Episode Summary
When a young escort goes missing after an outcall on Long Island in 2010, no one bothers to search for her. No one except a single detective and his dog. While looking, he stumbles upon the burial ground of a serial killer… or… killers? What unfolds is one of America’s greatest unsolved mysteries. The story was set into motion when a young woman named Shannan Gilbert went missing after an outcall to Oak Beach in Long Island.
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Episode Info
Interactive map of the remains found HERE
If you would like to learn more about the Long Island Serial Killer check out Robert Kolker’s book: Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery. You can get it free with our free 30-day trail of Audible! AudibleTrial.com/CrimeJunkie
This is Shannan Gilbert.
She was visiting Joe Brewer that night.
This is Dr. Peter Hackett who, it’s proven, called Shannan’s mother after she went missing. Dr. Hackett denies making this call and says he has no idea why there is a record of it. Although Shannan’s mother says Hackett confessed to interacting with Shannan the night she went missing, Dr. Hackett insists he never met her.
In December, nearly 7 months after Shannan went missing, an officer and his pruppet were out in the Gilgo Beach area doing tracking training and looking for Shannan when they came across four bodies.
All four remains were evenly spaced and wrapped in burlap. Though they were all later determined to be escorts who offered their services on Craigslist like Shannan, none of them were Shannan.
When we discuss the “beach” where these women were found it is not the normal beach you would go to for vacation. Gilgo Beach, Oak Beach, and Jones beach are all filled with a thick, marshy terrain. Below is where one of the remains were found. You can see that even in the winter it would be difficult to navigate.
Eventually more remains were found in different parts of Gilgo, Jones, and Oak Beaches. Although they all had similar professions, they were disposed of in a different manner than the Gilgo Beach Four. Additionally, some remains were not complete and linked to other body parts that had been discovered in Long Island as early as 1996.
Episode Sources
- Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker
- Wikipedia – Eastbound Strangler
- Atlantic City authorities eye ‘more than one’ person of interest in 2006 unsolved prostitute murders
- Wikipedia – Long Island Serial Killer
- The Killing Season – 2016
- 8 Sets of Remains Now Found on Beach
- Identifying Another Victim, Officials Raise Possibility of 2nd L.I. Killer
- Jersey City Prostitute Still Missing after 13 Months of Searching
- New York Serial Killer: Three More Bodies Found on Beach
- Escort claims disgraced ex-police child James Burke linked to unsolved Gilgo Beach murders
- Former police chief James Burke Sentenced to Prison in Suspect’s Beating and Cover-Up
- “48 Hours” Uncovers missing escort Shannan Gilbert’s Final Minutes
- Footprints in the sand – Disappeared on Investigation Discovery
- Shannan Gilbert’s sister sorry at hearing for mom’s fatal stabbing
- New Shannan Gilbert Autopsy reveals ‘disturbing’ findings in Gilgo Beach case, medical examiner says
