Police Reveal Identity of Long Island Serial Killer Victim

Valerie Mack's body parts were stashed in 2 locations, as with another victim
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 29, 2020 6:30 AM CDT
Police Reveal Identity of Long Island Serial Killer Victim
This undated photo shows Valerie Mack who went missing in 2000 when she was 24.   (Suffolk County Police Department via AP)

Long Island serial killer victim Jane Doe No. 6 has now been identified as a 24-year-old Philadelphia escort who disappeared in 2000. Valerie Mack, who also used the name Melissa Taylor, was last seen in Port Republic, NJ, in the spring or summer of that year. Her partial remains were found in plastic bags in a wooded area of Manorville, NY, in November 2000 but were believed to have been placed there in September, per the Long Island Press. More than a decade later in April 2011, Mack's head, hands and legs were found, also in a bag. They were recovered along Ocean Parkway near Oak Beach, not far from where the body parts of 10 other people, including at least five escorts, have been found. The Suffolk County Police Department says Mack was identified using genetic genealogy, with relatives in New Jersey confirming her identity through DNA.

It "represents progress in this investigation but there is much work left to do," SCPD Commissioner Geraldine Hart says, per Rolling Stone. "We ask members of the public, friends, family and associates of Valerie Mack to provide whatever information they have about her and the circumstances which may have led to her death." Mack was never reported missing, per Time, and she is one of two victims whose body parts were found at both the beach and in Manorville. Most of the body of Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old prostitute who vanished in 2003, was found in a wooded area of Manorville, while other remains were found near Gilgo Beach. Rolling Stone calls the Long Island serial killer case, which may involve as many as 20 victims, "one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries." (Police recently revealed a key piece of evidence.)

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