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Killing Grounds The Gilgo Beach Murders S01E01
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00:04If you want to understand Picasso, you have to study his art.
00:11If you want to understand a serial killer, you study the crime.
00:15Four unidentified bodies.
00:17Long Island police literally stumbled onto the crime scene.
00:21What was going on out in Long Island?
00:24Ten sets of remains have been discovered.
00:26It was this burial ground for all these people.
00:29They were laying out in the open.
00:31Why weren't they noticed?
00:33The killer has apparently targeted prostitutes.
00:36The police didn't investigate because there were sex workers.
00:39That's fucking infuriating.
00:41They kept the FBI out of this investigation.
00:44Was this a cover-up?
00:46What are they hiding?
00:48We realized that we needed to act.
00:51DNA evidence was obtained.
00:54We identified the suspect.
00:56Get him within your sights.
00:58But don't blow the investigation.
01:02He was keeping very close tabs on law enforcement.
01:05His internet searches contained torture porn, rape.
01:09I sized him up totally wrong.
01:12This is the house that police have been swarming.
01:15This guy was hunting victims for sport.
01:18These women were tortured.
01:20This was beyond your worst nightmare.
01:22You're talking about a cold case that extends back 30 years.
01:25How many bodies are we gonna see here?
01:28Catch this guy for us.
01:30Please.
01:44Long Island is an actual island.
01:47About 30 miles east of Greater Manhattan.
01:52Long Island is a true melting pot of people from all walks of life.
01:57A lot of firefighters, teachers, cops.
02:01Upper middle class to working class.
02:03Safe.
02:04Here and there you'd hear something, you know.
02:06But not too bad.
02:08We have the Baldwin brothers, the actors, they're from this town.
02:13So is Jerry Seinfeld.
02:15A lot of people are from Massapequa.
02:18Long Island seems like a place where nothing goes wrong.
02:22But behind closed doors, it's not always as it appears to be.
02:33The Long Island serial killer, one of the most prolific, unsolved serial killer cases in modern U.S. history.
02:45I was in the FBI 11 years.
02:50I've always looked at the victims in this case and thought, that could have been my niece.
02:55That could have been my best friend.
02:57That could have been my cousin.
02:58That could have been my sister.
03:01How would I want that murder to be investigated?
03:06During the height of this investigation, certain circles within law enforcement were dismissive.
03:13All victims deserve to have equal protection under law.
03:17And you don't not investigate something because someone is involved with sex work.
03:24They all have names.
03:26They all have families.
03:27They all have people that miss them.
03:30I think a lot of people are inclined to look away.
03:34But this impacts every member of society.
03:37Don't look away from it.
03:40The problems with this case go back to the beginning of it.
03:45And this case really starts with missing women.
03:47The search is on this morning for a missing woman.
03:50A young mother from Scarborough had been missing since last June.
03:53A 23-year-old woman missing since May 2010.
03:57She vanished without a trace.
03:58She visited New York and hasn't been seen since.
04:02Every year, hundreds of women and girls go missing in New York and on Long Island.
04:08It's a desperate search for a missing woman who hasn't been seen now for almost a week.
04:14I'm Long Island reporter Kristen Thorne with the latest.
04:16Sade Marie Kunla spent 17 years working as a public defender.
04:21My name is Kristen Thorne.
04:22I was a reporter for 13 years with ABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York.
04:29Police are now in this area of Freeport that they have searched before.
04:33I investigate cold case disappearances.
04:35The female jogger, 30 years old, her family called police when she didn't return home.
04:40If you're a juvenile in this country and you disappear, there is a lot to help find you.
04:45If you're 65 and older, we have something called a silver alert.
04:50So there's an alert that goes out.
04:51But if you're in that 18 to 64 range and you disappear, good luck.
04:59Law enforcement is overloaded with cases.
05:04So a missing woman is not always going to make it to the top of the pile.
05:10When Melissa first went missing, my favorite shows were like CSI, Criminal Minds.
05:16What is the chance of this happening to us?
05:19I mean, we're just normal, laid-back family, close-knit.
05:25I mean, how could this happen to us?
05:29Melissa was pretty shy, but she loved people.
