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Nancy Grace

Two More Sets of Remains Found on Long Island Beach

Aired April 11, 2011 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police have discovered more bones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There would appear to be another human remain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears to be a skull.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A state trooper use a cadaver dog did locate some bones on the Ocean Parkway on the north side, the bay side.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About five miles from the original crime scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were located on the north side approximately a mile-and-a-half east of the tower, east of the Jones Beach tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These remains are about a mile west of the town of Oyster Bay entrance to their park.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: If they carry this search north and south, east and west, I guarantee you there are more remains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Collectively, we want to bring to justice this animal that has obviously taken the lives of a number of people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suspicion that this is the work of a serial killer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone used victim Melissa Barthelemy`s cell phone in the weeks after her disappearance to make vulgar calls to her family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Is this Melissa`s little sister?"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Yes."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Do you know what your sister is doing? She`s a whore."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t understand why he chose me. There`s how many other girls and how many other families? I don`t understand why I was chosen, why I was taunted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sources tell ABC News the killer has proven to be quite sophisticated in the techniques of law enforcement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could the killer be a cop?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May even be an officer himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he`s done killing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. If he`s doing that many murders, he`s not going to stop. He obviously enjoys it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re intensifying our efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carefully and methodically sifting through Jones Beach for any sign of the serial killer or victim.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Potential serial killer still on the loose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoever it is will make a mistake and he`ll get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. A cop stumbles on a woman`s dead body while walking his dog on a remote beach, that beach turned burial ground, seven more sets of female remains unearthed on the same stretch.

Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, investigators take the search west to discover more dead women, the tally approaching a dozen women murdered, left with no clothes, no shoes, wallets, jewelry, cell phones, nothing to identify them.

And in a stunning twist, could the killer be a cop? Investigators convinced the killer proficient with high-tech law enforcement techniques used to cover tracks, including disposable cell phones, calling from highly populated tourist attractions, keeping his calls brief, making catching him almost impossible.

Tonight, we learn the killer repeatedly calling to taunt a murdered woman`s little sister. Why? Also tonight, who is the killer stalking young women, locals and tourists alike, as bodies mount along the same stretch of beach?

Straight out to Rupa Mikkilineni, joining us there from the beach area along that same stretch of beach where the bodies have been uncovered. Rupa, more bodies, just as you and I predicted right here a few days ago, have now been uncovered. Tell me the latest.

RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, I`m right here on Jones Beach, and right behind me here, you see this stretch of -- you see shrubbery behind me and you see a stretch of parkway. It`s just literally right behind me that two more sets of human remains -- that`s right, two more sets of remains found today, Nancy, when they started searching at 9:00 o`clock this morning, the first set of remains found at 11:30 AM, and they a appear to be human.

Now, police are waiting for confirmation from forensic labs on this. And that set of remains was found in a plastic bag. And then a second set of remains, for sure confirmed as human, a human skull, Nancy, 3:30 PM, found right behind me back here.

GRACE: Rupa, in the last couple of hours -- everyone, for those of you just joining us, two more dead women discovered there along virtually the same stretch of isolated, remote and pristine beach. Rupa Mikkilineni joining us from the beach area.

So two more bodies now including a skull. Rupa, how close are you to the roadway?

MIKKILINENI: Very close, Nancy, just a few yards away from the roadway. And in fact, police have been combing this entire area. It`s about a five-mile stretch. And Nancy, I want to let you know that I`m five miles from the area, so five miles this way was where the other set of bodies last week was found.

You recall that one set of remains found at the end of March, and then three more found last week. That`s just five miles this direction. And now here at Jones Beach, they found two more sets of remains, for sure one confirmed as human, a human skull right behind me. And we`re also talking about this set of remains, the skull, found 96 feet from the parkway into the shrubbery back there. And this is a very heavily thicketed area. Police -- 125 Nassau County police officers searching today, helicopters, cadaver dogs, men in hazmat suits.

GRACE: So men are actually out there in hazmat -- hazardous material -- suits. And this is the kicker. Tonight, we believe the killer has actually killed one of the women`s children that may have been with her. Why, Rupa? Why is that theory now being floated?

