The exit signs caught me off guard, when I was driving east on Route 27 (Sunrise Highway) in Suffolk County last week. I was on my way to an interview not related to the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK) case.
Not long after passing the exit for the Robert Moses Causeway that leads to Gilgo and Oak Beaches, I noticed the sign for Heckscher State Park. This was followed by another exit for Sayville. As we entered Moriches, I came upon the sign for Forge River. That caused me to stop the car.
Forge River is close to the pond in Moriches where the skull of Andre “Sugar Bear” Isaac, 25, was found embedded in ice in January 2003.
It wasn't lost on me that "Jane Doe" homicide victims found in Heckscher State Park and Sayville have been highlighted recently on the new, cold case website launched by the Suffolk County District Attorney, Raymond Tierney.
Heckscher State Park, where 1978 Jane Doe was found with belt around her neck, is close to barrier islands in Great South Bay and it’s west of Sayville.
Forge River has not been mentioned in any recent press, but the skull of a 2002 murder victim, Andre "Sugar Bear" Isaac, was discovered not far from the river in Moriches in January 2003.
Sugar Bear’s skull was discovered in ice near Montauk Highway (Rt. 27) and Barnes Road in Moriches, east of Sayville, LI.
Ice skaters made the grisly find while gliding on a pond located by Montauk Highway (Route 27) and Barnes Road. Isaac's torso had been found in Far Rockaway, Queens in December 2002 in a garbage bag that also contained a woman's body suit and skirt.
Photo of Andre “Sugar Bear” Isaac, who performed as a female impersonator.
I decided to look at some maps for Route 27 on the south shore of Long Island and noticed the roadway makes a clean run from Heckscher State Park, through Sayville, then the Moriches, all the way out to the North Sea hamlet in Southampton, where alleged LISK victim, Sandra Costilla, was discovered strangled in the woods in 1993. It made me question whether Route 27 was potentially a LISK dump site, before the well-known sites near Mill Road in Manorville and Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.
Sayville Jane Doe was discovered in a dumpster in 1992. Blue line shows Route 27 heading from Sayville out to the Moriches and beyond; Sandra Costilla was found in North Sea in 1993, near Montauk Highway.
A senior official in the office of District Attorney Raymond Tierney told me, when I called, "We don't speculate; we don't talk about investigations while they're ongoing."
So I reached out to retired NYPD Cold Case detective, Robert Klein, who recently left his position in the Bronx.
"I don't think it's incorrect to look at these cases through the lens of Rex Heuermann," Klein said, while quickly adding, "but obviously you need more specific information and evidence to demonstrate a legal and factual connection."
I asked Detective Klein to analyze the Route 27 theory a little more.
"This spate of cases in a small, geographical area could be tied together if other factors surface, such as victimology and methodology, if cause of death can be determined," Klein said.
It occurred to me that Sandra Costilla, the petite victim from 1993, died by strangulation, while Sayville Jane Doe--discovered the year before--died from ligature strangulation, with something wrapped around her neck. The oldest murder listed on the DA's cold case website dates back to 1978, Heckscher Park Jane Doe. Her skeletonized remains contained a belt tightened around her neck.
The skull and skeleton of Heckscher Park Jane Doe were discovered in the sand off Great South Bay, LI in 1978. She had a belt tightened around her neck.
Detective Klein noted, "Long Island, by definition, is an island, and it sort of bottlenecks in that remote part of the island. It could just be a place that people who are looking to dispose of bodies are drawn to...to avoid the scrutiny of possible eyewitnesses."
At least two, other serial killers were operating on Long Island when Sandra Costilla and Sayville Jane Doe were killed. But Robert Schulman was known to brutally beat his victims or dismember them. The same was true of Joel Rifkin, who confessed to 17 murders, while denying others he was asked about.
Sandra Costilla was a dark-haired beauty from Trinidad and Tobago who was living in Queens before she was killed. Rex Heuermann was charged with her murder in June 2024. The District Attorney said Heuermann's DNA matched a hair that was discovered on Costilla's shirt. Hair from a woman believed to be Heuermann's first wife was found on another shirt at Costilla's crime scene.
Sandra Costilla, 28, was discovered in the woods of North Sea hamlet in Southampton. Route 27 (Montauk Highway) is the main access road into the hamlet.
The petite 'Jane Doe' victim found in a Sayville dumpster, the year before Sandra Costilla, was a young, slim woman between the ages of 18 and 22. She had died by ligature strangulation, which could be consistent with injuries of some Gilgo victims. Genetic genealogists believe this woman was of Brazilian and/or Portuguese descent.
Sayville Jane Doe was found in a dumpster in 1992. She was 4’11” tall, slim, and her estimated age was 18-22 years old.
The district attorney's office has said it's aware of at least 300 cold case homicides dating back to the 1960's. But its public focus on the five 'victim Does,' along with Asian Doe from Ocean Parkway, has invited a closer look at the sites where these homicide victims were discovered.