Shannan Gilbert's 911 call didn't save her life but it led to the discovery of a serial killer who buried the remains of his victim in Gilgo Beach.
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00:00 Coming up next, it was a chilling 911 call.
00:03 Shannon Gilbert reportedly claiming,
00:06 they're trying to kill me.
00:07 How the search for her revealed the possible burial ground
00:10 of a serial killer.
00:12 Then, could your phone save lives?
00:14 This is one of those ways where you can locate
00:16 and see your loved ones,
00:18 the cutting edge apps that protect you and your family.
00:20 You can do these check-ins when they arrive
00:23 at different places,
00:24 so you know that they actually made it there.
00:26 Coming up next.
00:29 (dramatic music)
00:32 I became a doctor to help people heal.
00:42 Now I'm using the same science and medicine
00:46 to take on true crime.
00:48 It's straight out of a horror film.
00:54 The deep quiet of an early morning
00:56 in an idyllic beach side community
00:58 was suddenly shattered by piercing screams.
01:01 Shannon Gilbert reportedly ran through the small community
01:05 of Oak Beach, Long Island,
01:06 as she pounded on neighbors' doors
01:08 and made a panicked call to 911,
01:10 claiming that they're trying to kill me.
01:14 It was the last time anyone heard from her,
01:17 but the search for Shannon revealed what police now believe
01:20 could be the burial grounds of a serial killer.
01:23 It's the largest murder investigation
01:26 in Long Island's history,
01:28 and it's been cold for almost a decade.
01:30 But recently, critical new information was released
01:33 in the grisly killings of multiple young escorts.
01:37 In May, authorities were able to identify
01:39 another alleged Jane Doe victim
01:41 of the elusive serial killer
01:43 through new DNA testing techniques.
01:45 Police released photos last January
01:48 of a belt found on one of the crime scenes
01:50 with the initials WH or HM,
01:53 which may have been handled by the killer.
01:56 It all started when 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert
01:59 vanished after visiting a client
02:01 in the gated community of Oak Beach on May 1st of 2010.
02:06 During the search for Shannon,
02:07 four bodies were found wrapped in burlap
02:09 along Ocean Parkway near Gilgal Beach.
02:12 All were Craigslist escorts in their 20s, just like Shannon,
02:16 but there was no sign of her.
02:18 In the months that followed Shannon's disappearance,
02:22 up to 10 victims were found,
02:24 their body parts strewn over a 50-mile stretch.
02:27 Finally, on December 13th of 2011,
02:32 Shannon's skeleton was discovered,
02:34 several miles from the other human remains.
02:37 After years of legal battles,
02:39 police were recently ordered to turn over
02:42 all of the 911 recordings linked to Shannon's disappearance
02:46 to the family's lawyer,
02:47 who cited them as key evidence in her case.
02:51 To date, the horrific murders have never been solved.
02:54 Not a single suspect has ever been charged.
02:57 Despite Shannon being the impetus of the investigation
03:03 into a suspected serial killer,
03:04 law enforcement has resisted,
03:07 saying her death is related to the other victims,
03:09 leaving Shannon's family fighting for answers to this day.
03:13 Joining us now is Shannon Gilbert's sister, Cherie.
03:16 Cherie, law enforcement did not think your sister's death
03:18 was related to this killer,
03:20 but you think it's possible, why is that?
03:22 - I think it's a possibility just because,
03:27 you know, she was found there, and that's a coincidence.
03:31 She was considered, you know, an escort,
03:34 along with the other women that were found there,
03:36 and she was meeting a John that night.
03:38 So there's a lot of coincidences to me
03:41 that would make me think that she was definitely a victim
03:45 of the Long Island serial killer.
03:47 - Why do you feel law enforcement
03:49 are still reluctant to consider
03:50 and connect your sister's death to the other victims?
03:53 - I think they're reluctant because I think
03:57 it's going to show that they really failed my sister,
04:00 and they really screwed up the investigation
04:02 from the beginning.
04:03 - What specifically was bothering you
04:06 about how they managed it?
04:07 - The fact that my sister made a 23-minute 911 call,
04:12 you know, running through the community,
04:14 knocking on doors, you know, screaming in fear for her life,
04:18 and I just think if she was just maybe a lawyer
04:23 or a lawyer's daughter or a doctor or somebody else,
04:28 you know, I think that they would have taken
04:29 that more serious, but I felt like she was being ignored
04:32 from the very beginning because of what she was doing.
04:35 - You went to extraordinary steps.
04:37 You had another review of the autopsy with Dr. Biden.
04:40 - Yes.
04:43 We had another autopsy conducted by Dr. Biden
04:45 because we didn't feel that
04:47 the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office
04:50 was being very truthful in the autopsy
04:53 that they had conducted of my sister.
04:55 I think that they were missing critical information,
04:58 and they were just so quick to rule her death,
05:01 you know, accidental from the very beginning.
