Gilgo Beach Murders: ‘Fire Island Jane Doe’ Identified 27 Years After Victim Disappeared

Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old who went missing in 1996, was identified Friday as the Gilgo Beach murder victim known as “Fire Island Jane Doe,” whose remains were among nearly a dozen found on Long Island between 2010 and 2011.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney speaks at a news conference to announce the ... [+] identity of Karen Vergata, pictured at left, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. AP Photo/John Minchillo

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office in New York said it identified Vergata, who is believed to have been working as an escort when she went missing, using DNA genetic genealogy, CNN reported.

The identification is the latest news to come to light as authorities continue to discover new information in the Gilgo Beach killings, an investigation that kicked off in 2010 when a body was found on a remote stretch off Long Island’s Ocean Parkway; three more bodies were found within a one-mile radius and another six were found the following spring.

Vergata is the sixth Gilgo Beach victim to be identified, along with Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Amber Costello, 27; Megan Waterman, 22 and Shannan Gilbert, 23.

Rex Heuermann was indicted on six counts of murder last month in connection with the deaths of Brainard-Barnes, Barthelemy and Costello, and is also a suspect in the death of a fourth woman who disappeared in 2007 and had her remains discovered near the other women.

It was the search for Shannan Gilbert that led to the initial discovery of the first body in the town of Oak Beach, about 40 miles east of Manhattan in 2010. By the next spring, nearly a dozen bodies had been found and police were operating under the assumption a serial killer was at work. The case remained largely cold until investigators in 2020 revealed a photo of what they said was a key piece of evidence in the case: a black leather belt with the initials “WH or HM." Heuermann, a 59-year-old New York City architect, was arrested in the deaths of the three women and pleaded not guilty to all counts in July. The evidence in the case against Heuermann includes mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Tuesday. Attorney John Ray, who represents Gilbert’s family, told NBC News he feels “very strongly” that there is “undoubtedly” another suspect still at large in the Gilgo Beach murders.

How the women died. The victims' cause of death remains unknown.

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