Murdered, mutilated and dumped on the beach: Macabre mystery of the serial killer who snared his 10 victims through the internet

By Gavin Allen
Four of the women's bodies were found dumped in cloth sacks

• 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
• A man and child are among they victims

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 a social networking site.

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
Craigslist.com is a sort of electronic newsagent's window for the 21st century, 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. 
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.

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