Officials release new sketches of Gilgo Beach victim, new details

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Monday, September 16, 2024
New sketches and details released on Gilgo Beach murder victim
Chantee Lans has the latest on the Gilgo Beach murders.

LONG ISLAND, New York (WABC) -- Investigators have released new sketches and details in connection to a Gilgo Beach victim and are asking for the public's help in identifying them.

Although there has been an arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, investigators are still trying to piece together the cold-case murders.

On Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney released three new updated sketches of a Gilgo Beach victim.

The Asian male victim's remains were recovered along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. However, authorities say he was killed during or prior to 2006.

His body was found 300 yards from victim Megan Waterman.

Previously released sketch of the Asian male victim:

Tierney said the biological male was believed to be between the ages of 17 and 23 and about 5 feet 6 inches in height.

"He was a teenager or very young adult when the murder occurred," Tierney said. "This victim suffered a violent death."

They were killed by blunt force trauma to the head, the medical examiner determined.

"They start at the skull and then using the characteristics of the skull, they create the diagram of the individual so we believe this is the most accurate depiction of the victim," Tierney said.

Another new detail released was the victim was wearing exclusively women's clothing. That has led investigators to believe that this victim identified as a woman, friends may have known this person as a woman, and that they worked as a sex worker.

Investigators said the body was found in woman's pants and a bra.

The victim was of Southern Chinese descent, specifically Han Chinese.

"This person had a name, this person had family, this person had friends," Tierney said.

In effort to encourage members of the Asian community who might have information to come forward, investigators arranged for a New York State trooper to deliver updated details about the case in Mandarin.

WATCH | Update in Mandarin on Asian Gilgo Beach victim

A NY State trooper provides new information in Mandarin on an Asian victim found on Gilgo Beach in April 2011.

The rendering, created by studying the recovered remains, is what anthropologists believe the unidentified subject, long described as an Asian male, would have looked like. The goal is to learn more about the victim, including his identity.

Authorities did not announce any new charges against Rex Heuermann, the architect and father who has pleaded not guilty to killing six women.

ALSO READ: Gilgo Beach murders: Complete timeline of events leading up to Rex Heuermann's arrest

Investigators found 10 other bodies in the search for missing sex worker Shannan Gilbert on a stretch of beach along Long Island's South Shore.

Heuermann was first charged with the deaths of women known as the "Gilgo Four" -- Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Amber Costello -- whose bodies were found covered in burlap in December 2010, according to court records.

Earlier this year, investigators charged Heuermann with the murders of two more women -- the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor, whose remains were found on Gilgo Beach and in Manorville, and the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla, whose remains were found in North Sea, Long Island, in 1993.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to their murders.

(Some information from ABC News)

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