The Long Island serial killer's dump site

Gilgo Beach map

This aerial image pinpoints the four dump sites that were discovered along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach.

As you can see, the offender chose areas that were close to the road. This is consistent with the behavior of other killers.

Carrying human remains across an uneven terrain that contains thick vegetation would be physically taxing. Furthermore, the perpetrator will typically try to minimize the amount of time that he spends at the site. The longer he stays, the more likely it is that a passerby will spot him or his vehicle.

It is probable that the Long Island serial killer lives relatively close to this location. Either that, or he has visited the area on multiple occasions.

Serial killers typically operate within "comfort zones", which are places that they feel somewhat familiar with.

From their perspective, using an unfamiliar area as a dump site is risky because it introduces far too many unknown variables.

The Gilgo Four

The term "Gilgo Four" refers to four women who went missing between 2007 and 2010. They were nicknamed as such due to their proximity to each other and Gilgo Beach, which is on the opposite side of Ocean Parkway.

All of the victims had been asphyxiated. There were also signs that they had been kept for a while and tortured.

Although these were the first victims to be found, they were not the first to go missing. In fact, this was his "freshest" burial site, so to speak.

One of the victims, Amber Lynn Costello, went missing in September of 2010, which was only two months before Officer Mallia uncovered the first body.

This means that the Long Island serial killer had been using the site right up until its discovery.

His decision to dump the remains of four victims in the exact same area seems to be a deviation from his earlier behavior.

Originally, he kept his dump sites apart, as it lowered the chances of multiple victims being found at the same time.

However, in the late 2000s, he had essentially run out of space and couldn't progress further west without increasing his exposure (the median strip narrows and there are houses up ahead).

The first victim to be placed at this site was 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes. She disappeared on July 9th, 2007 after telling a friend that she was going to meet a client outside of her motel in New York City.

The second victim to be dumped here was 24-year-old Craigslist escort Melissa Barthelemy, who was last seen on July 12th, 2009. In the weeks following Barthelemy's disappearance, an unidentified man used her cellphone to make a series of taunting calls to her younger sister, Amanda. In one of these calls, the man stated that Barthelemy was dead and that he was going to "watch her rot."

All of these phone calls were intentionally short and made from crowded areas in Manhattan.

Coordinates: 40.614547, -73.410521

Google Maps Link

Asian male

On April 4th, 2011, police discovered the remains of an unidentified Asian male. He was found just 750 yards east of the Gilgo Four.

The authorities believe that "Asian male John Doe" died between 2000 and 2005 and that he may have been transgender. This is because he was wearing women's clothes.

Coordinates: 40.626479, -73.370235

Google Maps Link

Jessica Taylor

On March 29th, 2011, investigators discovered a skull, a forearm, and two hands in this area off Ocean Parkway. The killer had deposited the remains about 1,100 yards away from the site where the "Asian Male" was found.

DNA analysis proved that the remains belonged to a sex worker named Jessica Taylor, who went missing in July of 2003. Shortly after her disappearance, Jessica's torso was found close to Halsey Manor Road in Manorville, New York.

In Taylor's case, it seems as though LISK went to great lengths to try and conceal her identity. Not only did he dismember her and dump her remains in two different places, he also attempted to remove a tattoo from her torso.

Coordinates: 40.629883, -73.359340

Google Maps Link

Valerie Mack and Baby Doe

On April 4th, 2011, police discovered the remains of 20-year-old Valerie Mack and an unidentified female toddler at this site near Overlook Beach.

The site in question is about a mile and a half east of the location where Jessica Taylor was dumped.

Mack and the toddler were found 250 feet apart. However, DNA testing confirmed that they were not related to each other.

Although Mack's skull, hands, and right foot were all discovered at this site in 2011, her torso was found eleven years earlier in a wooded area near Halsey Manor Road.

The similarities between the cases of Mack and Taylor are striking. The killer dismembered the two women in the early 2000s and dumped their torsos near Halsey Manor Road in Manorville. He then tossed their skulls and hands into the thicket beside Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

This was most likely done in order to hinder their identification and impede any investigation.

In another twist, DNA testing revealed that the toddler belonged to an unidentified African-American woman called Peaches, whose torso was discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park in June of 1997.

Coordinates: 40.637353, -73.333854

Google Maps Link

Gilgo Beach

The Long Island serial killer dumped his victims' remains in the thicket beside Ocean Parkway.

Because the victims were discovered in December of 2010, most photographs of the site show bare brambles and branches.

However, LISK operated during the warmer months. As a result, the roadside thicket on Gilgo Beach would have looked much greener and "thicker" while he was using it (similar to the image above).

