A suspected serial killer has been arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island, The Post can confirm.
The suspect — who has yet to be identified — is due in court in hours, according to a source close to the investigation.
He is being looked at over the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other from late 2010, and not the other six who were later eyed as possibly being connected, the source said.
Multiple sources first confirmed the arrest to News 12 Long Island, which said that First Avenue in Massapequa Park was “just flooded with police.”
State and Suffolk County police — both at the scene since the early hours — did not officially confirm the arrest Friday.
News 12 did not identify the suspect or detail what led to the breakthrough in what it called “one of the most intense, prolific searches for a serial killer ever.”
Fears of a serial killer emerged when the body of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010 — with the remains of three other women found in the following days.
The so-called “Gilgo Four” — Barthelemy along with Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — were found whole, wrapped in burlap about one-tenth of a mile apart from each other on the beach.
By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10 — eight women as well as an unidentified man and toddler.
The bodies were found during a search for missing Jersey City-based sex worker Shannan Gilbert, whose body wasn’t found until December 2011, a year after the Giglo Four.
John Ray, an attorney for Gilbert’s family, told News 12 that he “had a very strong, credible tip that they were about to close in on an arrest” around a week ago.
However, he confirmed that he had not heard anything official from investigators, whom he had not heard from since “several months ago.”
“We’re pleased if they actually managed to find somebody that can be tagged for this,” said Ray, who also represents the family of Jessica Taylor, 20, another of the dead women not part of the initial four.
“We’re pleased that something is finally occurring, because we’ve been frustrated.”
Friday’s arrest came after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February last year.
It included help from state police, local sheriffs, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office as well as the FBI.
I believe this case is solvable and identifying the person or people responsible for these murders is a top priority,” Commissioner Rodney Harrison, the NYPD’s former chief of department, said at the time
