We are here today to announce that all four women whose remains were discovered in Gilgo Beach last month have been positively identified.

The victims are Maureen Breinard Barnes of Norwich, Connecticut, 25 years old, last seen in July 2007 in New York City.

Melissa Bartellamy of the Brombs, New York, 24 years old, last seen in July 2009 in the Brombs.

Amber Lynn Costello of North Babylon, New York, 27 years old, last seen in September 2010 in North Babylon.

And previously announced, making waterment of Scarborough, Maine, 22 years old, last seen in June 2010 in Hophawk, New York.

It does appear to us at this time that the same person or persons are responsible for all of these murders.

They were killed in another location and their remains were transported to the Gilgo Beach area that you see over there.

All of them were self-employed and the escort business, they were prostitutes.

They were soliciting their services on Craigslist and other websites found on the internet.

And we believe that each of the four victims met their pre-arranged client or clients shortly before their deaths and that their deaths are a direct result of their business as prostitutes.

As the commissioner mentioned, we are hopeful that people will come forward with the, to any of the addresses that the commissioner gave.

I sincerely hope that people who are engaged in a similar business as these four young women would come forward.

We certainly must have some information, anything that they may need to be significant or even something that they may need to be insignificant may be significant to us.

Saturday, April 20th, 1996.

Fire Island lies along the southern tip of Long Island, a strip of land roughly 31 miles long.

The island only has a few hundred permanent residents, but it features a thriving vacation population that surges in the spring and summer months.

Of those thousands of tourists that visit, a few were walking along the beach of Davis Park.

This is normally a very quiet, lonely stretch of shoreline that doesn't get a lot of foot traffic outside of the summer months.

Just a few months beforehand, in January of 1996, one of the most damaging blizzards in American history had ravaged the east coast.

It had introduced incredibly low temperatures and extremely high winds in a dangerous combination that damaged multiple properties and even led to the deaths of 150 people.

But in that storm, many things from Long Island had come adrift, some properties, many people's belongings, etc.

So when this group of walkers taking a stroll along this isolated stretch of beach saw something flapping in the wind, they decided to move closer and take a look.

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