The Polygon and the Avalanche: How the Gilgo Beach Suspect Was Found

As investigators spent years looking for a suspect, a key clue was buried in their files. Could they have solved the case years earlier?

The New York Times does a great job of covering cold cases and high profile crimes. An extensive and well written article in today’s NYT covers the decade old Gilgo Beach serial killings and the recent arrest of a suspect. If you have a subscription, you should check it out. (July 20, 2023, headline in title of blog post.)

For my purposes, consider this comment on the article from a NYT reader:

paul, White Plains, NY–Taking 10 years to semi-solve this case tells any sane person that local, state, and federal criminal justice authorities were not working together towards a common goal from the very start. It would be good for all of us who want to have confidence in these authorities, if some inquiring journalist would look into that possibility, and is ramifications for this case. Giving all of these law enforcement people a pass for 10 years is a travesty of justice.

I resisted the temptation to respond with a comparison to the OCCK case. I believe that some day journalists at the NYT will cover the handling of the OCCK case. It will read like fiction because you could not make this stuff up if you tried. Have confidence in authorities in the OCCK case? What a joke. It’s beyond outrageous and should chill Oakland County residents to the bone. Instead, they will wonder whether they should support L. Brooks Patterson’s daughter’s potential bid to assume the throne of County Executive.