The sister of a year-old escort from New Jersey whose disappearance on Long Island sparked an investigation that led to the discovery of nearly a dozen sets of remains and a search for a possible serial killer blasted the Suffolk County police department Tuesday over the case following the release of her calls last week. Her remains were found not far away about a year and a half later -- but four bodies, specifically, recovered in December amid the search for Gilbert exposed a possible killer.
Suffolk detectives have long said Gilbert wasn't one of those victims. Her sister, Sherre Gilbert, intensely disagrees. She spoke Tuesday to reporters for the first time in years, and though she says s he didn't listen to the recently released calls -- there were three of them made May 1, , including a near minute one from Shannan herself -- Sherre Gilbert was adamant local authorities "dropped the ball from the beginning.
I just feel like they've never cared Sherre Gilbert said local law enforcement was pushing the same theory even before her sister's remains were found in a reedy marsh near Oak Beach -- not far from where the other grim discoveries were made along a desolate stretch of Ocean Parkway. Richard Dormer, who was Suffolk County police commissioner at the time, "was already telling everybody that she potentially died an accidental death -- some drug-induced paranoia, ran into the marsh and died even before she was found," Sherre Gilbert said.
It doesn't matter if people think that she's a victim of the Long Island serial killer. Something happened to her that night," the sister continued. She called She was coherent enough to stay on a phone call for over 20 minutes. She was coherent enough to knock on people's doors. So that leads me to believe -- why would she then go into the marsh? That to me just doesn't make any sense. Suffolk County police argue it makes sense to them. In sharing the never-before-heard calls in their entirety on Friday, years after being court-ordered to do so, cops offered an analysis alongside the audio -- and reiterated the theory that has riled Shannan Gilbert's family and advocates ever since her remains were found in late Their prevailing theory is that Gilbert's case is separate from the bodies that were found in the search for her.
While 10 sets of remains were discovered between December and April , investigators believe the first four -- all missing escorts who had advertised their services on Craigslist, all strangled, wrapped in burlap sacks and dumped within a quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway -- were killed by one person. Suffolk County law enforcement has said they don't believe Gilbert was killed by a person at all.
