The remains of a Maine woman who was reported missing from Long Island last year have been identified among four found on a Suffolk County beach, her mother said Wednesday.
Lorraine Ela told The Associated Press on Wednesday that police notified her son about Megan Waterman's body being among those dumped on Eastern Long Island. The Suffolk County police commissioner and district attorney confirmed Waterman's ID.
Waterman's cause of death was described as "homicide" by Suffolk police commissioner Richard Dormer; but, neither he nor district attorney Thomas Spota would say specifically how she was killed.
"We are close to identifying the other three bodies," added Spota, of the other remains discovered near Gilgo Beach last December.
Other families of missing persons have supplied investigators with medical, dental and personal records as well as DNA to aid in the identification process, according to DA Spota.
Investigators would not identify any suspect in Waterman's death and bristled at questions about whether they believe a serial killer is responsible.
"We will continue working day and night to determine what happened," said Dormer.
Waterman, who advertised her escort services on the online classifieds site Craigslist, was last seen in early 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 in December.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer and Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota were to hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Family members became worried about Waterman after not hearing from her during a trip to New York in early June, her mother told the AP at the time the bodies were discovered. Waterman always called three times a day to speak to her 4-year-old daughter, Liliana, but the last call came on the night of June 5, she said.
When police searched the hotel room they found Waterman's clothing, makeup, cell phone and other belongings, Ela said.
Police accidentally discovered the bodies in December. Detectives believe the four were killed elsewhere and then taken 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.
Investigators had been looking into the disappearance of both Waterman and a missing prostitute from New Jersey named Shannon Gilbert, who was last seen on May 1. Police have said Gilbert's body was not been found among those dumped at the beach.