MIKKILINENI: Right, Nancy. What we`re hearing is -- and this is not confirmed officially by police, but there are reports out there that the second set of bodies -- four bodies found in the last couple of weeks -- one of those bodies could be an infant, a child. And of course, the theory out there is that if one of the other sets of remains -- of course, they`re women -- maybe the child is related to one of the victims. Perhaps the child was with that victim when she was murdered, Nancy.

GRACE: And Rupa, in addition to being so close to the roadway, so close to a tourist attraction like the beach, how close is this area to that huge amphitheater where Billy Joel, Hall and Oates, huge stars play all the time? How close?

MIKKILINENI: A mile-and-a-half, Nancy, from that amphitheater, a mile-and-a-half this direction. And we`re talking about Jones Beach. And you may recall that each summer, famous musicians come here and perform here and bring in thousands of audience members here to watch these performances.

GRACE: So how do we know, Rupa, that the killer isn`t picking women out of that audience as they`re leaving the amphitheater, abducting them or luring them into a vehicle, then killing them?

The bombshell tonight is, in the last hours more female remains, more dead bodies have been found. And we learn tonight the cause of death.

Straight out to Rita Cosby, investigative journalist and author of "Quiet Hero" joining us. What do we know about cause of death, Rita?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: And this is the kicker, Nancy. This is where they`re tying some of these cases with also possibly some cases in Atlantic City, as well. They believe, in at least the four that were found originally -- in those four, they believe -- remember, we`re going back to December. This is when we first started finding bodies in that area. At least two of them were strangled, and that is very significant.

And we also know -- we know, actually -- forgive me -- we know that four of them were strangled, but we do know that on the death report -- these are the certificates that the family got -- that they also confirmed asphyxiation. And in the Atlantic City case, they believe four of the women there were also strangled.

GRACE: Back to Rupa Mikkilineni, joining us there from the beach search area. In the last hours, two more bodies have been discovered. Rupa, the theory now has reared its ugly head that the killer is a cop. Why?

MIKKILINENI: Right, Nancy. Again, police are not officially confirming this, but we are hearing from inside police sources that the theory is that this guy could be either a former cop, a current cop, or someone affiliated with law enforcement in some way.

And the reason is he`s very methodical, Nancy. They are saying he has knowledge of police techniques. For example, he made phone calls, crank phone calls to a family member of the one of the victims, and he was very particular about remaining on the phone for less than three minutes so that the phone calls could not be traced, for example. The other thing is that many of these bodies -- the four bodies found in December, they were naked, not a clue found, you know, possibly tracing back to him. So he did this in a very methodical way, Nancy.

GRACE: Rupa, you are telling me that the perpetrator calls one of the victims, the dead woman`s little sister on the phone. He`s obviously gone through the dead woman`s cell phone, and he is calling because he knows the little sister`s name. He will only speak when the little sister picks up. When the victim`s mother picks up, he hangs up. What is he saying when the little girl picks up, Rupa?

MIKKILINENI: In July, just after Melissa Barthelemy disappeared, her little sister gets a phone call from Melissa Barthelemy -- and her little sister`s only 16 years old, Nancy. She gets a phone call from her sister`s cell phone, and the man says, Is this Melissa`s little sister? She says, Yes, it is. Then he says, Do you know what your sister is doing? She`s a whore.

GRACE: Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Is this Melissa`s little sister?"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Yes."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Do you know what your sister is doing? She`s a whore."

MIKKILINENI: The apparent killer made a phone call from the victim, Melissa Barthelemy`s, cell phone just a few days after she vanished, calling her 16-year-old little sister. He tauntingly says in this phone call, Do you know what your sister is doing? She`s a whore. This is the first of a series of phone calls, about a half a dozen, from July through August from the killer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live, including Rupa there on the scene, Rita Crosby, criminal profiler Pat Brown.

Out to the lines. To Marcia in Pennsylvania. Hi, Marcia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I`m pumped that you`re on Twitter, by the way. My question for you is, the cop who drove up with his dog and told police that he spotted something funny on the beach and it turned out being a body -- have they questioned him yet?

GRACE: Good question. What do we know, Rupa? Remember at the very, very beginning, we were told an off-duty cop with his dog stumbled upon the first dead woman`s body. Now we learn this far into it, he was not off duty, he was on duty. Is that correct, Rupa? And what do we know about that cop?

