By ,
Published November 29, 2015
The district attorney of New York's Suffolk County is disputing the theory held by police that one killer is responsible for the murders of 10 victims whose remains were dumped on Long Island.
Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said Thursday he doesn't believe one killer is behind the murders, LongIslandPress.com reports.
Spota, who said he believes at least one more killer is responsible, made the remarks during testimony before the Suffolk legislature's public safety committee on Thursday, according to the website.
Authorities initially believed several people could be involved, but Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said recently that investigators believe one serial killer is to blame for the deaths -- which include eight women, a man and a toddler found dumped along a deserted stretch of Ocean Parkway. Five of the victims have been identified as sex workers who advertised their services on Craigslist.
Spota said he disagrees with the one-killer theory because the one male victim -- reportedly found dressed in women's clothing -- was killed in a different manner than the other victims, the website reported.
Dormer, meanwhile, has said he believes a single person is to blame for the bodies, most of them discovered within the last year, because all the victims found were linked in some way to sex trade. He also said the killer is someone from Suffolk or Nassau counties who is very familiar with the area.
"The sex workers dumped in the same place, the ages of the victims and even though we did have a male and a toddler's remains found, we believe that they may be connected to the sex business," Dormer said last month.
Dormer announced his new theory just two weeks before authorities found another set of skeletal remains believed to be 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert.
Gilbert, of Jersey City, N.J., was last seen shortly after 5 a.m. on May 1, 2010, in Oak Beach. Police were searching for her last December when they discovered the first of what would become 10 homicide victims.
Searchers found the latest set of bones at around 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday in a dense wetland thicket, about a half mile from where Gilbert disappeared after meeting a client for an early-morning sexual encounter.
The remains were found by homicide detectives about a quarter mile from where authorities found the young woman's pants, shoes, pocketbook with ID and other personal items.
Dormer suggested that Gilbert had become hopelessly entangled in the brush, which he called a "tough, desolate, tangled mess." He said police think Gilbert likely drowned accidentally after fleeing the client's home for an unclear reason and that her case is not connected to the serial killings.
Authorities have not yet positively identified the latest set of skeletal remains. An autopsy is expected to take weeks, a police source told FoxNews.com.
FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/more-than-1-killer-to-blame-for-bodies-found-on-new-yorks-long-island-district-attorney-claims