Gilbert's mother, Mari, and the family's attorney held a press conference at Oak Beach. Shannan is probably the highest profile missing person in Suffolk County history. After a year and a half of searching, police finally found items linked to Gilbert, including her purse and cell phone, last week.
Gilbert was an escort who advertised on Craigslist. She met with a client just before she disappeared. While searching for her in the areas along Gilgo Beach and Ocean Parkway, police found the remains of the 10 victims believed to be the work of a serial killer.
Now, Mari Gilbert and attorney John Ray are calling for the FBI to take over the case. They want the feds to step in because they say Suffolk County police botched the investigation.
"The Suffolk County Police Department is grossly derelict in its duty, not only to have investigated these murders properly, but also because they failed to protect the lives of these people who are now gone," Ray said.
Police do not believe that Shannan Gilbert was murdered, but that she drowned in the marshland and that the link to the other bodies is coincidental. Mari Gilbert disagrees.
"Think of it as if it was your child," she said. "If it was your mother, or your father, or your sister or your brother. How would you feel that someone knew something, someone could help, but didn't want to, and they didn't care."
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