05:32She loved her family.
05:35She would like to put twist ties in Grandma's hair,
05:38pretend that she was putting rollers in there.
05:43Melissa's plan was to move to New York City and open her own salon.
05:49She always told me, I want to get my career going.
05:52I want to enjoy life a little bit.
05:56She was working hard, and she deserved the whole world.
06:00And then she went missing.
06:04Before Megan went missing, I was seeing her every day.
06:08She was a problem child.
06:10If you came onto her face-to-face, one of you two are going down,
06:15and it's not going to be her.
06:18But she was kind.
06:20If you needed anything, she wouldn't hesitate at least to give it to you.
06:24She would give the last penny in her pocket.
06:27Have you ever gone roller skating?
06:29And you wear white and how it changes the color.
06:34She would just get out on that floor and do whatever she wanted.
06:38She was a free girl.
06:41Megan was on temporary aid for needy families.
06:45They were only giving her $400 a month for her and Liliana.
06:51She tried getting jobs, but it didn't work out.
06:56I found out that Megan was placing ads on Craigslist
07:00through her brother's ex-girlfriend.
07:02She's like, yeah, on the escort section.
07:05I'm like, what?
07:06I'm like, no way.
07:08I just went through, like, 300 pages of photos of females,
07:13and Megan is in there.
07:17We had no clue.
07:20Craigslist was a place for a lot of things in 2010,
07:24including personal services as well as sexual services.
07:29And in many ways, it was safer,
07:31because women could screen their clients
07:33and then decide if they wanted to meet with them.
07:37We all tried talking to Megan,
07:38trying to get her out of it.
07:40But she needed money
07:42so she could stay where she was living.
07:48The last time anybody saw Megan was 2010.
07:52She took a bus down to New York to work.
07:57She disappeared into thin air.
08:02I called Suffolk County Police Department.
08:04They searched the hotel.
08:07And as far as I know her,
08:09that's the only time they looked for her.
08:13We contacted the 43rd Precinct,
08:16said, you know, my daughter lives in the Bronx.
08:19We haven't heard from her.
08:21And she's like, ma'am, is she mentally retarded?
08:24Is she on any type of psych meds?
08:27No, no, no.
08:28Well, then she's not missing.
08:30She's where she wants to be.
08:33It was so discouraging.
08:36They're just not doing their job.
08:42For years, these families knew that their loved ones were missing.
08:46And no matter how many times they went to the police department
08:50to try to get them to take this seriously,
08:53they didn't.
08:57Melissa was last seen leaving her apartment in the Bronx on July 12.
09:01Her family is looking for help.
09:03If anybody has seen my daughter, please contact us.
09:07What do you think happened to your daughter?
09:10I don't know if somebody grabbed her or she was walking to the store or what,
09:13but I know she is definitely missing.
09:17With a lot of missing persons, it's not always clear to the family or friends
09:22where exactly their loved one disappeared.
09:26But with Shannon Gilbert, it's a completely different story.
09:33When I heard my sister was missing, I knew something sinister happened.
09:41Shannon was doing this for a few years to pay her college tuition.
09:48She was so smart and talented.
09:51And she was so realistic, so relatable.
09:54I could tell her anything.
09:56Her voice was very beautiful.
10:00We had this thing, Sunday fun day, every weekend we all got together.
10:06So much fun, so much laughter, food.
10:09It was the best times.
10:13We all thought we were the Spice Girls.
10:16Our favorite girl band was the Spice Girls.
10:21She loved music.
10:22She loved it.
10:27You know how, like, you're so scared to tell your mom things?
10:30With Shannon, it's like having, like, your mom and your sister.
10:35It was great.
10:39One day, her boyfriend notified my mother that she went to see a client and was never seen after that.
10:49I met Shannon Gilbert working for this escort agency.
10:54I got a job as a driver.
10:58May 1st, Shannon texted me.
11:00She said, can you pick me up at 32nd and Broadway?
11:03She would take the PATH train there from New Jersey.
11:06So I said, yeah, sure.
11:09Somebody spoke to her about coming out to Long Island.
11:13It was a long drive.
11:15About an hour from the city.