MIKKILINENI: That`s right. The original body was found when an officer, a police officer, was conducting exercises, and in fact, searching for Shannan Gilbert. So that was back in December.

Then this body that was found and this second batch found last week, you know, the first body that was -- of the four bodies -- that first body was found when a police officer was patrolling the area in his police vehicle. Something caught his eye on this highway here. And so he pulled over with his K9 unit and basically investigated this area and found this fifth body, which started this whole searching for the second set of, like, three -- three bodies that were found last week. So now we`ve got eight bodies, and then today, with the two new sets of remains, we`ve got 10 bodies, Nancy.

GRACE: That number now approaching an even dozen of dead women, including, most likely, one of the women`s infant child, probably accompanying the woman at the time of her death.

We are taking your calls, but very quickly to Raleigh, North Carolina, and telecommunications expert Ben Levitan. We have now learned that all the phone calls that the killer makes are less than three minutes. Why is that significant, Ben Levitan?

BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT (via telephone): Well, Nancy, that`s no longer significant. Back when we used to watch those detective movies, you needed three minutes to trace a phone. But since 2004, we can trace a phone before it even rings to the caller. So that is not significant. This person has made a big mistake here. This is where we`re going to catch him, Nancy.

GRACE: You know what, Ben Levitan? What`s so interesting -- of course, you`re absolutely correct -- is that even though he was keeping the calls less than three minutes every single time -- I guess he`s been watches "Bourne Identity" on TV -- long story short, they did trace it back to Madison Square Garden, to Penn Station, to highly populated tourist areas, Ben Levitan. But they couldn`t get the exact location. Then when the cops raced to the scene, which they did, just like in the movies, there are thousands and thousands of people there, Ben Levitan.

LEVITAN: That`s not a real problem, Nancy, because when you have a densely populated area like Penn Station or Times Square, there`s so much demand for cell phone service that we have dozens and dozens of cell towers in there. So you can actually know instantly where somebody made a call from. Perhaps he was over by Nathan`s Hot Dogs, and that cell tower only covers a couple hundred feet there because it`s so crowded. So actually, going to a crowded area may be a benefit in using surveillance to find this guy.

GRACE: Tonight the death toll rises to nearly a dozen dead women`s bodies found as the search goes on along an isolated and pristine stretch of beach. But has the killer made a crucial mistake? Police race to the scene of one of his cell phone calls, only to find it in a highly populated tourist area there at Madison Square Garden. The search for the killer is on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears to be a skull. I don`t know how, quite frankly, it was discovered, it was so far in. And the bramble and the thickets were so dense that it was just a very good find by the officers who were looking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Gilgo Beach serial killer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could the killer be a cop?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He gets a lot of power and control over doing this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly a chilling thought.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gruesome secrets that lie within this sliver of sand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wants to bring her back and do horrible things, torture her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today`s investigation and search has obviously turned up some remains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears to be a skull.

GRACE: How many more will turn up in the same quarter-mile stretch of sand?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have eight sets (INAUDIBLE) the county already. We have two more now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Massive multi-jurisdictional effort to hunt for more victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there`s a corpse out there, we want to discover it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four have been identified so far, all of them female.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a little bit unsettling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The killer has proven to be quite sophisticated in the techniques of law enforcement and may even be an officer himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to bring to justice this animal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not going to give up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were very taunting and angry words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How scary was it when you got this call, when you started getting these calls?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very scary. My heart would stop, and like, I just didn`t know what to do, mostly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he say that he had killed your sister on the phone?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It was very frustrating, and it broke my heart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How desperate were you on those calls to get information about where she could be?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Extremely desperate because her life depended on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: You`re seeing ABC`s "Good Morning America."

Welcome back. We are taking your calls. Back to Rupa Mikkilineni joining us there from the beach search area. It`s multi-jurisdictional. Who is looking for women`s bodies now?

MIKKILINENI: In this moment right now, Nancy, the weather is so bad, the police cleared out of here about an hour ago, but they intend to be back as soon as the weather clears. You can understand, the issue is that they`re using cadaver dogs. They`re in the air with helicopters. It`s very difficult for cadaver dogs to do their work when there`s bad weather. In particular, they`re expecting rain here, so they may stop for just a little while before coming back out here again later tomorrow.

