People Magazine.com
As searchers uncovered Monday what may be victims number
nine and 10, fears are increasing that the Long Island serial killer may murder
again.
"He's going to
continue to kill because they don't stop," says Vernon Geberth, a former
NYPD homicide lieutenant and author of Practical Homicide, a textbook
used in police academies around the world. "Now he's got to come up with a
new plan, a new location. Psychologically this is stressful for him because
that was a place he would go to relive the event, act out scenarios, therefore
relieving stress."
In December, a cop on a training exercise found the remains of four women off
Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, N.Y. After the women were identified, searchers
began looking for Shannan Gilbert, 24, who went missing in May and was last
seen running out of a house in Gilgo Beach.
Then on Monday, in nearby Nassau County, authorities uncovered in brambles off Ocean
Parkway what they believe to be two more sets of human remains, including a
skull, says Nassau County Lt. Kevin Smith.
Another Grim Discovery
"We
were hoping we would not find anything," says Smith. "No one wants to
see another homicide was committed. The bottom line is we did and now that we
have, we and the state police are conducting our own homicide
investigation."
Only the first four cases have been linked to each other so far.
Some have speculated the killer has ties to law enforcement since he used
disposable cell phones from crowded places to place taunting calls to the
sister of one of the victims. But Smith says police are not focusing in that
theory.
"We're not looking to prejudice the case," says Smith. "If
anyone thinks they know someone who is suspicious, we want them to contact
us."
Geberth doesn't buy the
law enforcement angle either, simply because anyone can gather basic crime
investigation techniques from watching TV, but does think the killer is a
local.
He's also "highly organized," Geberth says. "He plans these
things out. He had a disposal site. He had a reason to be there in case someone
did spot him. This is a high functioning individual."