11:19We got there around, like, 1 a.m.
11:23When they went up to the house, I took a nap.
11:27And around 5 a.m., the guy came out to my car and said that she won't leave.
11:33I said, what?
11:35I went into his house.
11:36I said, what's wrong?
11:38And she said, they're trying to kill me.
11:40So I said, who's trying to kill you?
11:42She just got up right up and ran.
11:45She went across the car, toward the thickets of bushes.
11:54I called her and texted her.
11:55She didn't pick up.
12:08Within 24 hours, my mother reported her missing.
12:13We were told that this was just a case of a runaway.
12:19That's not something my sister would do.
12:23This is not like her.
12:25This is not who she is.
12:27This is not her character.
12:29We all knew something happened.
12:34The crazy thing is, Shannon's driver could pinpoint exactly where she went missing.
12:42And yet, that area remained largely untouched by law enforcement.
12:51Then, in December of 2010, seven months after Shannon disappeared.
12:57Total fluke.
13:00An officer for the Suffolk County Police Department decided,
13:04you know, I'm gonna go take my canine to go practice down at Gilgo Beach.
13:09I'm gonna go out to Gilgo.
13:10I'm gonna look for that, uh, Shannon Gilbert woman.
13:13Look what happened.
13:18We're following some breaking news right now.
13:20A body has been found in Oak Beach.
13:22Authorities made the find as they investigated a missing persons report,
13:26looking for a 24-year-old woman from Jersey City.
13:29On May 1st of this year, Shannon Gilbert, a 23-year-old female, went missing.
13:35We had no leads as to where she went.
13:40In a continuation of that investigation,
13:43the missing persons unit responded to the area where this young lady went missing,
13:49with his dog, Blue.
13:51Here's Blue.
13:53Blue's a cadaver dog.
13:56We started our search.
13:58He started sampling the air,
14:00and he started indicating to a spot off the shoulder of the parkway.
14:06At that point, I saw the skeletal remains of a body.
14:10Bombshell tonight.
14:12An off-duty cop walking his dog on a beautiful, remote, isolated beach
14:16stumbles upon a woman's dead body.
14:20One night, we're sitting on the couch watching Nancy Grace,
14:25and all of a sudden, they discovered a body in Long Island.
14:30They said that they had found a female, approximately 24 to 26 years old, 4'9".
14:41We just started crying.
14:44We knew it was her.
14:56I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable.
14:59It was so close to the road.
15:02How could nobody see this?
15:06They were searching more that day.
15:10They didn't find anybody.
15:12Two days later, Suffolk County contacted me to tell me that they found three more bodies.
15:22Oak Beach tonight, looking more like a gruesome cemetery.
15:26The remains of three more people were found stuffed in these brushes.
15:33Typically, when you have a homicide, it's one person with a particular set of circumstances.
15:40When we realized, the reporters, the media, that there were four bodies
15:46that seemed to be killed in a consistent way, all buried in the same area,
15:52it was just unbelievable.
15:55I had never seen anything like it in all my years of reporting.
16:00And we knew that we had a huge story on our hands.
16:07The media dubbed them the Gilgo Four.
16:12The Gilgo Four were found along Ocean Parkway.
16:16They were spaced equally apart.
16:18And three of the four victims were found to have been wrapped
16:21using a specific type of burlap, typically used by duck hunters.
16:26They were disposed of in a very distinct and similar manner.
16:30It wasn't a burial site.
16:32It was where their bodies were strategically disposed of.
16:38Unless you've been there, it's hard to explain.
16:42Ocean Parkway is a desolate highway.
16:46There's no streetlights.
16:48It's completely dark.
16:50You can have considerable time if you're trying to commit a crime,
16:54like disposing of a body.
16:58I've personally pulled over and timed it.
17:02At nighttime, you might not see headlights for 30 seconds,
17:05or you could not see headlights for eight minutes.
17:09There are no housing structures nearby.
17:13There's no businesses.
17:15He walked maybe 25 paces, dumped the body, got in his vehicle, and left.
17:22The investigators found hairs that did not belong to the victims,
17:27and it did not match any profile within law enforcement DNA databases.
