Police: Maine woman may be among 4 NY beach bodies

BABYLON, N.Y. – Four decomposed bodies found recently along a remote beach highway are all women, police confirmed Wednesday, as detectives planned to meet with the FBI for help in finding a possible serial killer.

Meanwhile, the mother of a Maine woman who worked as a Craigslist escort and went missing from a hotel on New York's Long Island told The Associated Press that police in Maine have said her daughter might be one of four bodies.

Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, was last seen in June at a Hauppauge, N.Y., hotel where she went with her boyfriend. The hotel is about 15 miles from where the bodies were found.

Waterman's mother, Lorraine Ela, told the AP on Wednesday that a Scarborough detective told her he was "leaning toward one of the four victims being Megan, but he's not 100 percent guaranteed."

Messages left for Scarborough police were not immediately returned. A spokeswoman for police in Suffolk County, N.Y., had no immediate comment.

The four bodies were systematically dumped, perhaps over a period of 18 months or longer, along a desolate, wind-swept stretch of highway east of Jones Beach State Park, police said.

The first of the decomposed corpses was found Saturday by an officer and his cadaver dog. Three more, all scattered within a quarter-mile, were found two days later.

Now, authorities want to apprehend a possible serial killer.

"We're looking at that — that we could have a serial killer," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told reporters at a briefing Tuesday before officers and the cadaver dog resumed searching for possibly more victims. "I don't think its a coincidence that four bodies ended up in this area."

The search along a highway about 45 miles east of New York City ended without any additional discoveries, but police intend to press on with an investigation.

Police found the decomposed remains just feet from the roadway during an ongoing search for a missing prostitute last known to be headed to nearby Fire Island. As of Tuesday, there was no indication the woman, a 24-year-old from Jersey City, N.J., who was reported missing May 1, was among the dead.

Police believe the four were killed elsewhere and then brought to the site, a narrow strip of land that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The four-lane parkway runs through the middle, connecting Jones Beach State Park with several state and town-run beaches to its east.

Dormer said the search of the vast, remote area could take days or longer.