05:04 So I think that we definitely needed answers,
05:07 and Dr. Biden was willing to do that.
05:09 So we went to him for the answers.
05:12 - So the investigation into the Gilgol Beach murders
05:14 began with Shannon.
05:16 So, you know, it's hard for you as a family,
05:19 I would gather, you know,
05:20 police continue to discover more and more victims
05:23 that were not Shannon.
05:25 What was that like?
05:26 - It was heartbreaking.
05:29 We got a phone call from one of the detectives
05:31 who told us, my mom and myself,
05:33 that they were 99% sure the first victim
05:37 that they found was Shannon.
05:39 And we knew immediately whether or not
05:41 that was gonna be my sister
05:42 because of the metal plate in her jaw.
05:45 So we knew whether or not that was gonna be her.
05:48 So it just kind of felt like
05:50 they were telling us these things,
05:51 and it was kind of like pulling at our heartstrings.
05:54 You know, it was very emotional for us.
05:55 It was very traumatic.
05:57 - And that wasn't your sister, so.
06:00 - It wasn't my sister, no.
06:02 - How did it feel after your sister was finally found?
06:04 - I mean, it felt like there was relief,
06:09 but there was also sadness
06:11 because it was the end for us.
06:14 It was the end of a long search to find her.
06:19 You know, we knew it was gonna either end up
06:21 that she was found by some miracle alive,
06:25 or she was gonna be found deceased.
06:28 But we wanted the opportunity,
06:29 if she wasn't gonna be found alive,
06:31 to at least be able to bring her home and bury her.
06:33 - So Cherie, it's been 10 years
06:36 since the first bodies were found near Giggle Beach.
06:38 Do you have a message for whoever is responsible for this?
06:42 - A lot of lives have been lost.
06:46 A lot of families have been broken from this.
06:48 Just turn yourself in, just do the right thing.
06:51 You know, give us the closure that we really deserve,
06:53 and don't hurt anybody else.
06:55 That's just all I really want.
06:56 We all just want justice for our loved ones.
06:59 - Yeah, I'm worried people are still being hurt.
07:01 That's the natural history of people like this.
07:04 - Exactly.
07:05 - Thank you for joining me.
07:06 Up next, the Gilbert-
07:07 - Thank you for having me.
07:08 - The Gilbert family attorney reveals the importance
07:11 of our frantic early morning 911 call.
07:13 Those details are next.
07:15 You've been talking about the case of Shannon Gilbert,
07:24 whose disappearance led to the discovery
07:26 of the remains of at least 10 more victims
07:29 around Giggle Beach in Long Island.
07:31 Law enforcement believe those 10 deaths
07:34 might be the work of a serial killer.
07:36 Their cases have never been solved.
07:38 The Gilbert family attorney, John Ray, joins us now.
07:41 Thank you for being here.
07:43 - Thank you.
07:43 - What do we know factually actually happened?
07:46 - The facts we know are that Shannon went on a tryst
07:52 with a John in Oak Beach, Long Island on May 1st, 2010.
07:57 She went to Joe Brewer's home.
08:00 He was the John.
08:01 She was driven there by a man named Michael Pack
08:03 and left there for several hours.
08:07 She signed up for more time and left and came back.
08:12 And then about 4.54 a.m., she called 911
08:18 for a 23-minute call, claiming, as we know
08:22 from public revelation by the police,
08:25 that they said, or that she said on the phone,
08:28 "They're trying to kill me."
08:31 And she bolted from the home, knocked on doors,
08:34 neighbors' doors, a fellow named Coletti
08:37 and another person named Brennan, Mrs. Brennan,
08:40 and then ran from their homes and never seen again
08:45 until her bones are found in December of 2011.
08:48 - And the two homes that she ran to,
08:50 those folks also called 911?
08:53 - Yeah, Coletti called 911, and when Brennan went to call,
08:58 she looked up and Shannon was gone.
09:00 So those are the facts.
09:01 I mean, there are many other facts.
09:04 I have the 911 tapes that the police were ordered
09:07 to give me.
09:08 - Let's talk about that for a second,
09:09 'cause earlier this year, the police who had not turned over
09:11 these 911 tapes were ordered to turn them over.
09:14 These are the 911 calls we're talking about now
09:16 the night that Shannon disappeared,
09:18 and they were given to the Gilbert family attorney.
09:20 John, that's you.
09:21 So I know you can't discuss the details
09:23 of the tapes themselves, but you've heard these calls.
09:26 - I have.
09:27 - How critical are they to this case,
09:29 and should they have been released earlier?
09:31 - These tapes are critical to this case
09:33 and very likely the other cases as well.
09:37 If the public could hear them,
09:39 the public would be outraged, the public would be shocked.
09:42 The police have written a letter to the public
09:48 published in the newspaper, and to me personally,
09:51 where they detailed what they said was on the tape.