17:32They belonged to an unidentified male of Caucasian descent.
17:39The totality of the evidence linked the Gilgo Four together very cleanly and clearly, and logically, from an investigative standpoint.
17:48Shannon Gilbert is the suspected sex worker whose disappearance police were investigating when they stumbled on four bodies.
17:56But Gilbert was not among them.
17:58She remains missing.
17:59Suffolk County police find themselves now on the trail of a possible serial killer.
18:05One of the things that stood out to me was that all of the victims were petite in nature.
18:10He has this distinct type.
18:12I think he was picking those victims because they were small in stature and easier to control because of their
18:19size.
18:20Tonight, Suffolk County sheriffs say they think one of the bodies could be that of 22-year-old Megan Waterman
18:25from Scarborough.
18:26When you're done, take it out and just put it back away.
18:29Okay.
18:30Scarborough police asked Lorraine Hila for a swab sample to see if her DNA will match one of the bodies.
18:38Probably a month after, Detective Hagan chose up at my house to tell me that it was Megan.
18:49I was pretty much like, okay, what is my next step? What do I do?
18:54And he was like, well, I'm really sorry about your loss.
18:58He's like, here's my card. Here's this gentleman's card.
19:01And they left.
19:04They turned around and walked away.
19:09Yeah.
19:16Good afternoon.
19:17Good afternoon.
19:18We are here today to announce that all four women whose remains were discovered in Gilgal Beach last month have
19:26been positively identified.
19:28The victims are Megan Waterman of Scarborough, Maine.
19:36Melissa Bartholomew of the Bronx.
19:40Maureen Brainard Barnes of Norwich, Connecticut.
19:46And Amber Lynn Costello of North Babylon.
20:00I still like it out there.
20:04Fishing, I've been doing it for a long time, man.
20:07It's something different.
20:10Especially after all that shit happened.
20:14Amber was funny.
20:17She was like, ridiculous.
20:19You know what I mean?
20:19Like, four foot ten.
20:22You know, a hundred pounds.
20:23Just like a little firecracker.
20:25You know what I mean?
20:26She was just like any other 20-something-year-old girl.
20:30Talked about getting married.
20:32You know, talked about, you know, holding down a real job.
20:36She loved animals, man.
20:38That was the thing.
20:38She wanted to be a veterinarian.
20:41She was looking into schools and stuff.
20:46Amber would have done something.
20:49She had a really good moral compass, but the second her sister came around,
20:53it just, you know, the compass started spinning.
20:58It was her sister that got her into all that shit.
21:01They were doing calls together.
21:05These guys that would come for this kind of stuff, man,
21:07you'd be surprised how many of them are, like, cops, lawyers.
21:13I swear to shit, 90% of the people were married men.
21:18The first week of September, 2010, she's like, I got a call.
21:23You know, the guy wants to possibly do 24 hours.
21:28And then she disappeared.
21:31Of course, you know, it fucks you up.
21:34Because, you know, it's your friend's gone.
21:42All of those women were engaged in prostitution
21:46and solicited business over the internet.
21:48And these homicides appear to us to be directly related to that business.
21:56Maureen was fearless.
21:59Brave is an understatement.
22:02She was always like that.
22:06I met Maureen when we were working as telemarketers.
22:10She was in the cubicle across from me and we just clicked.
22:15Maureen was the most lively person.
22:18You know, she always had something funny to say.
22:21She knew when to have fun and she knew when to work her ass off.
22:26She's a single mom and she was trying hard.
22:32When she was fired, I think maybe two or three weeks after me,
22:36she needed to make that money real quick.
22:38And she said,
22:39Hey Sarah, you like to fuck random people?
22:42Why don't you get paid for it?
22:46First, what we would do is we'd type in manhattan.craigslist.org.
22:50We'd go to erotic services.
22:52And then it would make you put in the title.
22:55Like, hi, I'm Lacey. I'm 100% independent.
22:59You're a rent-a-girlfriend.
23:02Everybody seems to think that it's going to be like Pretty Woman
23:04and you have to dress like her, okay?
23:06No, you have to dress like her after she meets Richard Gere.
23:10It's more about companionship than it is about the sex.
