Hunt for serial killer after US police discover eight bodies

Police in the US are hunting a suspected serial killer after eight bodies were found in four months.

Four of the corpses were discovered in the past week dumped near beaches in Long Island in New York State, where stars including Sir Paul McCartney have holiday homes.

Officers are looking for more bodies and fear that other missing women in the area could have become victims.

The bodies of four missing prostitutes, who advertised their services on the website Craigslist, were found in December. A fifth body was found last week and three more on Monday.

The gruesome discoveries were made by police during the search for missing escort girl Shannan Gilbert. The 24-year-old, from Jersey City, had arranged to meet a client in Oak Beach, a gated holiday estate in Long Island, after apparently being booked through Craigslist. She is thought to have knocked on a man's door at 4.45am on 1 May last year pleading for help and saying she feared for her life, but ran off when he called police. None of the bodies identified so far is Ms Gilbert.

Detectives believe the killings began two years ago. The first four victims were found in dense scrubland wrapped in sackcloth, about 500 yards apart. They have been identified as Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelmy, 24, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.

The other bodies were discovered a mile further east and are yet to be identified, with officers not even confirming their sex.

Detectives believe one killer is at work, which would make him the New York area's most prolific murderer since 1993 when Joel Rifkin was arrested and later convicted of nine murders. Police believe Rifkin was also responsible for a further eight murders.