Here's a
late-2020 article on the 2015 identification made (yet still unrevealed) for the Manorville male that John Ray unsuccessfully moved for information on. In the article, it's suggested that the victim's family should consider that revealing the identity might help catch the murderer. John Ray wasn't just refused the information in this court filing, he'd also submitted a FOIL request that was denied (presumably because of the family's wishes).
Separately, over on our sister Reddit LISK board, someone yesterday ran a one-paragraph "exclusive" where they suggest they've been told DNA has been obtained from a Manorville victim that further implicates Bittrolff. Although the writer says the DNA likely came from Jessica Taylor or Valerie Mack, most of the paragraph talks about the unidentified male and the unfulfilled FOIL request. Weird.
I can think of at least a couple of parties who could be "confidential sources" on the supposed DNA news, but it's harder to imagine what it all means.
- If Bittrolff is connected to Taylor and Mack's death, and even to the male deaths, it would be substantive but wouldn't address GB4 (or, obviously, Shannan - if there's one connection that's almost impossible to make, it's between Shannan and Bittrolff). Further, nobody would be surprised if Bittrolff was complicit in Taylor and Mack's deaths. SCPD immediately declaring Bittrolff wasn't a suspect in other cases always seemed pretty odd. Could tech innovations have provided a really recent ability to make the DNA match, or has LE just been sitting on the information (if true)?
- John Ray feels the unidentified male is part of the case; assuming Ray has some of the same "confidential sources", is he moving away from Hackett as his chief suspect?
- If the DNA leak is true, why hasn't LE filed new charges against Bittrolff? A conspiracy theorist might suggest Bittrolff ran with the same sex-fueled partiers as some Suffolk law enforcement and politicos, and that those people would certainly rather not turn over any new stones at this point. For me, the fly in that ointment is that Bittrolff, as a person and as a type, has very little in common with the those politically-connected south-shore partiers. I don't see Bittrolff rubbing elbows with that crowd, but with this case I'm always ready to be proven wrong!