Serial Killer Victim's Sister Hopes Beach Search Solves Two Cases

As police continue to comb marshland along Ocean Parkway in Oak Beach searching for clues in the missing person’s case of Shannan Gilbert, Melissa Cann waits for the phone to ring to hear news about who killed her older sister Maureen Brainard-Barnes, one of 10 victims police say were murdered in a serial killing spree that spans at least 15 years.

It’s been four years since Cann saw her sister alive. The last time was a birthday celebration on July 3, 2007, for their brother Will’s 22nd birthday. A week later Brainard-Barnes went missing, just weeks after she celebrated her 25th birthday on June 14.

“I still get my hopes up that police will find out who killed her. I watch all the news, read all the reports. We’re fighting for justice,” said Cann in a phone interview with Patch from her home in Connecticut.

The mother of four was aware police planned to re-search the Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach areas this week.

While the focus is on clues about the 24-year-old Gilbert, who was last seen fleeing Oak Beach on May 1, 2010, Cann hopes the search reveals insight on the serial killer who took her sister’s life between July 2007, when she headed to New York, and when her body was identified by DNA records on January 24 of this year.

“My hope about finding who did this will never die,” Cann said, adding that media attention, such as a recent A&E documentary on the case, is important to the investigation and hopefully will trigger a tip that will solve the case.

“I’m hoping that the documentary will spark something, someone will see it and remember something, a memory,” she said, adding that her sister’s murder has been hard to accept.

“It still doesn’t seem real to this day,” said Cann, who appears in the two-hour A&E program that aired Monday night.

“It’s heart wrenching to keep talking about but we have to keep it in the spotlight and we have to show that the victims were real people.”

Brainard-Barnes was among the three set of remains discovered in the serial killer case on December 13, 2010. The first set of remains, on December 10, 2010, was identified as Melissa Barthelemy, 24, of Erie County, New York. Her body was discovered during a canine search for Gilbert.

The victims include Amber Lynn Costello, a 27-year-old North Babylon woman last seen in early September, 2010 and Megan Waterman, a missing 24-year-old Maine woman who was last seen in Hauppauge.

All the women were escorts who used online services, such as Craiglists, for business, according to police.

The other serial killer victims include three unidentified females, an Asian male and a toddler.

Cann and Watermen's mother, Lorraine Watermen Ela, created a Facebook page back in mid September to help keep the case in the public and media spotlight and provide an easy way for people to share tips and information with the Crime Stoppers hotline. So far police say they have followed up on more than 1,200 tips from the hotline.

“It’s about keeping awareness high and the page is getting more likes and attention,” said Cann. Several posters on the site indicated they’ve reached out with tips to the hotline.

None, however, have led police to identifying a person of interest in the case.

But that’s not discouraging Cann in the least. She, along with other victims’ family members will hold a public vigil at the former site of the Oak Beach Inn on December 13 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. to mark the one-year anniversary.

“We will never give up trying to find out what happened to Maureen,” said Cann.