09:54 I can talk about that.
09:55 When the police said that Shannon was calm at all times,
09:59 that the people around her, the men that were there
10:01 were calm at all times, that she was never
10:05 about to be murdered, and that otherwise
10:09 everything was peaceful, the police were willfully lying
10:13 about every one of those things.
10:16 They are absolutely false, and they published this.
10:19 This is their template for what really happened
10:22 to Shannon Gilbert that night, and none of it is true.
10:26 - What would be the motivation about, for example,
10:28 declaring someone as calm if these calls
10:31 that you've heard reveal that she's not?
10:34 - There's a narrative, a false narrative
10:36 that's being spun that originated with the police,
10:39 and that is that Shannon Gilbert had used drugs
10:42 of some kind, was crazed, and of course went irrationally
10:46 calling 911, irrationally fleeing,
10:49 and irrationally managing to put herself
10:51 into a marsh that's almost impossible to get into
10:55 with all of the bushes that were there,
10:57 and managed to somehow kill herself there.
11:00 That's the narrative that's spun.
11:02 It's absurd on its face when you think about it.
11:05 She's found in the marsh face up, laying on a bush.
11:10 Her clothing is found about a quarter of a mile away,
11:13 and the police theory was the clothing came off
11:16 in the bramble bushes as she ran.
11:19 I mean, you can't, I mean, I was about to say
11:22 you can't make it up.
11:23 Well, they did make it up, and that's how Shannon was found.
11:28 She was a sex worker found amongst, in the same area,
11:32 in the same kind of marsh, in the same place in Long Island
11:35 where there are nine other sex workers found, all dead,
11:40 and all of them murdered, and yet the police are saying
11:45 this is a mere coincidence, and Shannon Gilbert
11:48 died of natural causes.
11:49 That's absurd, and there's not a scintilla of evidence
11:53 that she died of natural causes, not one.
11:55 So in May, police unexpectedly revealed
11:57 they had identified one victim.
11:59 Jane Doe number six was her original name,
12:01 but she's really Valerie Mack.
12:03 They used genealogy techniques, the genetic techniques
12:05 we've talked about in this show frequently.
12:07 Actually working with the same people
12:08 we've had on this show.
12:09 How hopeful are you, John, that these techniques
12:11 are gonna be valuable in providing
12:13 additional answers in this case?
12:14 I have very little hope that these techniques
12:16 will be of any value after this,
12:19 because the police commissioner has already announced
12:22 that the DNA on the other remains of things,
12:25 whatever they are that they have,
12:27 has been deteriorated, has declined,
12:30 and yeah, they were able to identify one person,
12:34 but they show you a belt, or the initials on a belt.
12:39 Can I just show the belt for everybody?
12:41 Yeah, sure.
12:42 So this is the actual little bit of information
12:44 that's been released from the police.
12:45 These are, there's a belt with embossed letters on it.
12:50 It's either HM or WH, you see them there,
12:53 and they may have been handled by the killer,
12:55 according to the police.
12:57 How groundbreaking is that?
12:58 It wasn't groundbreaking at all.
13:00 It was a pap that was thrown to the public
13:03 by the police department, and I say that
13:05 because when they showed the initials,
13:08 they never showed the belt.
13:09 They never described the belt.
13:11 They wouldn't tell us whether it was a male
13:13 or a female belt, whether it was upside down
13:14 or right side up, and when, you know,
13:17 most belts are made for right-handers,
13:18 so you can kind of figure that out.
13:21 We don't know the size of the items themselves,
13:25 and they never produced the belt.
13:27 So there's a real, I have a real suspicion
13:29 that they don't have it anymore,
13:30 and they have only photographs,
13:32 which is what they released.
13:33 If they do have it, they haven't been able
13:35 to produce any DNA testing on it.
13:38 After all these years, they've had it for nine years,
13:41 and now they suddenly reveal it.
13:43 I have the rigidity of the police department
13:46 in refusing to cooperate with the public
13:50 and to get to the heart of the case
13:52 when they have found nobody.
13:54 They have no suspects, and they are now,
13:56 as we speak, resisting my attempt
14:00 to take those 911 calls and reveal those calls
14:04 to the public, because as the commissioner herself said,
14:07 the police commissioner, the public
14:09 is the best source of information.
14:11 So I have the tapes, I want to release them.
14:14 There's a court order that I can't.
14:17 I've asked the court to relieve me of that restriction,
14:21 and the police department, as we speak,
14:23 the same police department that says,
14:25 we're going to the public with these initials on a belt,
14:29 refuse to allow the tapes to be released.
14:33 - We reached out to the Suffolk County Police Department
14:35 for comment on these allegations,
14:37 but did not hear back in time for this taping.
14:39 We'll be right back.
14:40 (upbeat music)
14:42 Thank you for watching.
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