I'm trying to figure out if there are any hotels actually ON Fire Island. I know you can drive there in winter, and some do, not many, though. The state parks don't charge during off season (from what I've read), so RH (jmo, he did it) wouldn't have to worry about "paying cash" or leaving any kind of paper trail. You can drive there is what I'm seeing, and the ferries are operational year-round unless the bay freezes over. Very few people live on Fire Island year-found, it's like
Life Below Zero 2.0 with the wood-burning stoves and everything (supplies) has to be brought over by ferry. It's pretty quiet in the winter, but I'm reading that once Valentine's Day hits, the hotel rates shoot up with demand. KV's last contact is Valentine's Day, and this is the Valentine's Day before RH is to be married.
I'm searching for upcoming Valentine's Day now (2025) to check prices. Nothing is open "on" the island, they're all shut down. What's close on the other side of the bay is astronomical in price, you're looking $250 upwards to $500 and beyond. With a little more traveling, I see a "deal" at $138, but that's it.
I'm wondering if RH wasn't pretty familiar with Fire Island, it's got vibrant nightlife, and in this timeframe, they were having some issues with nude beaches there, I guess nudity on the beaches was generally accepted there, and in 2013, LE decided to crack down on the nudity because of complaints and crime, including specifically sex crimes. Based on what I'm seeing online, the cracking down hasn't been completely effective in all areas and there are still known nude areas for "hook up spots."
Looking at a map. Sayville's almost directly across from Davis Park where KV's legs were found. I think like 3-4 mls across from Sayville to Fire Island.
To compound all the questions, they had a fierce blizzard that winter right in that area, Jan 6-9, I'm seeing 17" of now for Islip, 21" Central Park. That was dumped in January, so that mountain of snow would have been melting into the waterways and then re-freezing by February (seeing now they had a horrendous flood later that January). Here's how bad the blizzard was: "
On Long Island's Fire Island, a 50-year-old casino and bar were swept into the sea by the storm while three other homes were destroyed, and Gilgo Beach lost 50-75 feet of sand, according to the National Weather Service. Coastal flooding along the Atlantic shores, powered by the storm's intense winds, washed hundreds of clamshells ashore at Atlantic City." See on the image of Davis Park where they are discussing KV? That's actually the casino cafe
that went into the water. They built a new one in Patchogue that was floated over by barge and the cafe was still able to open evidently for that 1996 summer season. (One has to wonder if an architectural team might have been on site to supervise the project at some point around this time.)
By February 13/14, we're looking at pretty tolerable weather for NYC that time of year. The 14th had a high of nearly 40, low of 25. (The 13th was colder, high of 25.) Karen's legs were found between Blue Point Beach (private, near Water Island and Davis Park) and Davis Park itself. The bag was still in the water, the men who found it had to drag the remains a bit to shore. Could the bag have drifted all the way across the bay by April, considering the unusual weather conditions? I'm guessing this is likely a no but I don't know enough about tidal movement to completely rule it out. Did the murderer take a ferry over there with the remains in luggage? In the pre-9/11 world, I would guess that's actually possible. Did the murderer drive over there, already familiar with the area and deposit the remains, with them close to where he left them, or maybe they drifted out a bit? With someone already familiar with the area, I'm guessing that is quite possible. But he could only drive to two areas and would be unable to drive in the island beyond the park itself. Fire Island lighthouse is 11.8 miles from Davis Park (can't picture that) and the Otis Pike High Dunes Wilderness visitor center is about 8 miles from where the remains are found. Possible, jmo. I don't buy the bridge idea as it makes him highly visible. Even in a situation where few people are present in a large area, it's quite risky, jmo. What I'd really wonder about after seeing this project with the cafe that was rebuilt in Patchogue is whether he might have been there in some role as a contractor, in which case he might have more options in terms of mobility in the area generally (permit for golf cart or small utility vehicle). Would also wonder about him boating over there in Karen's case more than any of the other victims. I see some discounting this theory because he could have weighted the remains down and dropped them in the middle of the bay if he took this route. Well, but maybe he did and the remains drifted. But he is more likely to be seen/noticed (by someone he never even himself sees) casting remains into the water from the middle of a bay like that than if he moves in close to shore. If he boated in, I'd be looking around the Pines, which has an abandoned resort (left standing since the govt bought the land in 1964), Talisman, which is pretty close to where KV's remains were found. It's of note to architects. That area's now known as Barrett Beach. All jmo.
www.independent.co.uk
en.m.wikipedia.org
patch.com
