FBI seize New York pimp's computer in hunt for 'Craigslist ripper'



FBI seize computer of pimp and trawl data for 'clients'



All four were escorts who had used same popular internet site

Killer's methods have led some to believe they are a policeman or ex-officer

Police fear they may be dealing with more than one killer

The laptop of a New York pimp has been seized and searched by the FBI in the desperate hunt for the 'Craigslist ripper'.

The FBI have seized the laptop of Akeem Cruz - who is linked to dead prostitute Megan Waterman - hoping to find a record of clients that could lead them to a possible serial killer, a source close to the investigation have indicated.



Cruz, of Brooklyn, is not considered a suspect in the disappearance of Waterman and three other prostitutes who bodies were found strewn last December near the side of a remote highway leading to Long Island's Jones Beach, the official said.

Trawl: Suffolk County search divers search Hemlock Cove in Babylon, New York. At the same time the FBI are looking through a pimp's computer files to try and trace the killer

Cruz's lawyer said earlier this week that his client - currently imprisoned in Maine for a cocaine conviction - would have granted permission for a search of his computer.

The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment on the investigation into Cruz's computer.

Searched: Sources close to the investigation said Akeem Cruz's laptop had been seized in the search for the Craigslist ripper

Authorities say Cruz was one of the last people seen with Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, last June when she disappeared after travelling to a hotel in Hauppauge, to meet clients for sex.

In addition to the computer search, investigators have questioned hotel guests who stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at the same time Waterman was there.

Authorities believe a serial killer may be responsible for the deaths of Waterman and three other women in their 20s, whose bodies were found near hers.



Police have since turned up six other sets of remains along the highway in recent weeks but have not definitively linked any of them to the deaths of the four prostitutes. The recent discoveries have prompted a wide-scale search along a 15-mile stretch of the highway.

An aerial and ground search on Thursday did not turn up any additional remains.



So far the remains of ten people have been found dumped along the side of a beach-front road in a usually-plush holiday resort as the U.S. once again finds itself in hideous thrall to a serial killer.



The police have little to go on. They suspect the killer is a man, intelligent, and perhaps living in the same area where many of the bodies have been dumped.



But most notably, and this is the detail that has captured the dread of New York, is the fact that the killer - or killers - found some of the victims through Craigslist.



Victims: Nine women police fear were murdered by the Craigslist Ripper in Long Island, New York: Top row, left to right: Molly Jean Dilts, Shannan Gilbert and Tracy Ann Roberts; Middle row, left to right: Melissa Barthelemy, Barbara Breidor and Kim Raffo; Bottom row, left to right: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello

A the numbers of bodies on the Long Island nature reserve begin to pile up FBI and police searcher are using airplanes and sea divers in an attempt to gather some physical evidence to catch the Long Island killer

Craigslist.com works like an electronic corner shop, a place for classified adverts offering items for sale, jobs and services and much more - including personal ads and escorts.



It is as common in everyday life for many people as Facebook or Twitter and used by some 50million people.



Today police in New York are trying to identify the latest sets of human remains unearthed in a macabre search for the killer who has become known as 'The Craigslist Ripper'.



Frighteningly, the latest dismembered bodies found - those of a man and a child - are perhaps not even the work of the same killer.



In fact, police believe just four of the 10 victims so far were murdered by the same hand. The possibility that they are dealing with more than one killer is very much part of the investigation.

Four of the dead were escorts who advertised on Craigslist.

On December 13, 2010, the remains of those four victims - Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Mellissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Megan Waterman, 22 - were found dumped in cloth potato sacks, around 500 feet apart along the same road.



Ocean Parkway is the main run across the length of Gilgo Island, a southern sandbank of Long Island, which itself is a small peninsula extending east from New York.



It's a popular destination for holiday makers from the Big Apple and the well-heeled among local society. It is where people go to escape the crime statistics of the big city.



That first shock was followed on February 10 this year by the discovery of a human skull, 100 feet from the side of the road.



