4 Bodies Found at Remote NY Beach During Search for Missing NJ Woman

OAK BEACH, N.Y. (CBS/WCBS/AP) While searching for a missing New Jersey woman, police uncovered four bodies hidden alongside a remote parkway at a beach on Long Island.

The grisly find started Saturday when dogs unearthed a skeleton, and then three more bodies stunned investigators on Monday.

The bodies were found Monday at Oak Beach, which is on a remote barrier island that divides the Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, the Suffolk County Police Department said.

Police were continuing to search into Monday evening alongside Ocean Parkway.

A police canine unit searching the area Saturday came upon the first body. The unit was searching the area in response to a missing-person report made in May after Jersey City, N.J., resident Shonnan Gilbert vanished.

Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky told Newsday that Gilbert was last seen alive May 1. He said Gilbert, 24, worked as a prostitute and had arranged through the Craigslist classified ads website to meet a client on Fire Island, which is about a mile from Oak Beach.

"Common sense tells us it's not a coincidence," Pelkofsky said.

Oak Beach is one of a series of beaches run by towns and municipalities, the most famous being Jones Beach to the west. The bodies found there haven't been identified.