Gilgo Beach investigators probe woods, report says

— Detectives investigating Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial slayings have launched a painstaking search in a thatch of woods nearly 50 miles from where the victims’ bodies were discovered, according to reports.

The search, which is being conducted off the Long Island Expressway near Exit 70 in Manorville, is part of the Gilgo Beach investigation, law enforcement sources told ABC Eyewitness News. The search of the woods began Tuesday and continued Wednesday.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office said the search was part of an “ongoing investigation.”

“We do not comment on investigative steps while they are underway,” a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said. “We will make further statements when appropriate.”

Accused serial killer Rex Heuermann, 59, was charged in July with the murders of three young sex workers, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello. This January he was charged with the murder of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes of Norwich.

Their bodies were found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, dumped along Gilgo Beach.

Authorities have been trying to determine whether Heuermann has any connection to six other victims found at Gilgo Beach: Four women, an Asian man dressed as a woman and a child.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.