'Did you know your sister's a whore?' Sadistic Craigslist Ripper taunted teenager on phone and sent texts after strangling victim



Long Island serial killer made six calls to the devastated family



Chilling new theory by investigators that he 'may be a cop'



All victims were throttled and had their shoes removed



Victim Melissa Barthelemy: Killer taunted her younger sister

The twisted Craigslist Ripper stalked the teenage sister of one of his victims, taunting her in six telephone calls.

He even revealed to 16-year-old Amanda Barthelemy that her sister Melissa was a prostitute - a secret she had kept from her family.

The sadistic serial killer, who police fear may have stalked and strangled to death at least eight vice girls over the past five years, would only talk to the teen.

Four bodies were dug up in Long island near Gilgo Beach last December, including Barthelemy, an aspiring hairdresser, who disappeared from her Bronx apartment in July, 2009.



The 24-year-old had not told her mother she was advertising her services on Craigslist and had been having sex with clients for more than a year.

According to the New York Post, the killer said to Amanda: 'Is this Melissa's little sister?'. 'Yes,' replied the girl.

'Do you know what your sister is doing? She's a whore.' Barthelemy had lied to her mother, Lynn, that she was an exotic dancer. Half a dozen more calls and texts followed in the next six weeks.

The killer always phoned in the evenings, spoke for less than three minutes and in a low voice, calmly mocking the youngster. The family feared he had seen Amanda when she visited her sister's home and stayed over.



Victims: Amber Lynn Costello and Megan Waterman. Their bodies were found in shallow graves



'He wouldn't talk to anybody but her,' Mrs Barthelemy told the Post. 'One time I answered, and he hung up as soon as he heard my voice.'

Victim: Maureen Brainer-Barnes

But she kept a note of the conversations while police pinpointed the caller's location in Times Square, Madison Square Garden and Massapequa, a short drive from Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County.



Officers worked on the theory that the killer may have had a job in Midtown or commuted from Long Island.



The calls stopped in August, 2009 after a TV station revealed their existence. Police believe Barthelemy was already dead.



Her body and those of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Megan Waterman, 22, and Maureen Brainer-Barnes, 25, were discovered in shallow graves.

Police have yet to link their deaths with the four victims in New Jersey - Kim Raffo, Molly Jean Dilts, Barbara Breidor and Tracy Ann Roberts. But there are several coincidences.

In each case, the killer dumped four prostitutes near water and in close proximity. The bodies were in various stages of decomposition, suggesting he kept some for a time after they died.

All eight were sex workers, and the four in New York used Craigslist. Each had been strangled.

He had removed the shoes from both sets of bodies, though the women in New Jersey were clothed. Those in Long Island had been stripped naked and were found without jewellery or belongings, each wrapped in burlap.

'It's the same guy,'one law-enforcement source told the Post.

Details have emerged about the Long Island victims. Megan Waterman would drop off her four-year-old daughter, Lily, with her grandparents, before meeting clients on Long Island.



Shannan Gilbert: The 24-year-old was last seen in May 2010 in the Oak Beach area. She is from Jersey City and was known to be a prostitute



Maureen Brainard-Barnes was an energetic single mother of two young daughters who wrote poetry and liked books.

Amber Lynn Costello, who vanished from Long Island on Sept. 2, was the killer's most recent victim.

She stood under 5 feet and weighed only 100 pounds, Costello grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she was physically abused and turned to drugs.

The woman who sparked the body hunt, 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, who used Craigslist to book clients, is still missing.

She was last seen on May 1 at 5am in the gated millionaires' community of Oak Beach at the home of customer Joe Brewer, a few miles from Gilgo beach. She ran off after calling 911 and knocking on a neighbour's door screaming: 'They are trying to kill me.'

Murdered: Barbara Breidor and Molly Jean Dilts: Their remains were found in New Jersey



Murdered: Kim Raffo and Tracey Ann Roberts. Their deaths have yet to be linked to the killings on Long Island



Searching: A Suffolk County Police Department officer and her dog search the Gilgo Beach area on Long Island

Investigators believe the killer has a sophisticated understanding of police investigation techniques and 'may be a cop'.

He used untraceable disposable cell phones to contact the Craigslist victims. Made calls in crowded locations and never stayed on the line longer than three minutes.

A source 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.'