GRACE: To Woody Tripp, former police commander, polygraph expert. Woody, what are the different agencies involved in the search? I know local police.

WOODROW TRIPP, FMR. POLICE COMMANDER, POLYGRAPH EXPERT: Well, you`ve got two of the probably premier police departments in the country, Nassau and Suffolk County, augmented by the New York State Police, which, again, is another fine, fine investigative body that is involved in this.

GRACE: Out to David Lohr, crime reporter joining us tonight from Investigationdiscovery.com. David, thanks for being with us. What about voice ID? The little sister, who`s just a young teen at the time, gets calls from the killer using her murdered sister`s cell phone. Do you think there`s a chance that the little girl will be able to identify the killer`s voice if she heard it again?

DAVID LOHR, INVESTIGATIONDISCOVERY.COM: Well, I think that`s a possibility, Nancy. And I also think -- you know, I`m sure law enforcement probably have recordings of some of these conversations because they went on for a period of time, and they only stopped once the local media around there began reporting on them.

GRACE: So what does that say to you, Pat Brown, criminal profiler? He continued the phone calls until a local station made them public. Then he immediately quit.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, he was enjoying them until that moment in time, but then he thought, Well, maybe this isn`t the wisest thing to do.

GRACE: But doesn`t that put him in the radius of that local TV station?

BROWN: Well, it certainly does hone in on where he is. And I think that Times Square issue -- he may be working down there or that may be where he picked his ladies up. I`d be going back to look -- find out where these women maybe were working as dancers, and that may be where he started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since December, the decomposed remains of eight people have turned up in the dense brush.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More remains found on the Long Island beach. One of the sets reportedly belongs to a young child or baby, according to a local report.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Around 3:30 today, a second human remain was found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Serial killer still on the loose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May even be an officer himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re looking for many more bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer discovered about 96 feet north off the parkway, all right, what appears to be a human -- appears to be a human skull.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re about 25 to 30 yards off the highway in very thick brush. They believe it is someone who knows the area.

GRACE: He`s going to get caught sooner or later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoever it is will make a mistake and he`ll get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. In the last hours, two more dead women found there on the beach, this along with one of the bodies being described as an infant. Was it a child belonging to one of the women?

Out to the lines. Joyce in Pennsylvania. Hi, Joyce. What`s your question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy, I`m just curious, Shannan Gilbert hasn`t been seen (INAUDIBLE) and I`m wondering, is he keeping these women hostage and then maybe even murdering them there and then taking the bodies out and dumping them and that`s why...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... Joyce, on the phone. With me is Sherre Gilbert. This is Shannan`s sister. Sherre, thanks for being with us. Have the police suggested to your family that your sister was kept alive for a period of time?

SHERRE GILBERT, SISTER OF MISSING WOMAN (via telephone): No, the police have not suggested that to us at all, but...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD MANGANO, NASSAU COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Today`s investigation and search has obviously turned up some remains.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A potential serial killer --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very upsetting.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- still on the loose.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Could the killer be a cop?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police have discovered more bones.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One of the new remains reportedly found is that of a baby or child.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Whoever dumped a batch of bodies might himself be a current or former member of law enforcement.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The victims of the Gilgo Beach serial killer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He knew exactly what to do. He just knows how the system works because of the way that he`s been disposing of their bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it is a cop, they should prosecute them.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Someone used 24-year-old Bronx victim Melissa Barthelemy`s cell phone in the weeks after her disappearance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was contacting the victim`s center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this Melissa`s little sister?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Some calls reportedly originated from near Madison Square Garden, Times Square and Massapequa on Long Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what your sister is doing? She`s a whore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have eight sets out in Suffolk County already. We have two more now. It`s all been very startling.

UNIDENTIFIED VICTIM`S SISTER, ALLEGEDLY RECEIVED CALL FROM SERIAL KILLER: I just don`t understand why he chose me. How many other girls and how many other families. I don`t understand why I was chosen, why I was taunted.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How scared are you now?

UNIDENTIFIED VICTIM`S SISTER; I`m scared of my own protection, the fact that he was calling my phone. I have to be worried about, is that going to happen to me one day? Like, I`m scared to even walk out the door.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think he`s done killing?

