The motel where Maureen Brainard-Barnes was last seen

Crime Scene Location in Manhattan, New York, United States

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Maureen Brainard-Barnes - Crime scene location

This is the motel where Maureen Brainard-Barnes was last seen.

In 2007, it was called the Super 8. These days, it is known as The Hotel @ Times Square.

Brainard-Barnes is believed to be a victim of the Long Island serial killer (LISK).

On the night of July 9th, 2007, the sex worker left this motel to meet a client for an "out-call" and was never seen again. More than three years later, her skeletal remains were discovered among the bodies of three missing sex workers at Gilgo Beach.

Brainard-Barnes was the first of the "Gilgo Four" to go missing.

That Monday, she was working at the Super 8 motel when someone scheduled an "out-call" with her using a disposable burner phone. Just before midnight, she called a friend and told her that a client was going to pick her up outside of the motel.

It is highly likely that the client in question was LISK.

In the months leading up to her disappearance, the 25-year-old was under a huge amount of financial pressure.

At the time, she was facing eviction and an expensive court battle to keep custody of her son. Although she had a job as a telemarketer, her wages were far too low to keep her afloat.

As a result, she started making sporadic weekend trips from Connecticut to New York so that she could work as an escort.

Sadly, it wasn't long before her financial situation became the least of her worries.

On that warm summer night in 2007, she stepped out onto this busy street in Midtown Manhattan, anxious to make some money.

Unbeknownst to her, she was being lured to her death by a sexual predator who had become extremely proficient at making his victims vanish without a trace.

Where was Maureen Brainard-Barnes last seen?

Below, you will find the address and the GPS coordinates for this location.

GPS coordinates

The latitude and longitude coordinates for the motel are:

40.757108, -73.981304

Map

To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below:

Google Maps Link

Address

The full address for this location is:

Super 8
59 W 46th Street
Manhattan
New York
NY 10036
United States

Directions

The motel is roughly 100 yards east of the intersection between 6th Avenue and West 46th Street in Midtown Mahattan. It is a five-minute walk away from Times Square.

Photos

Photos of the motel and other related images.


West 46th Street

West 46th Street

This Google Street View image of West 46th Street was taken in June of 2011.

It is believed that the Long Island serial killer parked his vehicle somewhere in the vicinity of the motel.

Map

Map

Brainard-Barnes' remains were discovered on Gilgo Beach, which is roughly 50 miles away from the motel where she was last seen.

Brainard-Barnes was found at Gilgo Beach

Gilgo Beach Brainard-Barnes

In December of 2010, investigators discovered Brainard-Barnes' remains beside this desolate stretch of road near Gilgo Beach.

By that point, she had been missing for three and a half years.

Her killer had wrapped her body in burlap and then dumped it in the thicket beside Ocean Parkway.

She was placed in the same spot as three missing sex workers called Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello.

The women are referred to as the "Gilgo Four" because they were all found in close proximity to one another.

Coordinates: 40.624717, -73.375401

Google Maps Link

180 Prospect Street

180 Prospect Street

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was born on June 14th, 1982.

At the time of her death, she was living in an apartment at 180 Prospect Street in Norwich, Connecticut.

The 25-year-old was petite, standing at only 4 feet 11 inches.

Before she became an escort, she originally went to New York City with hopes of becoming a model.

She stopped working as an escort for a couple of months before she went missing. However, she decided to start again shortly after receiving an eviction notice.

Three days before her disappearance, she and another sex worker named Sara Karnes traveled to Manhattan by train. Although they were planning on working out of their rooms at the Super 8 motel, they soon learned that their ads on Craigslist had been suspended.

Consequently, they were unable to advertise their services.

In an effort to turn their trip into something positive, they decided to hire a photographer and update their escort pictures. They also spent time wandering around the city together.

On July 8th, Karnes returned to Connecticut. However, it seems as though Brainard-Barnes was so desperate for money that she decided to stay behind.

According to Karnes, her friend "had regulars."

Because she was unable to advertise on Craigslist, it is possible that LISK was a previous client. At the time, working girls sometimes advertised their services by sending out a broadcast message to their recent contacts.

Others have suggested that her ads weren't really suspended. Instead, they may have been "demoted" to a much lower position. If this was the case, then her killer may have specifically targeted ads that were at the "bottom of the pile."

Coordinates: 41.534993, -72.057007

Google Maps Link

Fire Island

Fire Island

Brainard-Barnes' phone pinged off a cell tower on Fire Island roughly one or two weeks after she disappeared.

It is believed that the killer may have been attempting to access her voicemail.

Note that this doesn't necessarily mean that the phone was on Fire Island. This is because phones select the closest tower with the best signal.

For example, he may have been in Heckscher State Park, which is across the bay. Or he may have been on the eastern side of Gilgo Beach.

Sara Karnes

Sara Karnes

Image source: The Killing Season

Sara Karnes accompanied Brainard-Barnes to Manhattan on Friday, July 6th, 2007. However, after a quiet weekend, she decided to cut her losses and return to Connecticut on the 8th.

Two weeks later, she received a phone call from a private number. When she answered it, a man asked her if she was from Connecticut and if she knew Maureen. He also described a tattoo on her friend's right arm.

Karnes told the man that Maureen was her friend and that she had been missing for two weeks.

In response, he claimed that she was "fine" and that he had just seen her at a "wh*rehouse in Queens."

Karnes knew that this didn't sound right, as her friend was an independent escort. When she asked where it was, he said that he didn't know the exact address.

At that point, the man promised to call her back and provide her with the location.

However, he never did.

It is possible that the man in question was the Long Island serial killer and that this was his first attempt at contacting one of the victims' friends or families.

In 2009, he called the sister of Melissa Barthelemy multiple times.

Furthermore, he almost certainly had access to Maureen's phone, as it pinged a cell tower on Fire Island roughly 7–14 days after she disappeared.

In this case, it is likely that he was trying to use Karnes as a conduit to sow disinformation about the nature of her friend's disappearance. In other words, he knew that anything he said to Karnes would eventually be passed on to her family and the police.

This location belongs to the following categories:

Serial KillersLong Island Serial Killer LocationsUnsolved Cases
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