By Frank Eltman
Associated Press
YAPHANK, N.Y. - The FBI will supply high-tech surveillance aircraft to authorities investigating a possible serial killer on Long Island, a police official said Wednesday. Flights are to begin Friday, the FBI said.
Ten sets of human remains have been discovered in recent months near a highway leading to the popular Jones Beach State Park. The aircraft will aid the search for additional victims.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said federal investigators will supply helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft equipped with special cameras to scour more than 15 miles of Ocean Parkway along a remote barrier island south of Long Island.
Authorities have identified four of those found -- all women in their 20s who worked as escorts booking clients on the Internet. But Dormer said police have tentatively ruled out any ties between the case and the 2006 killing of four women who worked as prostitutes in Atlantic City, N.J.
In northern California, meanwhile, prosecutors filed murder charges against a man accused of killing four women whose names have raised questions about whether they were targeted because of their initials. The victims, slain in the 1970s and 1990s, all had the same first and last initials.
The suspect, Joseph Naso, heard the charges in court Wednesday but did not enter a plea. Detectives around the country are looking into whether the 77-year-old freelance photographer could be tied to their cold cases.