Police link all Long Island murders to lone serial killer

Police in New York now believe a serial killer is behind the deaths of all 10 people – five of them prostitutes – found on a Long Island beach, CNN reported.

Initially, detectives had been wary of linking all of the murders, which date back to 1996, instead considering the possibility that multiple killers were using the area to dispose of remains.

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Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told CNN affiliate WABC that after a year long investigation, police are now focusing on the theory that a serial killer is at large.

"What's common here is the dumping ground," he said, adding that the murderer did not "necessarily do the same thing all the time," CNN reported.

Dormer told the Associated Press that the “common denominators” involved with the dumping ground, the type of victims, the dismemberments, suggest a lone killer is responsible.

The dismembered bodies of eight women, one man and a baby were discovered between December last year and April this year on a desolate stretch of road facing Gilgo Beach.

Some of the victims' body parts were found 50 miles away, on Fire Island, in eastern Long Island, the BBC reported.

Only the bodies of the five prostitutes, all of them women, have been identified. They had advertised for prostitution services on websites including Craigslist, leading media to coin the term the "Craigslist Ripper."

Detectives have worked through more than 1,000 tips on the case, and offered a reward for information leading to an arrest, CNN reported.

Shannan Gilbert, the 23-year-old New Jersey woman whose disappearance prompted the police search that led to the grim Long Island discoveries, remains missing.