Amazing police dog at center of Long Island killer investigation

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The search continues on Long Island for further evidence in the investigation into the murder of ten victims whose remains were found off Ocean Parkway since December. Of the ten bodies five of them were found by Officer John Mallia and his partner Blue, a German Shepard.

This amazing dog has worked with Mallia since 2005. Mallia has worked with the Suffolk County Police Department for 31-years. The former private investigator has a knack for finding people like inmates who have escaped from prison but now he and his partners are known for hunting something else.
Blue and Mallia have played a key role behind-the-scenes in the investigation headed by Irish-born Police Commissioner Richard Dormer.

The New York Times reports that the duo have also completed at least two searches on their own time of the beaches nearby.

The area where the search has been carried out is overgrown. Blue has been scratched his handler has gotten poison ivy from the work.

Inspector Stuart K. Cameron, who heads up the special patrol bureau said "When he’s tracking, he’s relentless…He’ll work and work and work. That’s what happened at Oak Beach. His persistence is what led to the discovery of that first body.”

Last year the search along the beaches of the south shore on Long Island began. The police were looking for Shannan Gilbert (24), a prostitute from Jersey City. She had advertised her services on Craigslist and have been last seen in the area in May.

In June Mallia was asked by the department's missing persons bureau to search for Gilbert. He said "I assumed we would find her…I assumed she was dead. Nobody had a clue.” Mallia and Blue spent the summer searching the gated community where she was last seen. Their searches came to nothing.

On December 11 he moved his search into the west, keeping on the hard should of Ocean Parkway. The bushes in the area are thick and the bodies were found 30 feet from the road. However that afternoon Blue and Mallia found the first body.

Mallia said "The tail starts wagging; he’s making adjustments with his head…There was some burlap, and most of the skeleton was there.”

Two days later the pair returned to help investigators gather evidence. Mallia found the second body by himself just 500 feet from the first body. By 1.20pm that day Blue and Mallia had found another body.
The officer recalled "It couldn’t have been colder and windier…You didn’t feel any of that. The adrenaline just took over.”

Last Monday, as the search expanded into Nassau County, Mallia, Blue and Officer Joe Grella, were assigned a section of brush to search. Mallia said "We came through some thick brush and we saw it together…It looked like a skull on top of a bag. Right away, we knew what it was.”

Blue (7) lives with Mallia (59) in his home in Brookhaven, Suffolk. Mallia's previous partner Boomer was stabbed six times by a man fleeing the scene of domestic abuse complaint in 2004. He survived but has retired.

Gilbert, the woman who prompted this investigation, has not been found. The four bodies found in Suffolk County this spring along with those found in Nassau have not been identified.

On Monday an FBI helicopter continued to flyover the Jones Beach area taking HD images of the area. The police may then return to continue their search.