Ms. Shannan Gilbert

I was fully prepared to write on Ms. Shannan Marie Gilbert a beautiful woman who I once believed to be a victim of The Long Island Serial Killer. I no longer am committed on the idea she is a victim of LISK. How she died and under what circumstances is hotly debated. Many in law enforcement believe her disappearance and death has nothing to do with the bodies found discarded on Gilgo Beach in Long Island. The bodies that were in fact discovered while an off duty officer searched for signs of the then missing Ms. Gilbert.


http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/northern_suburbs&id=7843812

It is stated by Shannan's family that she named her attacker on a 23 minute call to 911; that they themselves did not hear however law enforcement, according to her mother, relayed to them.

The former Suffolk County Police Commissioner, Mr. Richard Dormer, believes she drowned and her death is accidental. I have to say I totally disagree with his theory. I do believe she was murdered. I believe she was in fear for her life and justifiably so.

Here are my issues with Mr. Dormer's theory.

Let me set up the scene, you are running for your life, at first you are on your cellphone with 911 and you are heard running and breathing heavy before the phone disconnects. You also are unable to give an address because you aren’t sure of where you are. You go to several houses on the street and bang on the doors screaming for help. You’ve been running...  your heart racing and not only are you scared but you are beginning to feel tired,  maybe even exhausted. This cat and mouse game has been going to for well over an hour. A man who is driving in a vehicle, not putting out much effort at all is coming to find you. He’s found you and is following you in his car. You are on the ground scared, tired and running and him in his SUV. Now what happens next?

According to former Commission of Police Dormer, you decide to go into the woods to run away from the man chasing you and try to get to a roadway to find help. As John Ray the attorney for the Gilbert family points out in an interview with CBS’s 48 Hour Mystery, there is a home within a few hundred yards of where, it is believed in Dormer’s theory,  Ms. Gilbert went into the woods.

Here are my questions with the Mr. Dormer’s theory:

1.      As it is said to be indicated on the 911 call from Ms. Gilbert, she was unaware of where she was. How would she know where to find this roadway? The woods have dense vegetation separating the road from view. One explanation was she was chasing headlights. She was over a half-mile away from a nearly desolate road, little traffic in addition it was a weekend, even less traffic. How would, when she went into those woods, even know a road was there? Further more, according Time and Date AS, sunrise was at 5:50. Would the few cars on the road at that hour even have had the headlights on? She was so out of it according to this theory, she stopped while in the middle of an active chase to take off her clothes a ¼ of a mile from where she supposedly drown (autopsy did not state cause of death).

2.      Mr. Michael Pack a very interesting man. I’m not sure why his occupation as “driver” has been glossed over. He admits in a written statement to Erin Moriarty of CBS 48 Hour Mystery that Shannan was upset because she didn’t want to give him his “cut.” Cut? Really? A driver is hired for a cut? So because this meeting with the “John” Joseph Brewer on the internet and because the “sex worker” Shannan Gilbert rode up in a vehicle this man is considered a driver that gets a “cut,” and not a pimp that gets his percentage. How long had Pack been a “driver” for Ms. Gilbert? How did she come to hire him as a driver? Is he part of some packaged deal?

3.      Money. Pack said Shannan did not want to give him his cut. Brewer, according to the accounts of what was heard on the 911 tape, said he was going upstairs. Does that mean Brewer had already paid for Shannan’s services? If so, where is the money? Was it in her purse which was found in the woods a ¼ mile from her remains? If Brewer had paid Shannan and her purse was empty of the payment and Pack was upset because he didn’t get his cut and Pack was following her in the SUV, then where is the money? Follow the trail of money.

4.      If a person is chased onto a busy highway, struck by a vehicle, and killed because he or she is in fear for his or her life then isn’t the person chasing him or her liable for the death? If that same pursuer also is known to carry a weapon then doesn’t that make it all the more intimidating for the victim? I believe Shannan Gilbert was in fear for her life when she ran however I don’t believe she ran until she died. Why…?

5.      Her jeans, shoes, and purse were found a ¼ mile from her body. Rape victims who are also the victim of a homicide are many times found without shoes or his or her pants. I believe she was raped at that location and that is why her jeans, shoes and purse where found there. As the Gilbert attorney Ray points out in the video Thick brush and foot cutting vegetation were on the ground. If she had enough presence of mind to run to a road she didn’t know was there, chasing headlights which may or may not have been on, then why would she not have the presence of mind to keep her protective clothing on her body?

UPDATE: From the New York Post. On Saturday, June 23, 2016, under very sad circumstances, Shannan's mother Mari was stabbed and killed by her daughter Sarra. Sarra is reported to have schizophrenia. The family attorney John Ray gave a glimpse into the turbulent life of the family. Sarra had been arrested in February. She drowned a puppy in the bathtub while in the presence of her son, who at the time was eight-year-old. Sarra then took the child into the forest where she threatened his life with a knife. Sarra was released and began hearing voices telling her to kill her mother. She called her mother begging for help. Her mother went to Sarra's home to help her daughter, where Mari was murdered.