Sounds like such a strange individual. Can I ask how you met this person in a general way? When did you start to think they were strange and when did you finally suspect this person might be connected to these crimes? Was it over a long period of time? I can’t even imagine how stressful that must have been.
I met this person ca. late 2002, through a family member, female, who did not really trust this person, but had bad boundaries. I did, too, sadly. The female family member who introduced me used to tell me that (before I met him) he was a horrible person and a liar. This person told my family member he was messing around with her boyfriend. The boyfriend vehemently denied this, and when the boyfriend found out, he punched him in the nose and broke it. The boyfriend's dad was NYPD.
So, basically, I knew there were problems before I met him. Somehow, we became close, anyway, and were friends--best friends, for about ten years. I defended his bad behavior to others, I looked at him like a little lost kid who didn't know what he was doing. My dad is a narcissist, and this guy is, too. So, what was narcissistic abuse over the years and control seemed familiar and at times comfortable, even if personally damaging to me. It has taken me many years to understand.
I suspected that this person might be connected to these crimes, in some way, within the days that the GB4 bodies started being found. I was terrified. I lived through childhood abuse, domestic abuse, 9/11, I've lived through the son of someone I lived with threatening to shoot up a school and the FBI coming to the house in the last few years. I've lived through many things, but nothing filled me with the amount of pain this situation did. The person had cut contact with me a few months before the bodies were found, but was already stalking me, and I got a very sick feeling in my gut when I turned on the tv before work to check the news and saw the Gilgo area being searched--because of the location of the bodies, his behavior, and prior things that had been said when we were friends.
I thought back to a time when I heard something I shouldn't have heard, and exchange before my friend and his housemate who worked at Penn Station. It was Valentine's Day, and the volume on the house phone was loud enough that I could hear what he was saying to my friend when I was a good ten feet away. His housemate made some comments and remarks about the way I looked, and said to my friend, and then asked, "How about
herrr...she looks like she would be good..." My friend abruptly cut him off, and looked scared, and said, "That's not funny (name of person), that's NOT funny." I'd never seen him react that way, before.
It could have meant something else. But, the manner of asking, and reaction in particular, made me very uncomfortable.
I dealt with this for approximately two years after the bodies were found, and developed diagnosed PTSD. Being here, is my way of exposure therapy, because there was a time for many years I could not even hear about beaches, or Long Island, anything to do with this case, overall. Now, I can finally talk about it, and I hope everyone here, along with the work of others, LE or not, can get it solved.