Remains of more than 100 women found outdoors on Long Island since 1976, investigation finds

Tynesha Brewster dropped out of Central Islip High School in the 10th grade. She started dancing at a strip club in Hempstead.

But she had made a pact with her sister Lachelle Brewster to go back to school and get her diploma. 

Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Tynesha didn’t come home. Although Tynesha sometimes stayed out all night, her sister Shamika Vinson worried when she didn't come home the next day. Not long afterward, a Nassau police detective showed up at Vinson's door and said police found Tynesha's charred body inside a smoking cargo container behind a building in Plainview. She was 18 years old.

The Nassau police department did not respond to questions about Brewster's case or to requests for an interview, but her family said police told them Brewster's death is considered a cold case.  She's one of more than 100 women whose bodies have been found outdoors on Long Island since 1976, according to FBI data and Newsday archives. They have been found across the Island, from Lattingtown to Shirley. Some were killed outdoors, while others were disposed of outdoors. Some cases have been solved, but no arrests have been reported in at least 78 of the deaths.

"It's abnormal to have bodies outdoors," said Christopher Herrmann, an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Most people want to hide their crimes, so they'll typically tend to keep the body indoors and try to figure out a way to dispose of it."

Cold cases — such as Brewster’s and the Gilgo Beach cases — can take detectives years to solve. Yet neither the Nassau nor Suffolk police departments have staffed cold-case units in recent years,  and both have seen a steady decline in the number of detectives on the job overall. To fill the gap, the Nassau and Suffolk district attorneys have created their own cold-case units. Cold-case units in police departments differ in that they typically have multiple seasoned detectives to knock on doors, track down witnesses and scour physical evidence.

Police departments differ on how they define cold cases, said Joseph Giacalone, former head of the NYPD's Bronx cold-case squad and an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Some consider a case cold after one to three years. Others consider it cold when there are no more investigative leads.

He credited the district attorneys' offices for creating cold-case units but said they're also needed in police departments.

"This doesn't work on an ad hoc basis," he said. "You need people who are dedicated. These are long-term cases. These are not easy cases. If they were easy, they would've been solved." 

Some family members told Newsday they haven't heard from detectives on their cases in years.

A separate FBI database on the Murder Accountability Project website of murder or nonnegligent manslaughter from 1976 through 2022 is based on reporting from police departments. The database, when filtered, shows female homicides on Long Island where the weapon is unknown — that is, the bodies were likely found outside and too decomposed to determine the weapon used. Of the 101 such cases on Long Island, 78% are unsolved, according to Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project, which analyzes national crime data.

Hargrove developed an algorithm that uses FBI homicide data to identify "clusters" of murders with elevated probability of containing serial killers. Long Island is unusual, Hargrove said, because nationally most cases of female homicide victims involve domestic violence and are found indoors.

"You have more than you should on Long Island," he said, referring to the number of women found outdoors. "Whenever you have a large number of women whose bodies were discovered out of doors, that alone is a red flag indicating the possibility of serial murder."

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney announced his new cold-case unit last month with15 staffers. Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly's office started its unit in 2020 and now has 10 prosecutors working on cold cases. Both offices are reviewing a total of 105 suspicious deaths of women on Long Island.

"Unfortunately, both police departments are shorthanded," Donnelly said. 

"I don’t think that before our taking office that there was sort of a cohesive, comprehensive look at cold cases," Tierney said in an interview. "I think it was done on a more ad hoc basis."

Donnelly said that there are only seven active homicide detectives in Nassau, but police department spokesman Scott Skrynecki said recent transfers have brought the total in the homicide unit to 12 people. Of those, three are assigned to fatal car accidents, but all are called out when there's a homicide, Skrynecki said.

In Suffolk, there are now 24 homicide detectives because two were recently transferred, according to spokeswoman Dawn Schob. In 1976, the department had 29 homicide detectives. Overall, the number of detectives has declined from 439 in 1996 to 350 today — a more than 20% drop. 

"The detective division solves 80% of all major crimes in Nassau County," said William Bourguignon, president of the Nassau Detectives Association. "If we don’t have a robust detective division, public safety will suffer."

