Police Closing Parkway Monday for Bodies Investigation

New York State Police will close Wantagh State Parkway from Ocean Parkway to Merrick Road starting at 9 a.m. Monday as part of the continuing Gilgo beach bodies investigation.

It’s the first time search efforts have expanded north of the barrier beach area and beyond Ocean Parkway since the discovery of 10 bodies in the Gilgo and Jones Beach areas in the past four months.

The search is being led by state police, and calls to the public information office late Friday afternoon were not returned by press time.

Nassau Police told Patch they are are sending about 20 officers to assist and it’s expected that officers from the New York State Park Police and Department of Environmental Conservation officers will also be assisting.

Suffolk Police said, as of Friday, there was no  information about providing officers to the latest search effort and no update or news relating to the bodies investigation. Suffolk Police said there were no searches in Suffolk planned for Monday.

In the past several weeks both Suffolk and Nassau police have conducted intense aerial and water searches along Ocean Parkway, from Robert Moses Causeway to the Jones Beach water tower, looking for evidence and human remains. As of last week Nassau Police said it was awaiting photographs taken with high-definition camera technology.

It’s been 140 days since a Suffolk County police canine team discovered the first female remains on December 11, 2010. The search was part of an ongoing investigation related tp the missing person’s case of Shannan Gilbert, last seen May 1, 2010 in the early morning hours in Oak Beach. The 24-year-old New Jersey woman, a Craigslist escort, was visiting a client in the area the night she disappeared.

Two days later three more sets of remains were found. All four were identified as young white women who worked as escorts. One was a North Babylon woman last seen in September 2010.

Between March 31 and April 4 Suffolk Police found four more sets of remains.

On April 11 Nassau Police discovered two more sets, bringing the body count to 10.

The six sets of remains were sent to the New York State Medical Examiner for forensic analysis and no information about sex, gender or conditions of the remains has been released.