Then, on March 29, the body of an unidentified woman was found a mile east of the initial dumping ground. That was followed on April 4 by three more unidentified sets of remains.



The latest terrible find came on Monday as two more sets of human remains were uncovered just 40ft from the side of the same road.



Grisly: An officer examines an object found near Jones Beach, Long Island where the remains of up to ten victims have been found

Road to hell: Police searching along Ocean Parkway, have so far uncovered nine bodies in the bracken

Craigslist: The website is a marketplace for all kinds of people, events and services and is used by up to 50m people



Police were working on a theory that the skull and torso found on Monday may belong to one or more of victims of the notorious serial killer Joel Rifkin.

Rifkin, 52, admitted to Police in 1993 he had killed 17 New York prostitutes before dumping their strangled and dismembered remains at sites including Long Island. Three of the bodies were never located.



CELEBRITY SERIALS: AMERICA'S MOST NOTORIOUS MASS KILLERS

America has had more than its fair share of serial killers in the last century, many of which, such as Charles Manson for example, enjoy a certain infamy. Here are five of the U.S.'s most notorious mass killers.

David Berkowitz

Uppermost in the minds of New Yorkers living in fear of the 'Craigslist Ripper'. AKA The Son Of Sam, Berkowitz, pictured above, terrorized New York between 1976 and 1977 killing six people and wounding many others. He gained fame by sending crazed letters to the media, as depicted in the film Zodiac. He was jailed for 365 years.

Ted Bundy

Executed in 1989 after confessing to 40 murders between 1974 and 1978. A poster boy for the ghoulish serial killer 'fan clubs', he was handsome and erudite. But he was a rapist, a necrophile and a stone-cold killer. Dennis Rader

AKA the BTK killer - Bind, Torture, Kill - an allusion to his MO. He killed 10 people around Wichita, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Often sent letters to the media describing his killings.

Jeffrey Dahmer

The Milwaukee serial killer dismembered and sometimes ate his victims. Committed his first murder aged 18, and claimed 17 more lives at least from 1978 and 1991.

Ed Gein

Monster who killed, dismembered and skinned 15 women between 1947 and 1957 and has been the inspiration for films from Silence Of The Lambs to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.



A source close to the investigation told the New York Post: 'These [bones] are so old that roots were growing around the vertebrae and the skull.



'These could be one or two of Joel Rifkin's victims who were never found, or the work of another killer.'



The discovery of a man's body along with that of a toddler has left police considering a number of possibilities.



Firstly, that the 'Craigslist ripper' may not have solely targeted women.

But perhaps more disturbingly, if they are not Rifkin's victims, they may be the work of some third killer, all of who have used the Long Island area as a makeshift graveyard.



The prospect of one or more killers being on the loose is a terrifying thought for the people of Long Island and the whole of New York State.



'It's frightening, just being a woman here, and this happening,' Denise Kilday, a resident from the far end of the bay told The Times.



'Maybe some of them weren't escorts. Anyone could have come down here for a party at one of the houses.'



Among the few scant clues police have to go on is the fact that the teenage sister of one of the victims, Melissa Barthelmy, is said to have received a series of disturbing phonecalls from a telephone box in a crowded area.



'I just don't understand why he chose me... how many other girls and how many other families... why was I chosen, why was I taunted?' said Amanda Barthelemy, 16.



This tactic suggests the person responsible had knowledge of how the authorities work - because mobile calls were made from busy areas where it is impossible to pick him out on CCTV.



All of the calls lasted less than three minutes - and it takes between three and five minutes for police to trace them.



Detectives believe the killer is an intelligent person, a man, who probably appears to live an ordinary life.



One officer told the New York Times: 'He is a guy aware of how we utilise technology.



'Frankly, people are thinking maybe he could be a cop - either one still in law enforcement or one who has moved on.



'Without question this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope. it's a guy who thinks about things.'



The people of Long island are living in hope that police are able to catch the killer before they strike again in an area described by one officer as 'secluded' and 'a perfect dumping ground' for bodies.