Suffolk homicide chief: New look at Gilgo - Newsday article 3/9/12

[Just K]

Perhaps he is from Macau - a former Portuguese colony until 1999 that was located across the by from formerly British Hong Kong. Under Portuguese rule Macau was known as a hotbed of gambling, organized crime, prostitution, and yeah you guessed it - the sex slave trade. Once the Portuguese left the Chinese came in and cleaned up the place.

His name sounds Macanese - mixed Chinese/Portuguese.

That would explain the Spanish first name.

From yesterdays news:
As of March 15th, she is being represented by a Mr Greenwald, who once represented a high profile mafioso.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...igh-end-madam/

"...Instead, both Mr. Gleason and a court-appointed lawyer, Richard Siracusa, were excused when a third lawyer, Gary Greenwald, told the judge that he had been retained by Ms. Gristina on Wednesday night. The appearance of Mr. Greenwald, with another lawyer, Elise Rucker..."

and this:http://www.businessweek.com/news/201..._id=rss_search
"Lower Bail

Greenwald, who once represented the late Mafia leader Vincent Gigante, was hired last night by Gristina’s family. "

 

[En Passant]

So wait... you are saying that you provided proof that JB (as in JOSEPH BREWER) was a witness in the murder case of John Pius (one of Long Island's most notable murders that took place in 1979 when some teenagers in Smithtown shoved rocks down their friend John Pius' throat to keep him from telling anyone how they stole a mini bike frame?

JB is from West Islip on the South Shore. What are his childhood ties to the teenagers on the North Shore in Smithtown?

Where is this proof?

If you read his posts you would see he said Jimmy Bu** since writing names (from mod) were not allowed he used initials.
You read most every post IDK this is not the salem witch trial, & misinforming. It really is twisting info & starts a witch hysteria. It is his opinion, some we may agree & disagree but read ALL the posts, .

 

[En Passant]

Truth....... I miss you too......

I really hope the FBI is behind this case. I kinda think there is much more going on. I would not be surprised if the herion ring got hooked by the LISK investagation & maybe they could be getting more info since some of the victims were known addicts. Just speculating I hav no links....just thoughts trying to link relevance to FBI link of arrests & how it fits into this thread.

I feel justice will be served & there is much more the FBI is doing than we know. Including snagging dirty police.

 

[Just K]

Truth....... I miss you too......

I really hope the FBI is behind this case. I kinda think there is much more going on. I would not be surprised if the herion ring got hooked by the LISK investagation & maybe they could be getting more info since some of the victims were known addicts. Just speculating I hav no links....just thoughts trying to link relevance to FBI link of arrests & how it fits into this thread.

I feel justice will be served & there is much more the FBI is doing than we know. Including snagging dirty police.

Yes, except that they all seemed to be ex-LE or Retired-LE, so far.
(BCBM)

 

[marie-chantal]

Perhaps he is from Macau - a former Portuguese colony until 1999 that was located across the by from formerly British Hong Kong. Under Portuguese rule Macau was known as a hotbed of gambling, organized crime, prostitution, and yeah you guessed it - the sex slave trade. Once the Portuguese left the Chinese came in and cleaned up the place.

His name sounds Macanese - mixed Chinese/Portuguese.

I work with international students at a university, and I have found that many of the Chinese students will adopt a western first name when they arrive here. They often do this because their own first names cannot be pronounced correctly by the average American. Some of them will choose names that have the same meaning as their Chinese names, and others will choose names that simply sound nice to them. For example, I've known a "Winslow", a "Cheryl", a "Spats", a "Cha-Cha" and "Juan". It's possible that this is the case with this guy.

 

[bessie]

The truth is we can only speculate as to what happened at Giglo. My concern is we may never know what happened, because IMO the SCPD and DA cannot be trusted to tell us the truth.

I will guarantee you that when they started investigating these murders they came across information too delicate to reveal. I cannot understand how they could be investigating this case and NOT be quizzing every prostitue in the area that advertises on Backpage and Craigs List. If there is an answer it will be with the prostitues that still engage their wares on the Internet.

