Woman charged with killing mother
Older daughter was found dead on Long Island in 2011 near serial killing victims
A woman whose daughter was found dead on Long Island five years ago as authorities investigated the slayings of several sex workers was killed in a village apartment Saturday, and a younger daughter of hers was charged with murder, according to authorities.
The body of Mari Gilbert, 52, was found about 2:15 p.m. Saturday in Apartment 2 at 9 Warren St. in the Ellenville, and Sarra Elizabeth Gilbert, 27, a resident of that address, was arrested a short time later and charged with killing the older woman, village police said Saturday night.
Police did not say if Mari Gilbert lived at the same address as her daughter. They said she was killed
in the morning.
Police also did not say how the homicide was committed, but the charge against Sarra Gilbert suggests a weapon might have been involved. The younger Gilbert was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
Police said they will discuss the case further during a press conference at noon Monday in the Ellenville Village Hall.
Sarra Gilbert was sent to the Ulster County Jail without bail after being arraigned. A preliminary hearing in her case has been scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
According to the Freeman’s online archives, Sarra Gilbert has been arrested twice this year — for aggravated animal cruelty and endangering the welfare of a child on Feb. 19 and for criminal contempt on May 19.
Shannan Gilbert — Mari’s daughter and Sarra’s older sister — vanished in May 2010 after fleeing the home of a sex client in Oak Beach on Long Island. The search for her led to the discovery of 11 sets of human remains over the span of about a year: Gilbert’s and those of eight women, one man and a toddler. At least four of the women, including Gilbert, worked as prostitutes, authorities have said.
The remains of Gilbert, an Ellenville High School graduate, were found in December 2011.
No suspects have been arrested, or identified, in any of the Long Island killings, but investigators believe a serial killer — perhaps more than one — was responsible.
Detectives long have maintained Shannan Gilbert’s death was unrelated to the killings of the 10 others, but an attorney for the Gilbert family said this past February that an independent autopsy suggested the woman, who was 24 and lived in New Jersey at the time of her death, might have been strangled. A previous autopsy by the Suffolk County medical examiner was inconclusive regarding the cause of death.
The lawyer’s announcement about the independent autopsy was made at a press conference on Long Island that Mari and Sarra Gilbert attended, along with other family members.
Ellenville police said Saturday’s homicide investigation was conducted jointly with the state police, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office.