Is Megan Waterman, Missing Maine Mother, Among Victims Near L.I. Beach? Mother Submits DNA to Police

BABYLON, N.Y. (CBS/AP) The mother of a missing Maine woman has provided a DNA sample Wednesday to New York investigators trying to determine the identities of four women whose bodies were found dumped on a remote beach highway on Long Island.

PICTURES: Megan Waterman Missing

Waterman was last seen in June at a Hauppauge, N.Y. hotel where she reportedly went with her boyfriend. When police searched the hotel room they found Waterman's makeup, clothing, cell phone and other belongings, Ela said.

"There's definitely a possibility, but we're on hold at this point," Moulton said of the suspicion that one of the victims is Waterman.

The four bodies were systematically dumped, perhaps over a period of 18 months or longer, along a desolate, wind-swept stretch of highway that on sunny summer days transports thousands to the white sands of Jones Beach, police said. Investigators suspect the deaths to be connected because each of the bodies was found just off the highway within a quarter-mile of each other.

Now police believe they are dealing with a suspected serial killer.

"We're looking at that - that we could have a serial killer," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told CBS affiliate WCBS. "I don't think it's a coincidence that four bodies ended up in this area."

The first of the decomposed corpses was found Saturday by an officer and his cadaver dog. Three more were found two days later while police were following up on a missing-persons report for 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert, who was also working as a prostitute when she vanished not far from where the bodies were found, authorities said.

Detectives believe the four women were killed elsewhere and then taken to the narrow strip of land that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean.

MORE ON CRIMESIDER December 15, 2010 - All 4 Bodies Found on Remote NY Beach Are Women, Say Police