23:16One of the most important things she always told me,
23:18she said, follow your instincts.
23:21If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.
23:28When Maureen went missing,
23:30we were staying in midtown Manhattan.
23:34But I left.
23:35I went back to Connecticut.
23:41Later on that night,
23:43I kept calling her phone, calling her phone, calling her phone.
23:50We would work in pairs to keep us safe.
23:54But she had eviction court the next day.
23:59She had less than 24 hours to get some fucking kind of money up
24:03so that they didn't lose their friggin' house.
24:10That's why she went alone.
24:12She wouldn't have done it any other time.
24:18I have really bad survivor's guilt
24:20because I really feel like she'd be alive had I stayed.
24:25I know that for a fact.
24:30Melissa was in New York for probably two and a half years
24:34and I didn't find out what she was doing
24:37until they found her body
24:39and they found out that they were sex workers.
24:44We were really close with Melissa.
24:46We spoke constantly.
24:49It's just mind-boggling.
24:52I just don't understand how I missed all this stuff.
24:56How I didn't know what she was doing.
25:05Here on Oak Beach, they don't seem overly concerned
25:08since the killer has apparently targeted prostitutes.
25:12I think that it was very comforting when we found out
25:14that he was targeting a specific group of women
25:16from a specific website
25:17so that it made it something that was removed from us.
25:21In the beginning, the media wasn't very nice.
25:24They called our girls prostitutes and whores.
25:27Bodies of four young prostitutes in December.
25:29Another Craigslist prostitute.
25:31An online escort.
25:32Prostitutes who advertised their services on Craigslist.
25:35People would see something on TV
25:37and basically they would say that they deserved it.
25:42There was some of the attitude that,
25:44well, they put themselves in that position
25:46and that was obvious from public statements
25:48that some of the most senior people
25:50investigating this murder were saying.
25:53Their deaths are a direct result
25:55of their business as prostitutes.
25:59We're easy targets because we are considered
26:02bottom of the barrel.
26:03Nobody gives a shit about us.
26:05We cannot report crimes to cops
26:09because it's not legal.
26:12Today, sex work has become more de-stigmatized.
26:17With sites like OnlyFans becoming mainstream,
26:21it's become a more accepted line of work.
26:25But in 2010, that wasn't the case.
26:29At one point, one of the senior investigators
26:32made a comment to a reporter
26:34about the victims being greedy and wanting money.
26:38When I read that,
26:40I remember getting sick to my stomach
26:43because I just thought to myself,
26:45what have you done to find this guy?
26:47And what are you doing telling a reporter
26:50that this victim was greedy
26:52and that's why she was involved in that type of work?
26:55It's utter fucking bullshit.
27:01Any more questions?
27:02One more, one more please.
27:04Don't be scared.
27:05Oh no, I don't think, no.
27:07I don't want anybody to think that
27:10we have a Jack the Ripper running around Suffolk County
27:12with blood dripping from a knife.
27:14It's not that type of situation.
27:16And so I would say to people,
27:18go about your business.
27:21Suffolk County is one of the safest counties
27:23anywhere in the United States.
27:27Just three months after the Gilgo Four are discovered,
27:31another bombshell drops.
27:35I get a call.
27:36More bodies have been found in Gilgo.
27:38We need you guys to go out there.
27:41And so we leave New York City to go out to Long Island.
27:47Police vehicle was driving by this Ocean Parkway Highway
27:51and something caught his eye.
27:53Last time they were here was actually back in January,
27:57just a couple weeks after Suffolk police found
27:59the remains of four women.
28:01The winter weather prevented searching,
28:03so they came out here again.
28:06Officers discovered what appeared to be another human remain.
28:09It was discovered also on the north side of Ocean Parkway.
28:14Helicopters, cadaver dogs, machetes,
28:16the macabre search for fresh evidence
28:18in Shannon Gilbert's disappearance
28:20continue today in a case that only grows grizzlier
28:23with each gruesome discovery.
28:24Police found a human skull yesterday.
28:27This time by divers.
28:28They are being examined tonight by medical experts.
28:34Over the course of a few weeks,
28:36police found partial skeletal remains
28:39several miles east of where the Gilgo Four were found.
