Shannan Gilbert’s Family Raising Funds To Have 911 Tape Analyzed

The family of Shannan Gilbert is holding an online fundraiser to help pay for a voice analysis of the 911 call that the New Jersey woman made the night she vanished, triggering the Long Island Serial Killer investigation.

John Ray, the Miller Place-based attorney for the estate of Gilbert, sued to have Suffolk County police release to him tapes of the 23-minute call she made from Oak Beach on May 1, 2010 before her body was found in a nearby marsh. The tapes have not been publicly released.

“There may be more voices on the call other than herself,” her sister Sherre Gilbert wrote in a GoFundMe fundraising appeal aiming to raise $2,000 for the analysis. “Because of the background noise, it’s hard to understand clearly who is speaking and what was said. We need to try to ID all the voices.”

Police were searching for her when they found the remains of four women in nearby Gilgo Beach in December of 2010 and six more sets of remains also along Ocean Parkway the following spring. 

Gilbert’s remains were found in a marsh in Oak Beach in December 2011. The county medical examiner’s office deemed her cause of death “inconclusive.” Police suggested at the time that she ran into the marsh and drowned, but her family maintains that she was slain. Current police leaders have declined to speculate on whether they believe Gilbert was killed or died accidentally, but say her case remains open.

“We hope to one day be able to release Shannan’s 911 call to the public,” Sherre wrote. “In the meantime, we must try to analyze, evaluate and decipher the tapes for accuracy and any new information.”

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