SERIAL KILLER SECRETS
THE PEACEFUL ENCLAVE WAS TERRORISED 14 YEARS AGO, BUT ASUSPECT IS NOW FACING TRIAL
Long Island lies just off the East Coast of New York. With a population of around eight million, it’s home to some of the wealthiest people in the United States. The town of Oak Beach encapsulates the essence of the island, a middle-class beach suburb. Manyofthehouses are second residences of rich New Yorkers, who vacation in the peaceful area to escape the rush of the Big Apple.
The island also boasts some of the lowest crime rates in the nation.
It has a calm, community feel to it, typical of smalltown America. It’s the type of place where you don’t lock your doors at night. But this serenity was rocked by a grisly discovery in 2010.
Following up on a missing persons’ report on 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert, Suffolk County Police searched the Oak Beach area that December. The search led officers to Ocean Parkway, close to the beach town of Gilgo, and they were horrified when they found not one, but four female bodies. The “Gilgo Four” as they came to be known were all wrapped in hessian sacks, close to disintegration, suggesting that the women had been dumped there a long time before their discovery. Shannan’s body was not among them.
In April 2011, four more bodies were found on another remote stretch of the parkway. The proximity of the corpses and the method of disposal suggested the killings were the work of a single person. But it wasn’t until July 2023 that police arrested a man they believe may be the “Long Island Serial Killer”.
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All the first four women discovered were escorts who advertised their services on Craigslist, which Shannan also advertised on. After receiving a message on the website, she had travelled to a client’s home in Oak Beach, accompanied by her driver Michael Pak. The client was a man named Joseph Brewer, who hired Shannan for sexual services. While inside, Shannan made a call to 911, in which she pleaded for help. She was unable to reveal her exact location to the dispatcher and was reportedly behaving erratically. Eerily, a voice in the background told the frightened woman to calm down several times. After the call, Michael says Shannan fled the house and began knocking on doors, begging for assistance. Despite her apparent terror, Shannan then fled on foot. Michael claims he searched Oak Beach, but when he was unable to locate Shannan, he returned to the city.
Although Michael and Joseph Brewer came under suspicion for the young woman’s disappearance, there was no evidence to show either men were responsible, as she was alive when they last saw her. No other leads were available to law enforcement, and it appeared Shannan had simply vanished into thin air. However, the fact that a frightened woman had