UNIDENTIFIED VICTIM`S SISTER, No. If he`s doing that many murders, he`s not going to stop. He obviously enjoys it, and he`s sick in the head.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: That was the little sister of one of the murdered victims on ABC`s "Good Morning America."

We are taking your calls live.

I want to quickly go to Rupa Mikkilineni joining us there from the scene of the search just along the edge of the beach.

Rupa, in the last hours more bodies have been found raising the tally to nearly one dozen, and I`m very, very intrigued by the theory that this killer that has now claimed almost a dozen women`s lives leaving their bodies thrown, no clothes, no jewelry, no wallets or identification, cell phone. She`s nothing to identify them. He is very, very methodical in what he`s doing.

Why do police suspect he may be a cop?

RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, there are several reasons why police think that this is a possibility. They`re not saying that he`s actually a cop, but he could be a cop, he could be a former cop or he could be somebody that has some knowledge of law enforcement technique.

And here`s why? Those four bodies found last December were found wrapped in burlap sacks, but nothing else on these women, naked, no identification, no shoes, no personal items. He absolutely covered his tracks.

Now we also know that the killer called one of the victims` sisters on her cell phone, or using the victim`s cell phone just a few days after she went missing. This is, of course, Melissa Barthelemy. And what we know is that he made sure that he remained when he was making these crank phone calls, this creepy phone call, to the 16-year-old little sister of his victim. He made sure that each phone call was under three minutes time so the police were unable to trace these phone calls.

GRACE: Back to Rita Cosby, investigative journalist. Isn`t it true that one of the these recent bodies, not necessarily killed recently, these women could have been killed earlier. We don`t know the time line yet. But that have just been found, one of them was wrapped in a plastic bag?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, AUTHOR OF "QUIET HERO": Yes, that`s right. The one found that was found today. And just to give you a sense of how quick they`re finding the bodies, Nancy, they went out at 9:00 today this morning. At 11:30 they found one body and then the next one was at 3:30.

The other thing that`s interesting, one thing we haven`t talked about, is we are now hearing a report. Remember, Shannon Gilbert was at that location. She was at a house. She replied to a man on Craigslist, she was with this man. She left the house, was banging on a neighbor`s door. That was the last time she was seen.

She said they`re trying to hurt me. They`re trying to kill me. That`s what she was telling this neighbor. We`re now hearing a report that in the house of the man that she was visiting through Craigslist there was another man there, too, as well. And he -- apparently he`s a 48-year-old drifter, Nancy.

And get this, apparently he told his mother saying that, by the way, if you hear about my name in the newspaper, anything related to this thing, don`t be worried, don`t be alarmed. But somebody who was placed near where she was last seen, so that`s another clue.

GRACE: We also learned that one of the bodies that belonging to a child.

Out to Heather Walsh-Haney, forensic anthropologist joining us from Gulf State Coast University.

Heather, thank you for being with us. They are not confirming --

HEATHER WALSH-HANEY, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST, FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear. They are not confirming the last remains are women. Of course, we all know that they are. But tell me again, how is it so easily identifiable that it is, in fact, a woman even though cops are not releasing it?

WALSH-HANEY: Well, women have skeletal changes that are unique to our pelvic bones that have to deal with surviving childbirth. Our hipbones are much wider than males. But other than that, we have the manifestations of the difference between males and females in our skulls. We can look at the flatness of a woman`s brow ridge versus the more large and more muscle brow ridge of a male for example.

Or even looking at the chin. Females tend to have a chin that is pointy on its midline, where men have more of a blunted chin. So it`s these types of skeletal indicators that allow us to quickly ascertain where the remains are male and female.

GRACE: So bottom line, at this hour, they know regarding this one skull or regarding all the bodies, they know that they`re all women. They`re just not releasing it. Now there are reasons for that.

To Woody Tripp, they`re not releasing all the information they know, they`re not telling us everything that was said to the little sister, they`re not telling us, we happened to find out through two of the families that they were told that the cause of death is strangulation.

If there`s no soft tissue, that means that the strangulation mode, such as a stocking or a necktie was still on the neck, they know that it was strangulation. Why are they holding back information from the public, Woody Tripp?

