Possible Victim: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, missing July 2007, found Gilgo Beach Dec 2010 *POI Rex Heuermann*

[WesternArtist]

Today would have been Maureen's 35th birthday. :up:May we find justice for her soon.

 

[marble]

How sad.

Only slightly related note- I went to a gathering at a friend's office in the Film Center building a few days ago and it's pretty much unrecognizable inside from what the halls and offices used to look like when I worked in that building. Time passes. Thought of Maureen and how long it's been.

Friend and I had a pet personal POI (google ugly george) based on seeing him in and out of the building for years, but after much research determined he didn't have the means and ways to dispose of bodies out on LI.

 

[digitective]

Something that jumped out at me while watching episode 2 of The Killing Season: why was Maureen at Penn Station, if she was trying to catch a train back home to Connecticut? I'm from Connecticut and trains to there only leave from Grand Central, not Penn Station. Penn Station trains do go to Long Island, though... maybe Maureen was taking a train out to LI instead to meet someone (a guy she knew or a john)?

 

[anya]

Something that jumped out at me while watching episode 2 of The Killing Season: why was Maureen at Penn Station, if she was trying to catch a train back home to Connecticut? I'm from Connecticut and trains to there only leave from Grand Central, not Penn Station. Penn Station trains do go to Long Island, though... maybe Maureen was taking a train out to LI instead to meet someone (a guy she knew or a john)?

I may be mixing up dates/years, but weren't there a bunch of rail / line closures at Grand Central in the summer of 2007? If so, maybe she had to go through Penn. Or maybe she decided to take a bus back since she'd mentioned getting robbed (or burned) of all her money ...
I may be entirely wrong about this, though and in either case your observation is intriguing.


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[digitective]

I may be mixing up dates/years, but weren't there a bunch of rail / line closures at Grand Central in the summer of 2007? If so, maybe she had to go through Penn. Or maybe she decided to take a bus back since she'd mentioned getting robbed (or burned) of all her money ...
I may be entirely wrong about this, though and in either case your observation is intriguing.


Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk

I grew up in Connecticut and then lived in NYC for 11 years and I'm almost positive it's not even possible for a train from Connecticut (MetroNorth) to go to Penn Station. They're trying to make it possible in the future but the infrastructure doesn't currently exist.
The bus idea is a good possibility, though. She could have been catching a bus from the Port Authority Bus Station to Connecticut instead, which is near Penn Station. But then people usually say they're at the "Port Authority" versus Penn Station. A bus would probably be cheaper and get her closer to where she needed to go, although it would take longer.

 

[jessr927]

I never caught that, and you're right. There are no trains from Penn Station to CT. My family is from CT, I am from NY, and my cousins live on LI. I have to go to Penn Station to visit them. Penn Station holds LIRR, New Jersey Transit, and subways.

Grand Central has subways and Metro North, which goes into NY and CT.

Port Authority has subways and the bus terminal. I have used buses from here to go to Jersey and as far as Virginia.

However - because I live closer to Metro North - when I worked in NYC, I would take the 2 train (subway) from Penn Station one stop north to Times Square/42nd Street, then catch the S train (shuttle subway) over to Grand Central, where I could get on Metro North. So that might have been Maureen's plan.

Something that jumped out at me while watching episode 2 of The Killing Season: why was Maureen at Penn Station, if she was trying to catch a train back home to Connecticut? I'm from Connecticut and trains to there only leave from Grand Central, not Penn Station. Penn Station trains do go to Long Island, though... maybe Maureen was taking a train out to LI instead to meet someone (a guy she knew or a john)?

 

[italianbella]

I believe Maureen may hold the key to who LISK is. I truly believe it was someone Maureen knew. She went outside for a cigarette and past client or someone she knew was stalking her and ran into her outside of penn, made it look like a coincidence. He maybe offered to give her a ride to CT. I think it had to be someone she knew because she went willingly. Someone had to see her get into a car outside of Penn.

 

[twocuriouscats]

I never caught that, and you're right. There are no trains from Penn Station to CT. My family is from CT, I am from NY, and my cousins live on LI. I have to go to Penn Station to visit them. Penn Station holds LIRR, New Jersey Transit, and subways.

Grand Central has subways and Metro North, which goes into NY and CT.

