In the brackish mud, along a bleak and isolated stretch of Long Island, what are likely the bones of 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, missing for 19 months, were finally found Tuesday.

For the family, the mystery of where she died was over, but another remained: How?

The discovery of the missing prostitute's remains came exactly one year after New York authorities, while searching for the Jersey City resident, stumbled on what would turn out to be 10 sets of human remains. Authorities quickly decided the victims, only half of whom have been identified, were the work of a serial killer.

"Of course we will not know for sure it is Shannan until the medical examiner confirms whether the remains belong to her," said Richard Dormer, Suffolk County Police Commissioner, at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Gilbert’s bones were uncovered near Oak Beach, several miles to the east of the others, which were found along the edge of Gilgo Beach. Police maintain the Jersey City woman’s death is unrelated to theirs.

Others, however, believe it is — especially the families of the victims and even the residents of Oak Beach, the gated barrier island community where Gilbert was last seen alive just before dawn, May 1, 2010.

The search for Gilbert’s body intensified a week ago after her purse, I.D. and cell phone, as well as her jeans, shoes and various other articles of her clothing were found in the thick, undergrowth that stretches along the length of the barrier island, not far from Oak Beach. It took dozens of machete-wielding police officers, a bulldozer and an amphibious vehicle to find and recover the remains.

Shannan Gilbert Search on Monday, Dec. 5 and Wednesday, Dec. 7 20 Gallery: Shannan Gilbert Search on Monday, Dec. 5 and Wednesday, Dec. 7

At the press conference, just outside the gates of Oak Beach, Dormer said he believed the woman, for unknown reasons, ran frantically into the dense undergrowth, then "lost her shoes, probably her pants," before "collapsing and drowning."

Elizabeth Meserve, 46, of Portland, Maine and the aunt of Megan Waterman, one of the 10 victims, scoffed at the commissioner’s claim.

"To say she accidentally drowned is ridiculous when she lost her shoes and her pants," Meserve said. "She was running from something. Someone was trying to kill her ... It doesn’t make any sense."

The last day of Gilbert’s life began when 47-year-old Joseph Brewer, who used to live at 8 The Fairway, in Oak Beach, answered an ad she had posted on a social networking website in April of last year. The sexual encounter, however, never happened, Brewer told The Star-Ledger in an exclusive story in June. What he did say was, she asked him an odd question about transvestites, leading him to believe she was a man, and when Brewer asked her to leave, she began to act erratically, he said.

Brewer then called for help from her driver, Michael Pak, who was waiting in an SUV outside the home. When Brewer tried to grab Gilbert from behind, according to Pak, she slipped his grip and cowered behind a couch. From there she dialed 911 and during a 23-minute-long phone call pleaded with authorities to help her because someone was trying to kill her.

At some point she ran from the house, according to both Brewer and Pak, and down the street to the home of an elderly neighbor, Gustav Coletti. Gilbert banged on his door, Coletti told The Star-Ledger earlier this year, and when he answered and asked her what was wrong, she stared at him, then ran off.

Pak said he circled around the neighborhood but never found her.

Reached by phone Tuesday, he said, "Finally, closure, and the mystery is solved."

For Gilbert’s former boyfriend, Alex Diaz, who met Gilbert at the escort agency where he was was a driver, the discovery of her remains comes as a relief.

"I think it’s probably her," he said. "Now I know what happened. I can move on now."

In a lengthy interview in June Diaz admitted breaking Gilbert’s jaw during an argument several years ago. The metal plate needed to repair the bone should make the remains more easily identifiable.

Late Tuesday afternoon more than a dozen family members of the victims gathered for a somber one-year anniversary memorial at Oak Beach, including Gilbert’s mother, Mari, Lorraine Ela, Megan Waterman’s mother and Melissa Cann, sister of Maureen Barnes, believed to be one of the victims. They carried colorful balloons, some in the shape of red hearts, in order to mourn with one another. Instead, they answered questions from reporters and spoke with neighbors about the sad new twist in the nearly year-and-a-half old murder mystery.

When the crowd dispersed, they prayed together in a parking lot just outside the gates of Oak Beach, then drove about four miles down Ocean Parkway, laid flowers in the marshy thicket near Gilgo Beach, and sobbed. When they returned to Oak Beach it was to hold a candlelight vigil.

For Meserve, who could not be there, there was little consolation, only frustration with the police.

"I’m angry," she said by phone. "I know they’ve been working, but I think they made some big mistakes in the beginning. Shannon disappeared a year and a half ago. Then it took them a year again to look. If they’d looked for her sooner and found her, my niece might still be here."

Oak Beach resident Evelyn Scalise, 57, who has watched the police comb the neighborhood for the past week, added her voice to those who still believe there is a mystery that needs to be solved.

"This was not an accident," Scalise said. "She knew something bad was happening. No one can convince me differently, ever ... The story is not over."

Nor is it for Ela, who added, "Before this sick bastard is caught, they're going to find more bodies."



By Amy Ellis Nutt and Amy Brittain/The Star-Ledger

Related coverage:

• 18-month-old mystery over Shannan Gilbert's disappearance may be over; reaction in Hudson

• Remains believed to be Shannan Gilbert are found, police on Long Island say

• Search resumes in N.Y. for missing Jersey City woman Shannan Gilbert

• Searchers find belongings of missing Jersey City woman