I guarantee you that they are hiding something and that something is what is causing the investigation to go dormant, assuming that it is.

Look, these gals have phones they have to answer. Using phones is the primary source of communicating with Johns to do their business. They have to use the phones to complete their work. That means a huge paper trial that leads back to a lot of people.

You folks see what was going on with Spitzer. You see it again in the latest Sex Scandal in NY.

The media and the public could care less about the underlying charges, they are interested in the customers that use their services. Otherwise it is just another prostitution case of real no consequence.

Do you think it is any different in Suffolk County?

bolded by me

Good post, Hawkshaw. I agree the answer lies with the prostitutes. In other cases I'm familiar with, when a lone wingnut starts killing prostitutes, the women are eager to talk. Having a killer hanging about interferes with their work. They have to take extra precautions, sometimes even turning down tricks because they're operating under a heightened alert level. Not to mention, it draws the attention of LE and the media. The prostitutes have nothing to lose and everything to gain by cooperating.

A case in point occurred down here in the New Orleans area last fall after Kylan Laurent killed a prostitute he hired through Backpage. Through an investigation into the woman's murder -- she was strangled to death in a motel room -- LE gained info from other prostitutes that pointed them to Laurent. Sadly, a second woman was killed before they caught up with him. When they did, he fled his car and jumped into the Mississippi River. His body was recovered about a week later. (Speaking of phones, LE recovered 22 phones from his house that did not belong to him, including the phones of two known victims. They're concerned the remaining 20 phones were taken from other victims. I suspect LE is also interested in those phones for the unrelated information they might contain.)

After Hudgins' death, Jefferson investigators began interviewing prostitutes and found a woman who experienced a similar assault when she lived in Baton Rouge, Normand said. The Jefferson Sheriff's Office contacted Baton Rouge authorities who were working on two cases of women that had been assaulted in a similar fashion. "Everyone was collaborating," Normand said.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/08/22_phones_in_bridge_jumpers_ca.html


So why haven't the women provided LE with more leads in the recent LISK cases? Two thoughts come to mind: either they know there is no lone psycho serial killer, and it behooves them to keep their mouths shut because the perp(s) is rich and/or powerful; or, they are talking, and as you suggest, the information is being kept under wraps because it implicates the rich and/or powerful. :moo: :moo:

“A lot of these guys go to these places once, twice a week,” [Detective] Birbiglia says from his office in an undisclosed secluded building. One pimp, whom Birbiglia calls “Brazilian Joe,” told him he brings women from Connecticut and New Jersey to hotels and motels on Long Island for one reason alone: “The men in Nassau County have money.”


Inside the Hidden World of Long Island Prostitution
By Timothy Bolger on March 18th, 2010
Long Island Press

http://www.longislandpress.com/2010/03/18/inside-the-hidden-world-of-sex-trafficking-on-long-island/

 

[Mountain_Kat]

The calls made to Shannan's sister were made from Shannan's cell phone. One poster questioned why the killer would expose himself by calling the sister and taunting her. My question is WHY would anyone call the sister and taunt her? Like I said there is no logic to what some people will do to get attention.

You put it in your's mind's scrap book and try to figure it all out if and when you solve the case.

You mean Melissa. But as to why anyone would taunt the little sister...seems like a no brainer to me. To torment. To feel powerful. It's the hallmark of LISK, imo.

 

[shadowraiths]

Speaking of...

Online Sex Trade Is Flourishing Despite Efforts to Curb It

 

[hawkshaw]

Bessie post #124 with the link to The LIPress pretty much says it all as to how view this case. This is what I think it is really all about. So far it is the only thing that makes much sense to me given the limited information that we have.

IMO, serial killers operate in the dark. They don't visit the same locations to drop their bodies. The only ones that do so are those that are afraid to leave their homes to dispose of the bodies, and so they bury them where they feel safe - Gacy and Dahlmer.

