Suffolk DA identifies Gilgo Beach victim Jane Doe No. 7 as Manhattan escort after 27 years
For nearly three decades, she was known only as “Fire Island Jane Doe,” her butchered remains uncovered as her identity remained a mystery.
Manhattan sex worker Karen Vergata, who disappeared on Valentine’s Day 1996 at age 34, was finally identified Friday by authorities through DNA evidence as a victim in the gruesome Gilgo Beach serial killings.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said during a brief press conference that investigators determined her identity 27 years later through testing of a skull found in 2011 along with legs and feet discovered on the Bayshore side of Fire Island in 1996.
“The FBI was able via a genetic genealogy review to identify Ms. Vergata presumptively as Fire Island Jane Doe,” he announced before leaving without taking questions. The match was confirmed in October with a swab from a relative of the victim.
The prosecutor spoke in front of a photo showing the smiling victim in her younger days, with pigtails reaching down below her shoulders.
There was no mention by Tierney of Long Islander Rex Heuermann, already in custody and charged in three of the chilling slayings. Authorities identified him as a suspect in a fourth open investigation from the Gilgo murders, the slaying of sex worker Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Vergata’s death was linked to the Gilgo case more than a decade ago after investigators expanded their search beyond the remote stretch where the original four victims were found as more bodies were discovered.
The skull was found after authorities uncovered the remains of victim Jessica Taylor in April 2011.
“I think it’s important that we remember and honor not only Ms. Vergata, but all the victims on Gilgo Beach,” added Tierney.
The prosecutor declined to answer any questions or discuss any potential suspects in the Vegata case, saying only the investigation into the killing was ongoing. But he said the breakthrough in identifying the victim came last August after the serial-killing probe was reopened.
“It’s important to note that there are no charges at this time,” he said. “Ms. Vergata’s disappearance was in 1996. We are going to continue to work this particular case, as we did the Gilgo Four investigation.”
Heuermann, 59, was arrested July 13 in Manhattan and charged with killing three sex workers — Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello — whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach.
The 10 murder victims were identified as eight women, an Asian man dressed as a woman, and a toddler. The first bodies were recovered as police searched for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker who disappeared into a marshy area in Oak Beach, L.I., in May 2010.
“This shocks me, but it probably shouldn’t because we lost touch,” said Diane Doherty, who adopted Vergata’s two sons. “I always let her children know that she loved them.”
The unexpected identification came one day after Tierney told Newsday another sex worker killed in an unsolved Gilgo Beach murder was bound with a unique belt bearing the initials HW or HM — and possibly holding another crucial piece of evidence.
He said hair removed from the buckle of the belt was still being tested.
The new revelations involve the killing of Brainard-Barnes, one of four women slain in 2009 and 2010 in the remote suburban stretch.
Tierney told Newsday the initialed belt was one of three used to bind the 25-year-old victim, and police had previously said the belt was handled by the suspect in the killing.