WOODY TRIPP, FORMER POLICE COMMANDER, POLYGRAPH EXPERT: Well, Nancy, certainly you`ve got to hold back certain information. I know this is amazing to some people but people actually confess to crimes that they didn`t commit. They will start to get those. They will get the crank calls of people that want to confess to everything that`s there that they have. So you have to keep these things private in order to sort out the needle in the haystack.

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, joining us tonight, high-profile lawyer out of Seattle, Ann Bremner. Renowned attorney out of New York, Jason Oshins. Kelly Saindon, family attorney out of Chicago. All three veteran trial lawyers.

First to you, Jason Oshins. We heard earlier today that the reports police are honing in on, not only a profile, but a possible suspect. Now we asked them repeatedly today hour by hour, do you have a suspect? They said absolutely not.

OK. If they do, are they -- under the constitution -- allowed to conduct surveillance on them? For instance put a GPS monitor up under their wheel? Watch them from afar? Tap their phones? Watch where they`re coming and going? What can they do under the constitution in a nutshell, Oshins?

JASON OSHINS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right, well, you know, tapping a phone, you need a -- you know, judicial order for that. You have to show that you`ve got enough evidentiary material to warrant that interference in one`s, you know, constitutional protections.

But I think everything that they`re doing right now is calculated. I think if the fact they do have a suspect and they are conducting surveillance, obviously, they need more time to further develop their case. But if they`re on to someone, they`re not going to tell us that yet.

GRACE: Well-put. What about it, Bremner?

ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I agree and I think about Scott Peterson. I mean he was really convicted on GPS and surveillance and talking to Amber Frey in all those recorded calls where there was a court intercept, as been said, that you need. So that`s going to help tremendously.

GRACE: Put her up. Put her up.

Ann, you`re absolutely right.

BREMNER: Yes, Nancy.

GRACE: Remember Scott Peterson?

BREMNER: Yes.

GRACE: We keep going back to the San Francisco Bay.

BREMNER: That`s right.

GRACE: Before Lacey and her unborn child --

BREMNER: Looking for the body.

GRACE: Yes. Body had washed up.

BREMNER: Right.

GRACE: And they kept watching him go back, and sure enough, it washed up not far from where he kept going.

You`re absolutely right, Ann Bremner.

What about it, Kelly? How far can cops go if all they`ve got is a suspect?

KELLY SAINDON, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: If they have a suspect, they can watch him, they can follow him, they can question people. It`s only when they invade his privacy or if they can`t break into house. That they can tail him. They can get a search warrant. They can ask for judicial intervention to allow them to follow this guy.

So if they had someone on their radar, they have pretty wide latitude on what to do to follow him and see if they can piece together evidence.

GRACE: So, Jason, wouldn`t you agree that if they want to stick to GPS up under his wheel, though, they`ve got to get a court order for that? They can`t just come on your property and stick a GPS on your car.

OSHINS: No, you -- listen, we`re all bound by the constitution.

GRACE: That`s the truth.

OSHINS: We want to do everything right when we`re using our investigative powers so that we`re not violating them.

GRACE: Right. So --

OSHINS: This is a -- it`s a high-profile case, Nancy. They`re going to do it the right way.

GRACE: You`re right. That`s a very good point, Jason.

And Anne, isn`t it true that at this juncture they can do whatever a normal person could do under the law? Watch them, surveil them, follow them around.

BREMNER: Yes. Absolutely.

GRACE: But when they go beyond that, then they`re crossing the line? Yes? No?

BREMNER: You`re absolutely right. Yes, Nancy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANGANO: We`re intensifying our efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Search teams will use cadaver dogs, mounted patrols and boats, even bucket trucks to hover over the terrain to search for human remains.

MANGANO: To resolving these most heinous acts that occurred here on Long Island and Suffolk and possibly Nassau County.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police have announced they`ve discovered even more bones now in their search for clues in what is now a potential serial killer case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tell people that they should be careful with any contacts they make with, you know, strangers.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There are about 100 law enforcement officers here along the stretch of highway. This is --

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We`re taking your calls, out to Barbara in Illinois. Hi, Barbara.