These appear to me to be the act of people that have no fear of the police. You find the bodies and so what.

Years ago when I first retired I was coming home and noticed a lot of police activity near my home. I live in a very quiet but populated neighborhood. I knew right off the bat that the presence of so many detectives meant there was a homicide. I knew the DetSgt from the local precinct and asked him what was going on. He pointed to a parked Mercedes Benz and told me there was a body in the trunk. All the signs of a mob hit. All I asked him was where did the car come from. He told me Ridgewood. I asked him did he want to know who killed the guy? Yeah. Told him who it was and where he might find him just a few blocks away.

The Sergeant made it known to the homicide detectives. One scoffed at that and said no one was going to come all the way from Ridgewood to dump a body in Nassau County near a place they could be traced back to. That made perfect sense, but these things never really do make sense. I told them you have to know something about the killers to understand why they would do this.

It was really very simple: They needed a ride from Ridgewood to Jericho to visit the killer's brother's wife. Why not kill two birds with one stone? The brother of the person that killed the guy in the trunk was arrested for a homicide, a case that I worked on to conviction. The killer was even crazier than his brother.

The cops went over to the house and found the doors wide open and the lawn mower still running. No one was to be found.

Cops found a witness that could ID the killer. He recanted in fear of his life. The FEDS would close the homicide on a RICO prosecution.

Killers that kill like the above cases just don't care. Serial killers do. No serial killer, IMO, is ever going to return to the scene of a crime and dump three more bodies because they may get caught.

NCPD, a really find PD just didn't get it. They really had no wide experience in these sort of crimes.

What did surprise me is I knew that several OC murders were done in NC and SC and they often brought the bodies to Queens, and other areas of NYC knowing that NYPD really didn't care or would give much effort to an OC homicide.We could get our numbers with far easier cases and with what we called Exceptional Clearances. Or a lot of creative writing showing we solved the case for all intents and purposes. The killers were in jail for other crimes,or they were dead. CASE CLOSED.

In NCPD they will expend unlimited amount of overtime for a case NYPD might spend no more than a few hours of OT. It is not unheard of that. In NCPD it is not unheard of for a detective to get 500Hrs OT for such an investigation. In NYPD, 500hrs of OT is something any detective would be estatic if they got that much for a years worth of work on 100 homicides. Ergo, dump the bodies in NYC - you have a better chance of not getting caught.

 

[shadowraiths]

You mean Melissa. But as to why anyone would taunt the little sister...seems like a no brainer to me. To torment. To feel powerful. It's the hallmark of LISK, imo.

Or... they could have done it to throw off LE. You know, make it "seem" like the murder was the work of a serial killer.

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Or... they could have done it to throw off LE. You know, make it "seem" like the murder was the work of a serial killer.

Why ?

Who is "they".

I'm not sure I am following your argument.

 

[shadowraiths]

Why ?

Why not? After all, instead of establishing a pattern (i.e., making harassing calls to other victim's families), the killer deviated by making the calls to Melissa's sister.

Think about it, the calls to the sister firmly plants into both the minds of LE and the public, that these murders are the work of an SK, as opposed to the result of OC.

Shoot, the profile was even generated off the calls, alone ( i.e., familiar with LE techniques, the calls indicate he's a sexual sadist, etcetera and etcetera, link, link ).

The thing is, wrt the trafficking angle, of which these girls situations have all the ear marks ( link, link ), to my mind, the calls to Melissa's little sister have long been the sticking point.

And just perhaps, that was the their intent in the first place.


Eta ~ "they" being one or more parties responsible for the GB4.

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Why not? After all, instead of establishing a pattern (i.e., making harassing calls to other victim's families), the killer deviated by making the calls to Melissa's sister.

Think about it, the calls to the sister firmly plants into both the minds of LE and the public, that these murders are the work of an SK, as opposed to the result of OC.