Port Authority has subways and the bus terminal. I have used buses from here to go to Jersey and as far as Virginia.

However - because I live closer to Metro North - when I worked in NYC, I would take the 2 train (subway) from Penn Station one stop north to Times Square/42nd Street, then catch the S train (shuttle subway) over to Grand Central, where I could get on Metro North. So that might have been Maureen's plan.

I never caught that either. I live on the W. coast. Interesting.

 

[twocuriouscats]

I believe Maureen may hold the key to who LISK is. I truly believe it was someone Maureen knew. She went outside for a cigarette and past client or someone she knew was stalking her and ran into her outside of penn, made it look like a coincidence. He maybe offered to give her a ride to CT. I think it had to be someone she knew because she went willingly. Someone had to see her get into a car outside of Penn.

JMO, She needed money to get home to her family in Ct. I think she may have tried one more trick...maybe she did come across someone she knew...but I believe her prime motivation was to get home, and she needed cash to do that.

 

[deedee21]

JMO, She needed money to get home to her family in Ct. I think she may have tried one more trick...maybe she did come across someone she knew...but I believe her prime motivation was to get home, and she needed cash to do that.

A poster explained in a upthread how to get to CT from Penn Station using Amtrak.

Maureen told her sister she had money to get home.

The killer made late night dates. Its possible Maureen received a late night call.

 

[LR1]

MONDAY:

11:30 A.M. Sara leaves Maureen in the hotel room to go back to CT. Maureen says she is staying and will hold the room until Sara returns two days later on Wednesday. They had been up all night working and Maureen was "Finally Crashing."

12:30 P.M. Maureen calls Sara's phone, "barely an hour later." Sara , annoyed, does not answer, she just wants to sleep.

Later that night Time Unknown: Big Al calls Sara from NYC and tells her that Maureen called him and told him she was robbed of 5,000 by the guy with the dreads who had approached them the day before in front of the hotel. Al states that Maureen called him because she could not get a hold of Sara. The only call from Maureen to Sara was within an hour after Sara left, around 12:30 P.M. So did Maureen get robbed in the morning or shortly after noon?

Time Unknown: Missy hangs up with Al and calls Maureen leaving her a message. Maureen does not pick up.

11:30 P.M. Maureen calls Missy from Penn station asking for a ride. Missy states its too late.

A Moments Later[/B] Missy calls Will and asks him for a ride, Will had to work in the A.M. so no dice.

A Moment Later Maureen calls Missy back and tells her she will "take the next train' home and has enough money to do so.

Tuesday:

Maureen checks out of the Super 8 Hotel (According to hotel records).

Missy calls Maureen and gets no answer.

Wednesday: Will calls Maureen and her phone goes straight to voicemail this time. Will Calls Missy to tell her.

Thursday:
Missy and Will call the Norwich Police who do not take them seriously when they find out Maureen is an escort in "financial trouble."

Will and a friend travel to the Super 8 in Times Square and are told that Maureen checked out on Tuesday and not on Monday

Not sure of date Maureen's cell phone pings near Fire Island.

Bumping this old snipped post for the rough timeline.

Two day's or so after Maureen disappeared her brother and friend were on it. They were told she checked out on Tuesday rather than Monday. I still haven't read this book but do we have a more precise check out time? If she was at Penn station looking to go home wouldn't she have already checked out? Was the guy out late after midnight on a Monday night trolling the street or was she lured on an out-call by someone in the early hours after she checked out. It was reported that a cop was one of the last to contact Maureen. Emphasis on one of. That particular motel, I'm wondering just how much "work" went on at this place and if it was known for it. Just kicking around some of the unknowns.

 

[jessr927]

I am very interested in the Atlantic City 4 case, and was bouncing ideas off of a couple of other WS'ers last night. Is anyone here familiar with the AC4 case? I specifically said to these folks that the first victim, Molly Dilts, is "one of these things is not like the other" - she was new to sex work, was not known to use drugs and didn't have any drugs in her system when she was killed (she did have alcohol though and was a known drinker), and her body type was quite different from the other 3 women. One of the WS'ers I was telling this to, asked me if I think the AC4 and GB4 cases are linked, and I said I'm not sure, but the GB4 did have "one of these things is not like the other" as well - Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Something about her is different from the other women. Does anyone else agree? I think in the AC4, Molly Dilts was a test case, for the killer to see if he could pull it off, and I think Maureen was also the killer's test case in the GB4 - ie, if he could "get" her, he could "get" the other three.