The reason for the decline in detectives is likely due to the fact that counties can’t afford to hire as many detectives because of the high pay scales, analysts said. In Nassau, a typical detective earns about $217,200, while in Suffolk, a detective earns $237,029 a year, according to payroll records. Homicide detectives often earn more because of overtime involved in investigating their cases. When coupled with benefits and time off, the cost can be even higher. 

Officials are committed to high pay because of union contracts but have a limited amount of funds in a budget, said Tim Hoefer, an analyst who sits on the board of the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based think tank that posts data on government spending.

"The problem with this high pay scale is that you’re perpetually understaffed," he said. "That's just a math calculation. That's really simple." 

Former Suffolk County Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said he had asked the county administration for funding to create a cold-case unit and other specialized units but was rebuffed for budget reasons. When he became commissioner, he said solving the Gilgo Beach case was a high priority.

"Of course one person being found outside is alarming, but hearing a number of 100 is something that is unacceptable," he said.

Skrynecki said in an emailed statement: "Staffing in our Homicide Squad has not affected performance of the squad. In fact, our homicide closure rate for the past seven years is 92%." 

Later, he said that closure rate covers ongoing cases, including cases that may be considered cold.

The Suffolk police department didn't respond to a request for an interview, but police spokeswoman Schob said in an email: "The department consistently reviews staffing and reassigns individuals when necessary to address crime trends and other department concerns."

Trooper Brittany Burton, spokeswoman for the New York State Police, which handle cases near parkways, said state police have 16 open homicide cases. Six are women. State Police also have a cold-case unit.

'A quality-control device'

Harrison said he was "surprised and actually discouraged" that the department did not have cold-case or missing-persons units.

"If you don’t have a specialized unit looking at cold cases on a regular basis, unfortunately, those cases will go stale and there will be no progress on those investigations until something comes in," he said. "Sometimes we do a bad job of being reactionary instead of being proactive."

He cited the Gilgo Beach case as "the perfect example" of being proactive. In July 2023, Harrison, Tierney and other members of a multiagency task force investigating the Gilgo Beach killings announced that they had arrested Massapequa Park architect Rex Heuermann. Tierney said they had treated it as a cold case.

That ability for investigators to step back and take a fresh look is critical, said Ronal Serpas, a criminology professor at Loyola University in New Orleans and former New Orleans Police superintendent.

Cold-case units tend to have the most seasoned detectives, he said. "Cold-case units, to my view, are a quality-control device. Their job is to go and look at that case with brand-new eyes," Serpas said.

The lack of a cold-case unit "is certainly going to interfere with the police's ability to investigate cold cases in any kind of rigorous and ongoing way," said Wendy C. Regoeczi, professor and chair of the criminology and criminal justice department at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. "A typical homicide unit tends to be stretched very thin just investigating current cases."

Since Heuermann’s arrest, the Gilgo Beach task force has expanded its investigation. In June, Tierney's office charged Heuermann with the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor, whose remains were found on Gilgo Beach and in Manorville, and the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla, whose remains were found in North Sea in 1993. Previously, Heuermann was charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, collectively known as the Gilgo Four, who were found in 2010.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty in all six killings.

"We have these bodies," Tierney said. "Now we have to figure out what happened to those people, whether it’s a homicide or something else. So it is a lot, and that’s why we need to do what we’re doing."

Tierney added: "Every person that is murdered ... that's a life that matters to the families."

Every person that is murdered ... that's a life that matters to the families.

— Ray Tierney, Suffolk County district attorney

Credit: Rick Kopstein

The Suffolk district attorney's cold-case unit is reviewing 287 deaths in the county since 1965. Of those, 66 are women, he said.

"Those are what I would call noticeable numbers," said Herrmann, of John Jay College, who previously worked as a shooting and homicide analyst for the New York City Police Department.

Tierney said that "statistical uptick" in Suffolk was not surprising, given the county’s geography. "We live in this metropolitan area, and Suffolk County is the last place where we have sort of secluded, wooded areas," he said.

Nassau District Attorney Donnelly said her office’s cold-case unit is reviewing 40 deaths considered suspicious since 1980. Of those, 39 are women.

At least 33 of the women found dead outdoors were sex workers, according to reports of their criminal records. Three more worked in strip clubs, according to news clippings.

"They're easy pickings," said former New York State Police Capt. Walter Heesch, who oversaw the state police investigation of convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin. 