28:43Investigators unearthed four.
28:45More bodies on that same strip of beach.
28:48One more body, that's right.
28:49The body count just keeps on rising
28:51and the grisly mystery just deepens.
28:53Ocean Parkway is a mass burial ground
28:57I mean, this is like crazy.
29:02It's just a little bit unsettling that, you know,
29:04you never know what could be down the street.
29:07It's very scary.
29:07And it makes it much more creepy to come here by yourself.
29:11I keep a cell phone in one pocket.
29:15And when I have to take a shotgun, I'm out of here.
29:19At that time, the fever pitch from the public interest,
29:23the public outcry, and the media got really, really high.
29:28Because you have a crime scene with at least ten bodies,
29:31and Shannon Gilbert has not been found.
29:34So far, police have already discovered the remains of ten people.
29:38They made it very clear that they do not know if these remains
29:42are connected to the four other women that you saw there.
29:46So still a lot of mystery around this.
29:48Police are holding this news conference at 11 o'clock this morning.
29:51We're live at Gilgo Beach.
29:53Kristen Thorne, CBS 2 News.
29:57Where's Bob? Look at him.
30:01All set?
30:05Today we're going to discuss some details regarding the remains
30:10discovered by the Suffolk County Police Department.
30:13And what is now very clear is that the area in and around Gilgo Beach
30:18has been used to discard human remains for some period of time.
30:25Displayed on the maps are the locations where the remains were found.
30:31Six other victims.
30:34Five were female.
30:36One was male.
30:38And one of them is a toddler.
30:41Four of the six were dismembered.
30:46Typically, perpetrators dismember victims
30:49in order to frustrate and confuse investigators.
30:53Because presumptively, if law enforcement knew who that person was,
30:56they would be able to fairly easily link the victim back to the perpetrator.
31:02So the crime scene itself is two and a half miles long.
31:06It spans two different jurisdictions.
31:09That's huge.
31:10So investigating the Gilgo Four, that's where they honed in.
31:15Because, quite frankly, that was the easiest and most logical path for investigators to follow.
31:21Well, I will not term it as a serial killer.
31:24There are no similarities.
31:26I want to emphasize this.
31:28There are no similarities at all.
31:30To the four Gilgo homicides.
31:33There is no evidence that all of these remains are that of a single killer.
31:40The difference between the way the Gilgo Four were found and the other bodies begged the question,
31:47was this the work of one individual or was there more than one serial killer on Long Island?
31:57The public should realize that this investigation is not an episode of CSI or Criminal Minds that is going to
32:07be solved in a one hour period.
32:10The investigation most likely is going to take a very long period of time.
32:18On numerous occasions, I asked the police what was going on with the case.
32:24And they said, just believe me, we're really working on it.
32:27It's the only thing that we're working on.
32:30We'll never stop working.
32:33That's basically all they told us.
32:40A few months later, the coroner told me that Melissa's body wasn't whole.
32:47They found another part of her body, her arm.
32:51I said, well, how could you have missed that?
32:54They had told me that maybe a crab or some type of animal had dragged off a part of her
33:01body and they had missed it.
33:04They asked me what I wanted to do with it.
33:07And I said, well, what do you mean, what do I want to do with it?
33:11I want to put her whole body together.
33:15I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable.
33:19I really wasn't good with the stress that was going on in my life at that time.
33:26I wanted to find the other families.
33:31I didn't know about Lynn until she started looking for me on Facebook.
33:36I set up the group so we could contact each other and keep in touch.
33:42We'd shoot a message and then we just talked quite a bit.
33:47The special bond, we know we can talk to each other because we know what each other is feeling.
33:56Lynn became my best friend, my sister.
33:59She wanted me to go spend a week at her house.
34:02So I took a week's vacation.
34:08Yeah, our friendship will never end.
34:12Then we were just one big cat, somewhat happy family.
34:27We want just a little bit of closure.
34:30Not all of us have been to the sites.
34:33And it's tough.
34:36It's taken just about everything I have to be here.
34:40This was supposed to be a final goodbye to all the girls, but with Shannon Gilbert still missing, family members
34:47say they will continue to return to this site as long as it takes.