BARBARA, CALLER FROM ILLINOIS: Hello?

GRACE: Let`s get to Barbara in Illinois. Hi, dear. Are you with me?

BARBARA: Hello.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

BARBARA: Hi. Did all these women disappear from the Suffolk and Nassau Counties? How could --

GRACE: No. They did not. There are women from Maine. There are women from Connecticut. There are women locals and tourists alike coming into the area, and now that the body toll -- the body count is mounting up towards a dozen women, we don`t know where the others are from. We also don`t know where that infant is -- from.

To Kelly in Indiana. Hi, Kelly. What`s your question, dear?

KELLY, CALLER FROM INDIANA: Hi, Nancy. I wanted to tell you first that I appreciate what you`re doing for the American people.

GRACE: Thank you.

KELLY: And -- you`re welcome. I`ve been following this since the beginning, and I have a strong gut feeling that the house that that girl ran from is the link in this whole thing. I just feel it in my gut.

How much investigation did they do? If the man is familiar with law enforcement, he would have known what they were going to be looking for and knew that they were coming?

GRACE: You know, Kelly in Indiana, I`ve wondered the same thing myself. But according to all reports and all of our sources, they say the man that the -- one of the first victims that went missing, still haven`t found her body, has fully cooperated, has been an open book and that`s what we know about him.

They`re saying he is not a suspect, but that`s where the whole thing started right there when she went to that home. But according to our reports he`s been completely cooperative and at this time is not named a suspect.

To Brian Russell, forensic psychologist. I guess with every investigation you start at beginning, and the beginning was at that house where the first woman tried to call police. We don`t know why she was not --

BRIAN RUSSELL, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes, Nancy --

GRACE: -- in the house when she called police, so that doesn`t necessarily point to that guy.

RUSSELL: Nancy, I think we have to caution everybody here, because it`s easy to look at what we know so far and see it as a modern day Jack the Ripper case. But I think that we have to make sure that we don`t jump to the conclusion that this is one killer or that the person who made the phone call to the sister, for example, is the killer.

GRACE: Stop. Just please stop. Brian. Brian. Brian. You`re kidding, right? You really think --

RUSSELL: No.

GRACE: -- that two serial killers picked the same spot of beach and dumped women there?

RUSSELL: Nancy, millions of people live within an easy drive of this beach.

GRACE: But millions of people aren`t killers.

RUSSELL: It`s unreasonable to think that only one person could possibly have figured out that this was a good place to dump bodies. I`m not saying it can`t be one person. I`m saying we shouldn`t jump to the conclusion yet that it`s one person.

GRACE: OK. Pat Brown, my head is spinning. Help me out. Throw me a bone.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER, AUTHOR OF "THE PROFILER": OK, Nancy. I`m with you here. I just don`t think it`s a very likely -- it`s just not a coincidence that all these bodies are there. Somebody didn`t put up a sign and say great body dump site.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: I mean, put Pat Brown up please. So one killer -- one serial killer calls --

BROWN: One killer.

GRACE: -- another goes, hey.

BROWN: Yes.

GRACE: Found a great dumping spot.

BROWN: Exactly.

GRACE: It doesn`t happen like that.

BROWN: No, this --

GRACE: And I think --

BROWN: This is too unusual from all of these women that haven`t been heard from, they`re all, you know, coming in from out of town. Most of them --

GRACE: They`re all on Craigslist. They all look similar, they have petite builds, around --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Yes, one guy --

GRACE: Five feet, 100 pounds.

BROWN: One guy.

GRACE: Come on.

BROWN: One guy.

GRACE: They`re all found completely naked, shoes, cell phones, rings.

BROWN: Yes.

GRACE: The whole works gone. You know he`s keeping mementos like all serial killers do. And I guess what we can learn from what Brian said is to not rule anything out right now, but I firmly believe we`re going to have one killer.

To Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner and forensic pathologist joining us out of L.A.

Howard, number one, thank you for being with us. Number one, they -- we now have learned, we have uncovered tonight, that two of the families have been told cause of death is strangulation. If there is no soft tissue, no skin, no tissue, how do they know that?

HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Well, with strangulation you can have a fractured hyoid bone. But I also heard them say that two of the victims were asphyxiated. You would have to have soft tissue to make that determination. You would have particular hemorrhages of the skin behind the ears.