The solution, Harrison said, is clear: "There should be a cold-case squad. There should be a missing-persons squad. They should be given the appropriate amount of resources to investigate these bodies found outside."

Of course one person being found outside is alarming, but hearing a number of 100 is something that is unacceptable. 

— Rodney K. Harrison, former Suffolk police commissioner

Credit: Randee Daddona

'Lots of places to hide'

Although the focus of Gilgo Beach investigators has been primarily on the remains found along Ocean Parkway and in Manorville, records show that bodies have been found elsewhere on Long Island.

"On Long Island, there are lots of places to hide," Giacalone said. "When you have somebody who dumps a body out in public, that sends another message. You’re trying to get a reaction from the police officers and the public."

Sometimes, bodies are found in clusters, as was the case with the Gilgo Four, who were found within a quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway on Gilgo Beach. Giacalone said there is no FBI definition of a cluster because homicides are handled most often by local police departments. He defined a cluster as people of the same gender, age range and race found in or around similar locations.

Bodies found

Four bodies of women were found from April 1985 through December 1989 at three private clubs and a cemetery in Nassau County. 

Friends last saw Jacqueline Martarella, 19, alive on March 26, 1985, after she left a friend’s house to walk to her job at a Burger King in Oceanside.  She had been saving up to buy a car. Her older brother, Martin Martarella, said in an interview that he had planned to take her car shopping after he returned from a business trip. He never got to do that. Her nude and badly decomposed body was found on April 22, 1985, hidden in the tall reeds about 35 feet off the fairway of the 17th hole of the Woodmere Country Club golf course. She had been strangled.

Caretakers found the body of Gwen Lukes, 26, on Sept. 13, 1985, wrapped in a bound blanket at St. Patrick Cemetery in Upper Brookville.  She had been placed behind a small stone toolshed in the rear of the cemetery. She had a record of prostitution arrests. Police said at the time that she had been strangled elsewhere and dumped at the cemetery.

A Hempstead Golf Club groundskeeper found Valerie Cleveland, 21, under 7-foot-high evergreen shrubs near the fourth tee on Aug. 6, 1986. She had a record of prostitution arrests. Police said at the time that she had been killed elsewhere. In an interview, her brother, Richard Cleveland, described her as a "go-getter" but said she worked as a sex worker  to support herself and her boyfriend.

In December 1989, two water-meter readers found the body of Christine Warner, 19, wrapped in two green garbage bags inside a split-rail fence in a wooded area of the Meadow Brook Polo Club in Old Westbury. Originally from Cranston, Rhode Island, she had several arrests for prostitution in midtown Manhattan. Her sister, Tracey Harris, said in an interview that Warner had followed a boyfriend to New York City and that he forced her into sex work.

Hargrove said these locations suggest a pattern because, "Most bodies are recovered where the crime occurred. People who have to transport bodies are already a very specialized group of killer."

Of those four locations, he said, "It suggests the killer is not poor. It certainly suggests that this is an organized killer. ... The killer was mobile, had a car. These are private places that poor people don’t associate with."

Found near parkways

The remains of at least seven women have been found along the South Shore, primarily near parkways.

Friends last saw Tina Foglia, 19, as she was leaving a West Islip club called Hammerheads, where she had gone to see a band called Equinox. Her body, dismembered and placed in plastic bags, was found Feb. 3, 1982, alongside an exit ramp from the Southern State Parkway to the Sagtikos State Parkway in North Bay Shore.

A person walking along a culvert near the Robert Moses Causeway in Bay Shore found the skeletal remains of Margaret Forbes, 46, on Nov. 25, 1982. She had been dead at least six months. Her daughters said in an interview that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and struggled with alcohol.

The skeletal remains of Betty Lau, 18, were found Feb. 14, 1985, in a wooded area off the Southern State Parkway at the Fifth Avenue exit in Bay Shore. She was 16 when she disappeared from her home in Chinatown on June 23, 1983.

A horseback rider discovered the body of Patricia Costello, 26, on May 30, 1986, near what was then the Timber Point Riding Academy in Heckscher State Park in East Islip. She had been strangled with a garment, with one end of it tied to a tree. Police said at the time that the scene appeared staged to look like a suicide. Costello worked as a topless dancer, according to news reports. 

