WH or HM?
Photos of the belt mentioned by Commissioner Hart can be found with a simple internet search, and I will also post them with the transcript of this podcast which you can find if you follow me on Twitter at TrueCrimeTroy.
The belt is compelling evidence, if uniquely puzzling due to the random chance that both initials on the belt can be read upside down… the authorities can’t be certain whether the initials are HM or WH.
Interestingly, when the existence of the leather belt was first revealed, I put the question out on Twitter whether the initials were HM or WH and one of my followers theorized it is likely HM due to the placement of the crossbar in the letter H. The theory goes, the horizontal bar is not perfectly centered in the vertical axis of the letter, and it would be unusual to have the crossbar in the letter H below the center, more common to have it above center.
In addition, if we assume this was a leather belt that someone would wear around their waist, I question whether the belt still had a buckle on it, or whether the portion of the belt with the holes in it was still present. If the buckle or the portion with the holes was still present, it would give a strong indication in my opinion to the orientation of the initials since most people buckle their belts with the buckle on the left and the tongue on the right. There are exceptions to that of course, I’m just theorizing. There’s also the possibility the item is described as a “belt” but perhaps it is a shoulder strap from a purse or some other kind of belt.
It is interesting to note, Commissioner Hart said investigators do not believe it belonged to any of the victims, and they believe the killer handled the belt. If we read between the lines on that, to me it suggests one of the victims was bound or perhaps strangled with the belt. Perhaps the authorities suspect the belt belonged to the killer because the belt would not otherwise fit the victim, or the victim was not wearing clothing with belt loops, suggesting the killer brought the belt to the crime.
As far as the design goes, the initials are described as embossed on the belt and my own personal suspicion is that the belt was handmade by a leather crafter, not manufactured and storebought.
Hit me up on Twitter and let me know your thoughts.
In addition to new evidence, Commissioner Hart announced a new investigative effort to include genetic genealogy.
[soundclip: Commissioner Hart genetic genealogy :50]
In addition to this newly released image, we are optimistic that scientific advances will also bring new information to light.
We have leveraged the expertise of our Federal partners and are utilising new scientific advances to expand our investigative capabilities.
We were granted approval by the New York State Department of Health and have provided the FBI with DNA samples from our unidentified victims for the purpose of conducting genetic genealogy. The process includes uploading DNA to public genealogy databases in an effort to identify possible relatives of our unidentified victims. It is not clear how long this process will take.
Information about the possibility of other DNA collected during the investigation will not be discussed.
A couple things stick out here.
They accepted help from the FBI to analyze DNA from the victims genealogically in an attempt to identify the remains of the victims who are still unnamed. Under their previous corrupt leadership it had been reported that the Suffolk County investigators resisted involvement from the FBI. Also, I would note Commissioner Hart admitted the genetic genealogy effort extended to identifying the victims but refused to discuss whether any potential DNA that could identify the killer would also be investigated through genetic genealogy.
[soundclip: Commissioner Hart appeal for tips :28]
Even with these advances in technology, we know that the public remains one of our greatest resources. I encourage anyone who may have information to submit a tip, even if you wish to remain anonymous. The new website can be accessed at GilgoNews.com. You can also submit a tip to Crimestoppers by visiting P3tips.com and Crimestoppers can also be reached at 1-800-220-TIPS.
If anyone has any information that could be of help in the investigation into the Long Island Serial Killer, of course, I would urge you to use one of the resources Commissioner Hart has just suggested.
However, this would be the part where I point out the website, GilgoNews.com, which Suffolk County set up to share information and accept tips, has never been in proper working order.
As someone who has followed the case, I was very interested in watching the press conference in January of 2020, and when they announced the address of the website, I immediately went to check it out. To my disappointment, when I typed GilgoNews.com into my browser’s address bar, I discovered the website did not appear to be working.
I chalked it up to heavy traffic due to extreme interest in the case and resigned myself to check again the following day, still to no avail. Eventually someone pointed out to me that you could access the website if you searched for the site through a search engine and then clicked the link, which I tried, and it worked. For some reason it did not work when you typed GilgoNews.com into a web browser directly.
Fast forward four months later and everything with the website is the same. Pardon me for being critical, but I question the diligence of an investigation, and how many details might be getting overlooked if the Suffolk County police can’t get the website they built operating properly. How likely is it that people who’ve attempted to visit the site, people who might have valuable information, have been turned away by a website with what appears to be an improperly mapped domain name?
I tried a number of different browsers, in multiple locations, and asked others to test it, too. Nearly everyone says they get the same error. Let’s hope this situation gets resolved soon. And you can be certain that if there are further developments in the Long Island Serial Killer case, I’ll cover them here.
If you enjoy Tales of True Crime, please review and subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And lock your doors. I’ll talk to you again in two weeks, about a convict branded a serial killer in a 45 year old cold case.
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For transcripts, sources, credits and some occasional cat pictures, follow me on Twitter at TrueCrimeTroy. I occasionally do some giveaways there, too, so hit that button and follow me right now.
[credits]
Image voice by Bonnie Amistadi
Feature image Gantas Vaičiulėnas via Pexels.com
[music]
Music by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com, used by extended license via FilmMusic.io
[sources]
- Suffolk County Police Department
- GilgoNews.com
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