34:51My name is Mary Gilbert.
34:53My daughter is Shannon.
34:54She is out there.
34:56She is missing.
34:57And our family and our friends, we're going to find her and we're going to find out who hurt Shannon
35:05and all the others.
35:09In this situation, I think you just kind of listen to what your heart tells you.
35:16And my mother definitely knew that Shannon wasn't with us anymore.
35:23It was tough, but it only made her stronger.
35:28There's a part of me that did not want to move forward, but we needed answers.
35:41I'm hoping that the more the people see this, the more the people hear this, that they're going to know
35:47we're not going to forget.
35:48Regardless how long it takes, if it takes the rest of our lives, we're going to find where my daughter
35:52is and we're going to find out who it is to the other girls.
35:58When we went to see the sites, we were pulled on the side of the road and the police basically
36:05told us that we had to leave.
36:08A detective from Suffolk County told us that he did not want us talking to the media because the media
36:16was trouble and they always get everything twisted.
36:24Nothing.
36:25Homicide detectives will not tell us anything.
36:28They should be contacting us.
36:30Not leaving us hanging like they're doing.
36:33Yeah.
36:34All they tell us is when we catch him, you'll be the first to know.
36:40Early on, the families were stonewalled by law enforcement.
36:44These cases were not moving as fast as they should have been.
36:49The families needed to find a way to get law enforcement to listen to them.
36:56And for Shannon's family, that resulted in finding John Ray.
37:03You can say what you want about John Ray, but he is a good lawyer.
37:08Do you want to sit?
37:09Yeah.
37:10Come up closer.
37:11A tiny bit.
37:12Yeah.
37:14It's an amazing room.
37:16I mean, I didn't need a set designer, babe.
37:20I'm a lawyer.
37:21I've been a lawyer since 1983.
37:25I work seven days a week.
37:28I do everything.
37:29I litigate.
37:30I'm not afraid of the big firms or the government as a renegade against the system.
37:39Mary Gilbert contacted me through Steve Barcello, photographer slash reporter for the New York Daily News.
37:46He said, look, can you help me with this lady that's involved in that Long Island serial killer case?
37:52She had no money.
37:53You know, but what was wrong here was that the police didn't do anything.
38:01So I was asked to step in.
38:04And that's what I did.
38:08Um, we'll step up here next to me so you can be close.
38:13The media comes when I call a press conference as a rule because they know me.
38:16Whenever you're ready, tell me and we'll get cranky.
38:19That was my value.
38:21Are we on?
38:22Okay.
38:24We're here today at the site of these terrible crimes because the Suffolk County Police Department is grossly derelict in
38:35its duty.
38:35The commissioner of police in Suffolk County has acted like the pink panther.
38:43I called him Inspector Clouseau.
38:46And I brought a big board that we had made up, you know, some facts and figures.
38:51They may investigate serial killings in violation of the laws of a state.
38:55I guess I went, you know, using my, um, I don't know, Irish talents and that highly insulted them.
39:03We say step up to the plate, do your job.
39:06If it doesn't happen, we will launch a lawsuit for that to occur.
39:10I think the police department got annoyed with him.
39:14John Ray fought the Suffolk County Police Department.
39:18And that's when they finally resumed looking for Shannon.
39:26Tonight, Suffolk County Police confirmed that they were again searching for any evidence of missing New Jersey woman Shannon Gilbert.
39:35Today, during the search, they found a cell phone, which they believe may belong to Shannon Gilbert.
39:44It's looking like the missing New Jersey prostitute is buried in the boggy marsh her jeans and pocketbook discovered yesterday.
39:51A year and a half after Shannon disappeared, her body was finally found, less than a mile from where she
39:59disappeared.
40:00And several miles east of where the Gilgo Four were found.
40:05The body was found approximately one quarter mile northeast of where her personal belongings were located.
40:16When Shannon was found, our world just stopped.
40:23As much as we tried to pick up the pieces, it was impossible.
40:29It absolutely broke our family.
40:38I feel robbed of my youth because I was so stuck on the tragedy.
