The 24-Year Hunt for a Serial Killer Preying on Long Island Prostitutes
‘Hello, it’s me… I got arrested… I’m not kidding you… Two murders. From 1993. Two prostitutes. They’re saying they found my semen in them.’
As newspapers and magazines and newscasts and a bestselling book and a TV series told of the 10 bodies found along Gilgo Beach, three other Long Island serial killer victims from a decade before went largely forgotten by everyone save their loved ones and the cops.
All three of the earlier victims were women. Each was found battered to death in a wooded area and posed with legs open, arms pulled back, and left shoe missing. Semen was recovered from two, 31-year-old Rita Tangredi and 20-year-old Colleen McNamee. DNA showed it was from the same man.
This was between late 1993 and early 1994, at the dawn of such forensic investigation, more than five years before the premiere of the show, CSI, that made it part of popular culture. The most the detectives of the Suffolk County homicide squad could do was compare the DNA with possible suspects.