I still think Melissa Barthelemy and maybe Amber Costello were his end goals, but I think Maureen was chosen for a reason.

 

[LR1]

It's doubtful he would have had a certain number of victims in mind when he started out and even more unlikely that there would be specific victims known to him years in advance. Four in a month in AC and at least four in 3.5 years on LI. It was almost like a spree in AC and more conventional on LI. I don't think the differences in these time lines does much to rule out a connection though because it could very well be that other earlier victims on LI, and the dissimilarities that come with those cases could also be attributed to him. It would be nice to rule out a AC/LI connection but that hasn't definitively been done from what I can tell. Many of them ran in the same circles in AC and I think if either of these cases might point to a pimp type motive it would be this one. At the same time, a spree in the middle of a decade long series would not surprise me. I'd note, both cases remain unresolved.

 

[Orville Butch]

Hi jess, I think you will like this post. Imho it's possible the LISK and AC4 cases are related. Here is my perspective on the whole scenario. In the December 23 2012 NY Times piece on the AC case titled "Many Leads but no Arrests" there is quote about two potential persons of interest:

Steven Cicero, a friend of Ms. Raffo’s, said that he was interviewed by the authorities late last week and that they asked about a crack dealer who had been sleeping in the living room of her Ocean Avenue apartment, and about two men from Howard Beach. Mr. Cicero, who is from Ozone Park, Queens, said the investigators indicated that they had been to Queens over the last two weeks.


“They showed me pictures of two guys from Howard Beach, one scruffy guy and one with big ears,” Mr. Cicero said. “They said these guys are from your neck of the woods. They asked me if I knew Lenny’s Clam Bar in Howard Beach. I hate to say it, but it doesn’t sound like they really got anything right now.”


The owner and manager at Lenny’s Clam Bar said on Friday

In my opinion, this gives us two POI's who are not only from NY but connected to a clam bar in Queen's that's right there on the south shore. This location is in between Ocean Parkway to the east and East New York Brooklyn, where so many of the victims/pimps seem to be connected to. Mention of clamming should be a huge red flag in my opinion, as this has been one of the obvious suggestions for LISK's profession. Clamming and crack. Take a look at what Kim Overstreet says in Bob Kolker's New York Magazine article, who lived with her sister Amber and should have really good insight into her killer's identity.

But later, Overstreet presses her view again. “The connection between these four women is cocaine,” she says when we’re alone. “That wasn’t my sister’s drug of choice, but she had access to it. And if it was gonna make her money, she would do it. Shannan had a history of coke. Even though people won’t admit it in public, just do your research and you’ll see. So I think the killer likes to get high.”

Then go one more step and read this nypost article from April 8 2011:

[FONT=&amp]Police believe they know the identity of the Long Island Ripper, The Post has learned. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]Cops on Long Island are “looking at somebody,” said a law-enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]He refused to elaborate. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]The stunning revelation comes as police are exploring a possible link between the serial killer — suspected of dumping the bodies of eight victims along a remote Suffolk beachfront — and the grisly murders of four hookers in Atlantic City in 2006. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]“Our homicide detectives are in touch with the [Atlantic City] police,” a Suffolk police spokesman told reporters.[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]So yea they definitely could be connected!
[/FONT]

 

[jessr927]

Orville, thank you for your very insightful post! I was just re-reading the "Many Leads..." article last night, and the part about "big ears" really jumped out at me - wasn't the burner phone that called Melissa's family traced back to a Mickey Mouse? Things that make you go hmm!

Hi jess, I think you will like this post. Imho it's possible the LISK and AC4 cases are related. Here is my perspective on the whole scenario. In the December 23 2012 NY Times piece on the AC case titled "Many Leads but no Arrests" there is quote about two potential persons of interest:



In my opinion, this gives us two POI's who are not only from NY but connected to a clam bar in Queen's that's right there on the south shore. This location is in between Ocean Parkway to the east and East New York Brooklyn, where so many of the victims/pimps seem to be connected to. Mention of clamming should be a huge red flag in my opinion, as this has been one of the obvious suggestions for LISK's profession. Clamming and crack. Take a look at what Kim Overstreet says in Bob Kolker's New York Magazine article, who lived with her sister Amber and should have really good insight into her killer's identity.