40:46I wasn't able to move forward and focus on a career when I was in a very dark place for
40:54a very long time.
40:57It's a sick, horrible, sick world that we live in.
41:02What's running through your mind?
41:04It's evil.
41:07This place is evil.
41:11Why weren't the reeds cut down a year ago? Why didn't you bring in all this equipment a year ago?
41:15Well, it wasn't. We didn't think it was necessary. And also, that area was full of water.
41:22Investigators weren't able to go through the search. How could Shannon Wilbur walk a half a mile?
41:26It was very tough. When you get a chance to look at that area, you will wonder how anybody could
41:32walk through that area.
41:37There's no way anybody would have wandered into the marsh. That is a lie.
41:42Then you have her clothing. How did her jeans come off?
41:46A third of a mile away from where her body is found, with her pocketbook.
41:50The commissioner of police said, well, they're bramble bushes. Running through the marsh, they pulled her jeans off.
41:55It's absurd.
41:58Investigators believe Gilbert got tangled in brush and drowned in the marshy area.
42:01That she was not murdered by what cops believe is the serial killer that dumped the ten other sets of
42:07remains at Gilgo Beach.
42:08They even claimed she drowned. Are you serious?
42:15Shannon was found face up in very shallow water, only inches deep.
42:21She couldn't have drowned.
42:24And so then when that was discovered, the police immediately changed their story and said a different reason that she
42:30died. Natural causes.
42:34What natural causes? They didn't say. I mean, it was ridiculous.
42:39You didn't believe it was an accident at this point? No. No.
42:43I can't accept that she died of natural causes. There's no way.
42:48Especially when other women had been found in the same exact spot. All of the same age, all into sex
42:57work.
42:58There's a pattern. Anybody with a brain can see that there's a pattern going on.
43:07And then a few days after Shannon was found, a new police chief came in, James Burke.
43:14It's going to be a very good time to be a Suffolk County citizen, and it's going to be a
43:17very bad time to be a criminal in Suffolk County.
43:21And the case was shut down. You couldn't get anywhere. You couldn't talk to the police. You couldn't get anything
43:25from them.
43:28Burke, with the help of the district attorney at the time, told Nassau County Police Department to step out of
43:35the case.
43:36New York State Police were told to step down. They also told the FBI to step down and get out
43:41of the case.
43:43It's a local case. It's a case that is led by Suffolk County Police Department. The FBI can assist, but
43:49the FBI assists at the behest of the local agency.
43:52There has to be a federal crime attached to it for the FBI to take over the investigation.
43:58When I was told that Suffolk County wouldn't let the FBI in on this, I thought, it's too much for
44:05them to handle for themselves.
44:06They need more people in there. Why won't they let them in to help?
44:11You don't tell the FBI no.
44:15You probably should be bringing in the agencies from anywhere that is willing to assist.
44:24Suffolk County Police Department's hierarchy wanted to put to bed the entire saga of all these dead bodies.
44:32We know she called 911. What we heard was someone who seemed disoriented, confused.
44:42She did not seem rational. She didn't act appropriately and she ran off aimlessly into this marshy area.
44:52We know for sure that Shannon Gilbert called 911.
44:57And then she disappears, allegedly never to be seen again by anyone.
45:04What was on the 911 tape?
45:10The police refused to give it to me.
45:13For me to find out what was on that tape, I had to sue the police department.
45:20The detective sergeant who was in charge, he said, John Ray will get that tape over my dead body.
45:29No, I don't think so.
45:32After years of litigation, I won. We got the tape.
45:36Hello, you dialed into the 911 system. How can I assist you?
45:40There's somebody after me.
45:42I'm sorry? No, it's not. No.
45:45How can you hear that 911 call and not send out your entire police department to look for this person?
45:53She was being hunted.
45:55Will this reveal something about the killer?
45:59Can you stop, please?
46:02No!
46:03No!
46:04No!
46:05No!
46:05No!
46:06No!
46:07No!
46:07No!
46:09No!
46:10No!
46:11No!
46:13No!
46:20No!
46:29No!
46:30No!
46:59No!
46:59No!
46:59No!
47:00No!
47:00No!
47:00No!
47:00No!
47:00You
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