This would have undoubtedly helped conceal his victims' remains.

Ocean Parkway

This section of the road along Ocean Parkway provided him with the perfect dumping ground.

The straight 1.5-mile stretch provided him with full visibility of oncoming traffic. It is also one-way, heading from east to west.

If he dumped his victims' remains at night, then there was almost no chance of another vehicle creeping up on him.

Judging by Google Street View, documentaries, and comments from locals, this area is pretty desolate, especially after dark.

It is likely that LISK checked his rearview mirror for headlights before pulling over to the side. If there were no lights in the distance, then he could drop off his victim and leave without having to rush.

Judging by Google Maps, he had at least 60 seconds to make the drop and then leave before another motorist got too close for comfort. If another vehicle was too close behind, then it would have taken him less than 10 minutes to circle around and try again.

Median strip

It seems as though he deliberately chose the section of Ocean Parkway where the median strip between the two lanes is at its widest.

There was a 50-meter (55-yard) distance between him and motorists traveling in the opposite direction. The strip also contained trees and shrubbery.

If his headlights were off, it would have been extremely difficult to see him or his vehicle, as there were no streetlights in the area.

The median strip narrows to 6 meters if you drive slightly west of this location. This might explain why he decided to place the Gilgo Four in one area. In other words, he ran out of space. If he had continued any further, he would have been exposing himself to oncoming traffic.

Timeline

If you compare the locations with the dates that the victims went missing, a pattern seems to emerge.

From about 1997 onward, he started on the eastern side of the island and then worked his way west, spacing his victims out along the way.

However, by the late 2000s, he was hesitant to continue any further. The narrowing of the median strip and the presence of houses left him with no other option but to stick with the one stretch of road that provided him with time and secrecy.

This "pattern" is also interesting because it suggests that the unidentified victim, "Asian Male", probably went missing between 2004 and 2006 (the police believe that he was murdered at some point between 2000 and 2005).

From what we know, there is only one example of the Long Island serial killer striking more than once in the same year (Waterman and Costello in 2010, at the very end of his spree).

If this east-to-west pattern isn't a coincidence and he was spacing out his dump sites, then it would mean that "Asian Male" disappeared at some point between the murders of Jessica Taylor (2003) and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (2007).

Note that there probably weren't any symbolic reasons for this. Instead, it is likely that he was just trying to prevent all of his victims from being found at the same time.

However, by 2007, he had run out of options.

He couldn't progress further west along Ocean Parkway

This west-facing aerial image illustrates why the killer was hesitant to progress further west.

As you can see, the median strip on Ocean Parkway narrows. This would have exposed him to traffic heading eastward. There were also a number of residential properties up ahead.

Poison ivy

The thicket along Ocean Parkway is filled with brambles and poison ivy.

For this reason, a former FBI profiler opined that the Long Island serial killer may have sought medical treatment for poison ivy.

However, people have different reactions to the plant. For example, 15–25% of the population is resistant to any reaction, while others may experience only mild symptoms.

Burner phone

The authorities believe that the Long Island serial killer was a family man who picked up many sex workers over the years.

However, he only struck when the circumstances were right. Otherwise, he used their services like a regular client.

Notably, LISK used a burner phone to call the Gilgo Four.

During the mid-to-late 2000s, these phones were extremely popular among married men who regularly contacted sex workers on websites such as Craigslist.

By using a cheap, prepaid burner, they could hide their "hobby" from their significant other.

Judging by forum discussions from the time, many of these men were worried that an escort might text them while they were in the presence of their wife or girlfriend.

These fears were not unfounded, as a number of working girls used to advertise their availability by sending out a "broadcast" text message to all of their recent contacts.

As you can imagine, burner phones were particularly popular among men who had been caught cheating in the past. For them, there was always a good chance that their significant other would look through their call logs, check their text messages, and scrutinize the numbers listed on their phone bill.

Typically, these men would purchase these prepaid, push-button phones at RadioShack or some other department store. Although they were asked to register a name and address, this process did not require any proof of identification.

Following the purchase, they would typically hide their new "toy" somewhere and only turn it on whenever they needed to contact an escort.

When people learn that the Long Island serial killer contacted some of the victims with a burner phone, they often envision him as some kind of tech-savvy predator with a fancy gadget.

However, it seems far more likely that he originally started using a prepaid burner to hide his extramarital activities from his wife.

Burlap

In December of 2020, former SCPD Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone told CBS This Morning that the Gilgo Four had been wrapped in burlap.

In Varrone's opinion, the killer may have chosen this brown, porous material to camouflage his victims' remains among the bushes and promote decay.

Compared to plastic, it would not have stuck out as much.