Several Bellport junior high school students found the skeletal remains of a woman in the woods east of Sipp Avenue in East Patchogue in March 1987. The remains were unidentified, and her age was not determined. 

A motorist found the body of Carmen Vargas, 29, on Sept. 11, 1989, off the Meadowbrook Parkway about a half-mile south of Merrick Road in Freeport. A rope was tied around her neck, and a cord was tied around her ankles. Drugs were found in her system, police said at the time. 

New York State Transportation Department workers found the body of Tanya Rush, 39, on June 27, 2008, in a suitcase off the Southern State Parkway near the Newbridge Road exit in Bellmore. She had a drug problem, according to police and family, and was a sex worker. 

Found in Five Towns area

Three women were found near the Five Towns area.

A man driving to work on Aug. 21, 1984, noticed bright-red nails protruding from underneath a grayish-brown blanket on a grassy strip on Hunter Avenue in Valley Stream. When he looked, he found the body of Deborah Lee Smith, 20. Police at the time said she had numerous prostitution arrests in Manhattan and had been shot several times elsewhere and dumped.

A shopper at the 5 Towns Shopping Center in North Woodmere stumbled upon the body of Deborah Payne, 36, in the parking lot in July 1991.

A clammer working in Mott's Basin in Inwood found the badly decomposed body of Dina Mulato Sadeghi, 37, in August 2005. She was estranged from her family, said her friend Cecelia Morin, who paid to fly her body back to her native California. Morin also said Sadeghi had been a sex worker and used drugs.

Donnelly conceded she finds it "frustrating" that the Nassau Police Department does not have the crew for a cold-case unit. But, she added, "I believe in my heart we are doing everything we can to solve the cases that we’re working on."

I believe in my heart we are doing everything we can to solve the cases that we’re working on.

— Anne Donnelly, Nassau County district attorney

Credit: A.J. Singh

Families devastated

For the families of the victims, the pain of loss reverberates in different ways.

"The devastation that’s left behind for the rest of the families is unimaginable," said Tracey Harris, sister of 19-year-old Christine Warner, found at the Meadow Brook Polo Club in Old Westbury. "My parents were never the same. My brothers and I were never the same, and that’s why I say it was not only the death of my sister, but the death of her entire family."

The daughters of Margaret Forbes, Bridget and Ann Forbes, say they have come to a certain peace about their mother’s death after years of counseling. They had lost her years earlier, when their parents divorced and she left their comfortable home in Brightwaters and spiraled into mental illness and alcoholism.

Her death was shattering, but even worse was dealing with the reaction of others.

"Going back to high school and everyone knows your mother was murdered," Bridget said. "That was the hardest part."

Going back to high school and everyone knows your mother was murdered, that was the hardest part.

— Bridget Forbes, daughter of victim

For Blessin Green, who was 6 when her mother, Tanya Rush, was murdered in 2008, the internet has been particularly cruel. Green didn't know how her mother died until she was 12 and stumbled across the details online. 

"It’s crazy to go on the internet and come across, like Reddit, and there’s people having discourse about my mother," she said. "It’s like, how do you have so much to say, so much input, so much to add to the conversation? I don’t even have that much to add to the conversation. It’s so jarring to come across that."

Tynesha Brewster's sisters said they haven't heard from a detective in 10 or 12 years. "They told us, 'There's nothing more we can do,' " Vinson said.

It has been 40 years since 14-year-old Laura Parker was found in a hole under a rug in a patch of woods in Lindenhurst after having been missing for four months. To this day, her family does not know what happened to her.

The family posted missing person posters, asked for the community’s help and pushed police for answers. But they got nothing, said her brother, James Parker, who is now 50. "It seemed like we were spun in circles," he said, referring to what he said was a lack of interest in the case by authorities.

One detective did work hard on the case and kept in touch with the family for a while, but they haven’t heard from any detective for 15 years, he said.

"The last detective was pretty frank with us and said, ‘Listen, most of the guys are cold-case detectives near the end, near retirement. We’d love to help you ... Unless someone comes out of the woodwork and says I did this, there’s no way this is getting solved. That’s it,’ " he said.

"It’s awful," Parker said.

Research assistance contributed by Laura Mann and Caroline Curtin.