There's something with those wood chips. NYT refers to them as "wood shavings." Wood chips were found with the remains of Rita Tangredi (last seen Nov 1/2 1993, remains recovered Nov 2), Sandra Costilla (body recovered Nov 21), and Colleen McNamee (last seen January 5 1994, body recovered Jan 30). NYT: "At both murder scenes, the killer had left clues. The same item of clothing was missing from both areas, and their nude bodies were posed identically.
Near the bodies were wood shavings. And both Ms. McNamee and Ms. Tangredi had been beaten so badly that brain tissue was exposed."
The Nov to January time frame coincides with duck hunting season in New York. Most of these dates also seem to coincide with waterfowl/duck hunting season for Long Island specifically (which can vary, the link below's current website info). Also would be open for turkey hunting, and I believe deer hunting/archery.
Most migratory game bird seasons are set based on five hunting zones that have been approved by the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service.
dec.ny.gov
Among the many uses for wood chips/shavings would be fuel. If one has a cabin in the woods, one might use wood shavings in a compost system, and particularly a compost heating system. It's pretty cold in NY that time of year. I know someone mentioned on here (and I've seen this as well) that RH owned a duck hunting boat with someone else. I'm wondering now about a cabin, too (not registered in RH's name) and these were in some respect actual hunting (duck, turkey, deer?) trips. But not really, or not completely. These turned into a different type of "hunting" trip like we see in the HK doc. And perhaps it wasn't just the cabin, either, it might have had some underground space/root cellar type of area.
"Near the bodies were wood shavings." Some fabrics really, really hang on to those wood shavings. What if the bodies were wrapped in some kind of fabric that held on to those shavings, and when they removed the bodies, some of those shavings scattered around them? Or what if they'd stored the bodies out in the compost area until they moved them? Maybe they were concealed for a time in compost. I just have a feeling those wood chips are vitally important, MOO.