Police have not officially explained why teams had been combing through woods in Manorville for days, though a source previously said the search was in connection with the Gilgo Beach murder investigation. That search expanded on Friday to the Southampton community of North Sea, about 30 miles away, according to a law enforcement source.
An unsolved murder there from 1993 has been linked to Manorville carpenter John Bittrolff, who was convicted in 2016 of killing sex workers Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee. Bittrolff's name has at times been mentioned in connection to the Gilgo case.
Prosecutors wouldn’t say if the North Sea search was connected to the one going on in Manorville.
State and local law enforcement officers descended on Manorville starting Tuesday. An NYPD officer at the scene previously told NBC New York the search area was focused at Schultz Road and North Street. The officer said an NYPD K-9 unit was on the scene, on Wading River Road near the Long Island Expressway. Dogs were set to search what the officer described as a "large, wooded area." The officer didn't say what they thought they might find, nor was it known if anything was found.
As police K-9 units scoured a heavily wooded area on Long Island for the fourth day in connection to the Gilgo Beach serial killings, a law enforcement source said state police teams focused their attention on an area near where a body was found more than 30 years ago in an unsolved murder.
www.nbcnewyork.com