topic Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case in Community Chat

Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 03:21:36 GMT

The victim whose partial remains were found at Davis Park on Fire Island in 1996 and whose other remains (skull) were found on Long Island's Ocean Parkway at Tobay Beach, right next to Gilgo Beach, in 2011. Her skull was found near the remains of still unidentified Jane Doe #3 (AKA Peaches)

She has been named during the investigation as Fire Island Jane Doe or Gilgo Beach Jane Doe #7.

She has been identified as Karen Vergata, who at age 34 went missing on February 14, 1996. She had been living in Manhattan and working as an escort. She was finally identified after 26 years using genetic geneology which matched her DNA to a swab from a relative. Police became aware of her identity in September of last year but waited until now to disclose the information to allow for time to notify family.

Ms. Vergata was the mother of two sons. While pregnant, she had been hit by a truck which resulted in the child she was carrying at the time having cerebral palsy. Both sons had been adopted in 1992. They did not have contact with her after their adoption.

Her father last spoke with her on the day she went missing. After she disappeared, her father paid a private investigator to search for her. No missing persons report was ever filed for her disappearance. Her father tried several times to file a report but he says he couldn't because of her age. Her father passed away in December 2022.

Re: Police identify another victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 01:40:44 GMT

Jane doe #7. Karen Vergata.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

DottieBlue — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 02:14:01 GMT

I'm glad the victim has finally been identified. How very tragic how her life ended.

I also find it sad that the photo the media is given looks like it was taken when she was a young girl. The family didn't have a photo of her as an adult? Never reported her missing? Perhaps they just wanted to protect her and their privacy.

May she rest in peace.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 02:33:19 GMT

@DottieBlue wrote:
I'm glad the victim has finally been identified. How very tragic how her life ended.

I also find it sad that the photo the media is given looks like it was taken when she was a young girl. The family didn't have a photo of her as an adult? Never reported her missing? Perhaps they just wanted to protect her and their privacy.

May she rest in peace.

@DottieBlue @I have a lovely photo of her at an older age than the first photo but it has too many pixels to allow it to post.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 02:40:44 GMT

@DottieBlue

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

CatsyCline — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 02:51:34 GMT

according to the stepsister, she was rarely in contact with them. the stepsister had kind of an odd reaction to the SCPD identification, she was like "OK, so now we know what happened to her".

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 03:01:50 GMT

@CatsyCline wrote:
according to the stepsister, she was rarely in contact with them. the stepsister had kind of an odd reaction to the SCPD identification, she was like "OK, so now we know what happened to her".

@CatsyCline @Is this a stepsister from Karen's mother? I ask because her father said he was in regular contact with her and that they would speak by phone on all holidays and birthdays and she would visit him at home. Maybe this stepsister was born long after Karen went missing and hardly knows much about her no matter which of Karen's parents was married to her own biological parent.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

DottieBlue — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 03:02:27 GMT

@Mindy D wrote:

@DottieBlue

@Mindy D

Thank you for your post. She looks lovely in this photo.

Very sad.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 04:15:14 GMT

@DottieBlue @She could have probably been identified when her body parts were first found in 1996. They were found in a garbage bag and the bag contained legs and feet. Karen had large scars and surgical scars on her ankle.

A missing persons report would have noted any identifying scars and surgeries. She might be the first victim. Imagine how many lives would have been saved if the suspect had been caught as the result of the identification back then.

How places handle missing persons reports need reevaluation.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

CatsyCline — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 03:14:11 GMT

@Mindy D it was in a story in the NY Post. where are you getting your info?

they said they hadnt heard from her in years.

“We wondered what happened to her. But she had a habit of just not being in contact,” Vergata’s step-sister, Brenda, told The Post on Friday.

“We just assumed [she was dead]. No one heard from her in 20 years.”

Brenda declined to comment on whether Vergata had children, and it is unclear how much contact – if any – Gary and Eric had with their maternal relatives.

“I’m glad that she’s found, at least most of her,” she said.

“It was, ‘okay, now we know what happened.’”

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 04:45:24 GMT

@CatsyCline wrote:
@Mindy D it was in a story in the NY Post. where are you getting your info?

they said they hadnt heard from her in years.

“We wondered what happened to her. But she had a habit of just not being in contact,” Vergata’s step-sister, Brenda, told The Post on Friday.
“We just assumed [she was dead]. No one heard from her in 20 years.”

Brenda declined to comment on whether Vergata had children, and it is unclear how much contact – if any – Gary and Eric had with their maternal relatives.
“I’m glad that she’s found, at least most of her,” she said.
“It was, ‘okay, now we know what happened.’”

@CatsyCline @I read the story in The Post. It's true that the sons that were put up for adoption were not notified by police when Karen's identification was first known. They found out the way the public did. The adoptive mom called the non disabled son to let him know. They were adopted four years before she disappeared. They could have been in foster care before the adoption. According to multiple articles and not to any official statement, it's believed that their biological father died from tuberculosis.

Karen's father has been interviewed multiple times and in each interview he stated that he was in contact with his daughter, tried to file missing person's report but could not because of Karen's age and that he hired a private investigator to search for her. Karen's father looked for her for quite some time and tried to have he declared legally dead in 2017 so he could use any money from any assets she had to continue searching.

As for Brenda, the step sister, her mother married Dominic, Karen's dad in 1983. Brenda says that by this time they were all grown and out of the house and she only met Karen once at the wedding. She did say her step father would hear from Karen. She also said they were not aware that she was an escort. Perhaps Karen's father knew and chose not to tell them or he also might not have known. .

Karen's remains were first found in 1996, so it would be expected that she'd had no contact in decades.

My information comes from multiple articles, so it would be difficult to go back to get the names of all of them.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

CatsyCline — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 04:32:49 GMT

@Mindy D

her father remarried in the early 80's.

KV lost her mother in 1977.

she would go "long stretches" without contacting her family

her father died in 2022. according to reports there were two life insurance policies on his daughter he wanted to collect on but she needed to be declared deceased. from sources there had been a suit againsts trucking company for the tragic accident.

sad all around and the PD has a long history of sketchy characters and missing persons reports just went into the back room bankers boxes.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

meallen616 — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:29:26 GMT

Sad story,

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

goldensrbest — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:54:33 GMT

Why were her sons,adopted ,before her death,was she a prostitutute?

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Puzzle Piece — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 15:19:43 GMT

The family can have some closure now. Sad that something like this had been happening.

That police department in the past was lousy when it came to the crimes like this.

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

Mindy D — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 17:29:48 GMT

@Puzzle Piece wrote:
The family can have some closure now. Sad that something like this had been happening.
That police department in the past was lousy when it came to the crimes like this.

@Puzzle Piece @The worst part of this is that the police wouldn't accept a missing persons report from her father because of her age when she went missing in 1996. Karen had had surgery on her ankle and had scars on her legs from from the accident she was in. A report would have noted the surgical scars. Her legs were found in a garbage bag on Fire island in 1996 and she could have been identified back then. Not only that, but she is considered to be the LISK's first victim. They might have been able to catch him back in 1996 and prevent all those other deaths.

They discovered several scars on the decedent’s right leg including a 3 1/2” on the lateral mid-leg area, a 1” linear scar on the lateral mid to lower leg, and a ½” scar on the medial ankle. The woman’s left leg had a 2" surgical scar with adjacent suture scars on the medial left ankle

Re: Police identify Jane Doe #7, victim in Long Island serial killer case

goldensrbest — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 21:00:44 GMT

What a disturbing post, being cut up!!