Causeway Shut Down Today For Bodies Search

New York State Police will continue the search for human remains on the barrier beach this morning, closing down the Robert Moses Causeway from Ocean Parkway to Montauk Highway starting at 8 a.m.

Suffolk Police said canine units  and members of the Homicide Task Force will be out on the scene as well.

The latest search effort follows the first non-beach search effort Monday when state police, assisted by Nassau County units, scoured the Wantagh State Parkway from Ocean Parkway to Merrick Road. Police said no remains were discovered during yesterday’s effort.

Monday’s search marked 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.

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 144 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.