GRACE: Unless, Doctor --

OLIVER: On the chest and over the heart.

GRACE: Unless -- put up Dr. Oliver, please. Unless the ligature was still around the neck. The stocking or the neck tie or the rope or whatever it was.

OLIVER: That`s true.

GRACE: That`s the only thing I can think of --

OLIVER: But that wouldn`t --

GRACE: That would point to strangulation.

OLIVER: But that wouldn`t tell you they were asphyxiated. It would tell you they were strangled but not -- it doesn`t tell you that they were asphyxiated, unless one of them had been killed by placing a bag over the head.

GRACE: What I was trying to say is -- let`s go to Heather Walsh- Haney. If there`s no soft tissue left, as they have been telling us, that these remains for skeletonized, there`s only one way to know that they were strangled or that they were asphyxiated, is if the apparatus was still on the body, the plastic bag over the head or the ligature still around the neck. Unless there had been some breaking of the neck bone.

What do you think?

WALSH-HANEY: I agree with you. And it`s this breaking of the neck bone that is top-notch evidence to manual strangulation.

GRACE: So you are echoing what Dr. Oliver says as to how they`re determining strangulation.

Out to the lines. Libby in Florida. Hi, Libby.

LIBBY, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hey.

GRACE: Hi, dear, what`s your question?

LIBBY: Well, I`m just curious since the sister is the only person he`s tried to contact, does she look like her sister, does she fit that profile? And could her sister have had a picture of her in her belongings?

GRACE: We do think that they look similar, but the age difference, we don`t know that she had a picture in her cell phone.

When we come back, Shannon Gilbert`s sister, Sherre, is joining us and taking your calls live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A suspected serial killer`s cemetery.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Another set of skeletal remains found dumped on this deserted stretch of Ocean Parkway.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Any suspects? Police won`t say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We could have a serial killer.

GRACE: Hello? It`s a serial killer.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. With me now, a special guest, Sherre Gilbert, this is Shannon Gilbert`s sister.

Sherre, please tell me, how are you and your family holding up as all of this unfolds?

SHERRE GILBERT, SHANNON GILBERT`S SISTER: This has just been a really tough time for all of us, because, you know, we just want answers so we`re just hoping that she gets found soon and we can get closure, you know?

GRACE: You know, your sister is just beautiful. Tell me what she was like.

GILBERT: Thank you. You know she was a really good person inside and out. And I don`t think her occupation defined her at all. I think that a lot of people misconstrued that.

And she loved to cook, sing. You know, she graduated at 16. She was just a really good person, a friend, a daughter, sister, aunt and a niece. She loved everyone and, you know, she was just a really honest person. I think a lot of people, like I said, has really misconstrued her. And you know she`s just been --

GRACE: You know what, Sherre, I think that they have, too, but I want you to know that thousands of people are praying for her and your family. As this goes on.

GILBERT: Thank you.

GRACE: We want to thank you for being her voice tonight.

Everyone, let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Michael Pedersen, 26, Flint, Michigan, killed Iraq. Awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal. Loved music, traveling, Blackhawk helicopters. Dreamed of being a pilot.

Favorite book, Stephen King novels and the bible. Leaves behind mother Lisa, stepfather Howard Sr., sisters Jennifer and Lori. Brother Howard Jr. Daughter, Destiny.

Michael Pedersen, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you. And happy birthday to our star, Matt. Comes with me to HLN from CourtTV. Loves the Yankees, Jets, Rangers and golf. Lives his dream. Here he is playing Pebble Beach.

Happy birthday, baby boy.

And happy birthday, Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation. Since the murdered of his daughter, Polly, Marc, a tireless crusader for victims.

Marc, stay strong and happy birthday. This world needs you.

Thoughts with Texas friend Donna Kay. Loyal viewer since `97. Rodeo champ and amputee.

Get well, Donna Kay.

Prayers to the family of Summer Smisson Neel, losing her battle with cancer. Leaves behind husband, John, parents Doctor and Mrs. Hugh Smisson, and four beautiful children, Ford, Smisson, Summer, and Stanford.

Summer, you will be missed. Good night, friend.

Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END