Suffolk County police have arrested a suspect in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, a source confirmed to Newsday Friday morning.
The suspect is from the Massapequa area and was arrested last night, the source said.
A spokeswoman for the Suffolk County Police Department declined to comment Friday morning.
While the Suffolk District Attorney’s office would not confirm an arrest in the case, District Attorney Ray Tierney spokeswoman Tania Lopez said, “I can confirm that there has been a significant development in the case of Gilgo Beach and that there will be a court. proceeding today in Riverhead.”
In December 2010, sets of human remains, known collectively as the Gilgo Beach homicide victims, were found while Suffolk police were searching for Jersey City sex worker Shannan Gilbert, who disappeared on May 1 ‘that year at Oak Beach. Six more sets of remains were eventually found as detectives searched the area along Ocean Parkway.
Gilbert’s remains were not found until the following December, and authorities have said they do not believe Gilbert is a homicide victim. The Suffolk County Coroner’s Office ruled Gilbert’s cause and manner of death undetermined.
With Joan Valenti
Nicole Fuller is Newsday’s senior criminal justice reporter. He started working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
