Police close in on suspect in Long Island Ripper killer - VIDEO

Police are closing in on the Long Island Ripper serial killer according to Irish-born Police Commissioner Richard Dormer. Authorities have said they are "looking at somebody" with relation to the discovery of eight bodies along the Long Island coast, in New York.

In December 2010 police discovered the remains of four women while searching for missing prostitute Shannan Gilbert. Last week they found the remains of four others close by.

Suffolk Police Commissioner, County Laois man, Richard Dormer said "We don't know their sex, we don't know their age, we don't know anything about them."

Speaking to the New York Post from his mobile command center at Oak Beach he said their more recent searches over the past few days have been fruitless though he said "It is possible we missed something." Dormer said their search of the area will continue.

The Police Commissioner also issued a warning to the public. He said "We tell people they should be careful with any contact they make with strangers, especially women involved in the escort business."
Next Monday the police plan to launch a search along either side of the Ocean Parkway west of where the other bodies were found. They will use ladder trucks and officers on horseback to search the dense bushes.

A spokesperson for the police department said they were "looking at somebody". Police believe there is a connection between the murders on Long Island and those which took place in Atlantic City in 2006. Those buried on a remote beach in Atlantic City were sex workers just like the first four victims discovered on Long Island and missing Shannan Gilbert.

A spokesman said "Our homicide detectives are in touch with the [Atlantic City] police."

One of the 2006 victims found had spent five weeks in Long Island before she vanished on a bus to Atlantic City.

According to Kim Raffo's husband, Hugh Auslander, his wife, a crack addict and prostitute, moved from Florida to a motel in Jericho, Long Island in September 2006. Her plan was to work for a friend and regain custody of her two children who were in foster care in New Jersey.

He explained that she fell apart when she failed to get her children back. "That drove her nuts and she started doing crack again. We were fighting, and she hopped on a bus to Atlantic City. I never saw her again."

Sources also told the Post that the Long Island killer has changed his m.o. He changed the way that he dumped his victims near Oak and Gilgo beaches. The first four women's remains, all identified as prostitutes who advertised on Craigslist, were wrapped in sack-cloth. However the last four bodies discovered by the police were dumped in a different way.