Shoot, the profile was even generated off the calls, alone ( i.e., familiar with LE techniques, the calls indicate he's a sexual sadist, etcetera and etcetera, link, link ).

The thing is, wrt the trafficking angle, of which these girls situations have all the ear marks ( link, link ), to my mind, the calls to Melissa's little sister have long been the sticking point.

And just perhaps, that was the their intent in the first place.


Eta ~ "they" being one or more parties responsible for the GB4.

According to meltruth, Maureen Brainard-Barnes was an "Independent". She didn't have a pimp.

See post #76 at the following link:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134781&page=4

Thanks for all the links!

 

[Just K]

Yes, but MBB traveled to the motel with a group of people...from what I gather, all there for the same purpose...to make money...from inside the Super 8 Motel.

 

[Redbird]

Yes, but MBB traveled to the motel with a group of people...from what I gather, all there for the same purpose...to make money...from inside the Super 8 Motel.

Do you have any links to support this. I have never read anything to indicate who the other people were that she traveled with or what they did once they got to the city. I have never read that they stayed at the same motel and my impression has always been that they separated from Maureen when they got there.

 

[Just K]

Do you have any links to support this. I have never read anything to indicate who the other people were that she traveled with or what they did once they got to the city. I have never read that they stayed at the same motel and my impression has always been that they separated from Maureen when they got there.

I've read it many times before that the three of them came into NYC to meet clients. I'm having trouble finding the original source but find it is quoted all over the web, here is one of the links that is still out there.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ml+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
"Maureen Brainard-Barnes, the earliest Long Island victim, was an energetic single mom of two young daughters who wrote poetry and liked the books of Shel Silverstein.

The 25-year-old brunette came into the city by train with two acquaintances, Brett and Sarah, from Norwich, Conn., on the morning of July 9, 2007, to meet clients, a friend said.

Brainard-Barnes called her friend in distress that night from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, saying she had been robbed of the money she earned that day.

"She just wanted to come home," said the friend. "She said she was coming that night and would check in."

Brett and Sarah returned without Maureen, who had gone off by herself.

"They said they didn't know what happened to her," the friend said."

 

[Redbird]

There is nothing in the article you quoted to indicate to me that her companions were prostitutes. In fact since they were male and female I thought they were just friends. Nor does this say they stayed at the same motel. This says Maureen had "gone off by herself," which to me sounded like she went off to take care of business by herself. If not, why didn't Brett and Sarah help her get home. Makes no sense. I'm just trying to keep the facts straight.

 

[bessie]

JMO, but I don't think it matters whether she went to the motel alone or not. This is meltruth's post in the other thread. Bolding is mine:

No, she was Independent. She did not have no pimp. No she was not a dancer. She went to NYC in hopes to become a model and was lured into escorting by other girls in the same lifestyle. She only went to NY here and there. Never on a regular bases. The sad part is, is she stop for a long time and then when she could not find a job here and was threaten with eviction she resulted to what lead her to become missing that weekend. Other information about her and that weekend I can not discuss at all. It is part of the investigation and I hold respect towards the police who are on this case. I will try to answer what I can but if it has anything to do with what I can not say I will simple say no comment on that.

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7696445&postcount=76"]Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Victim - Maureen Brainard-Barnes[/ame]

It sounds like she was desperate for money. Perhaps someone made her a promising proposition that turned deadly because when she learned what was actually expected of her, she refused to accept it. It wouldn't be the first time a victim was killed because she was unwilling to succumb to a trafficker's demands.

 

[Dwntwnslim]

Would a human trafficker allow someone to escort on a flexible or sporadic basis?

 

[Redbird]

I have always thought her death was particularly sad. She seemed like a mother that would do almost anything to take care of her child and keep a roof over her head. During one of those specials where her sister showed that notebook proving that she had been diligently looking for a job to me was heartbreaking. I wanted to try to correct the record because it is a much different image than one of her working with a group of prostitutes and deeply involved in the their lifestyle.