Then go one more step and read this nypost article from April 8 2011:

[FONT=&]So yea they definitely could be connected!
[/FONT]

 

[CastlesBurning]

Belt discovery glimmer of hope for relatives of Gilgo Beach victims

 

[hawkshaw]

Boy do they love to pile on the BS and the public can't seem to get enough of it. Now how about some high ranking public official like the PC or DA tell us there is a good reason the 911 tapes can't be released. Go on the record and declaring it so.

 

[SecretAgentMan]

Long Island Serial Killer victim’s sister reveals more about Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ mysterious disappearance; is ‘hopeful’ that new evidence will lead to her sister’s killer



Melissa Cann knew immediately when her sister didn’t come home that something was wrong, and accessed Maureen’s email account to look for clues.

The sister of one of the women murdered by a suspected serial killer in Long Island says she feels optimistic that a new piece of evidence might lead to a development in the nearly decade-old investigation.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, the Suffolk County Police Department shared a new piece of evidence at a press conference last week: An image taken from a belt found at one of the crime scenes, which authorities say was “handled” by the suspect. The belt appeared to carry the initials “HM” or “WH.” The SCPD also announced the launch of a new website that will provide updated information about the investigation and collect tips from people who may know something.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was among the “Gilgo Four,” four young women found dead along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. The 25-year-old mother of two had vanished three years before, during a visit to New York City from her home in Norwich, Connecticut. In July 2007, she spoke to her sister on the phone from a train station in the city, saying she was on her way home, but was never heard from again.

Police have not identified a person of interest in the suspected killing spree, which appears to have claimed at least seven lives, but more remains found in the search of the area could be connected. Last week’s announcement of the new evidence and the website was the first significant disclosure authorities have made regarding the investigation in several years. Investigators hope that the release of the belt photo may jar someone’s memory, and they are encouraging area residents to visit the GilgoNews.com website.

Brainard-Barnes’s sister Melissa Cann told CrimeOnline she was encouraged by the release of the new evidence, which authorities said they had collected in the initial stages of the investigation, likely nine years ago.

“I feel more hopeful now than ever,” Cann said. “All we need is one person” to recognize the new evidence.

Cann said she didn’t know why police had waited as long as they did to release the images of the belt, but said she knew for a year they had been working on the GilgoNews.com website. Cann is optimistic that the website will optimize renewed attention to the case that will likely come with a new movie based on the case, set to premiere this month at the Sundance Film Festival and air on Netflix in March.

Cann also said that she feels encouraged by the way law enforcement communication about the killings has evolved since the early stages of the investigation. While detectives who initially worked the case were “reserved,” she said, she is now in more regular communication with another Suffolk County detective.

And the language around the case has also shifted, she said. Brainard-Barnes and the the three other young women found at the burial site were working as Craigslist escorts at the time they disappeared.

In the beginning, “the language [police] were using made the public think the victims were not relatable,” Cann said.

But police don’t appear to have much in the way of leads, and Cann herself still doesn’t know how her sister ended up in Long Island, despite years of independent research.

Cann said she knew right away that something was wrong when Maureen didn’t come home. Since she knew her sister’s passwords, she accessed her online accounts and shared the information with police right away. Cann said she found nothing in her sister’s digital communication to indicate she was going to Long Island.

For years, Maureen’s family believed she may have still been in New York City and made regular visits there “to try and figure out what her next steps were,” her sister said.

They never did. But Cann is holding on to hope that a member of the public can help point police in the direction of her sister’s killer.

“Everyone, please, go to GilgoNews.com and look at the photo,” Cann said.




Long Island Serial Killer victim’s sister reveals more about Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ mysterious disappearance; is ‘hopeful’ that new evidence will lead to her sister’s killer

 

[Mountain_Kat]

Bumping for Maureen.

 

[Blueeyedbrowngirl]

July 9, 2020 was the 13th anniversary of Maureen’s disappearance. She’s not forgotten and she will have justice.