Police in Long Island serial killer case reveal new evidence

Investigators stymied by a nine-year mystery following the discovery of 11 sets of human remains strewn along a suburban New York beach highway revealed a previously unreleased photograph Thursday of evidence found at one of the crime scenes that they say was handled by an unknown suspect.

The photograph shows the initials on a black leather belt, showing either an HM or WH, depending on the angle.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart declined to say exactly where the belt was found and which one of the victims it was linked to. She said investigators determined that the belt was not owned by any of the victims.

“We do believe that this item was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims,” said Hart.

She would not comment on whether there were one or more suspects in the unsolved killings.

The case that has attracted national headlines for many years is about to be shown in a new spotlight when Netflix releases a film about the unsolved killings March 13.

For nearly a decade, a thicket along a highway not far from the popular Jones Beach on Long Island has held the horrible secret. Hidden from passing drivers and strewn along several miles (kilometers) were the skeletal remains of mostly young women who had worked as prostitutes.

Determining who killed them, and why, has vexed a slew of seasoned homicide detectives through several changes in leadership in the police department.

“The amount of work that’s gone into this case is perhaps unprecedented,” said District Attorney Timothy Sini, who formerly served as police commissioner.

The investigation got a boost in September when state officials determined investigators could ask the FBI to deploy genetic genealogy, a technique in which genetic profiles are run though databases to find potential relatives of a homicide victim or suspect. Hart said Thursday that it wasn’t known how long that process might take.

The disappearance of Shannan Gilbert in 2010 triggered the hunt that exposed the larger mystery. Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot in the seafront community of Oak Beach, disappearing into the marsh.