Long Island investigators have identified the remains of six cold case victims whose deaths date back as far as 50 years, including one woman who may have been killed by the Jersey Shore "Thrill Killer." Investigators used advanced DNA testing, the same technology that helped authorities arrest alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann in 2023, to identify the previously unidentified victims, three of whom are believed to have been murdered. Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters Thursday, "We've given back their names."

One victim, long known as "Montauk Mary," was found in the coastal town in 1978 with four gunshot wounds to her chest. Investigators identified her as 73-year-old Sofia Margherita Marrone, whose body was discovered far from her New Jersey home. She had last been seen alive days earlier leaving Shore Memorial Hospital in the Garden State, near her residence in Pleasantville. Investigators have not determined how she ended up hours away in Montauk, but they suspect she may have been targeted by serial killer Richard Biegenwald, the "Thrill Killer," who murdered at least six people along the Jersey Shore before his 1983 arrest. Biegenwald is considered a suspect because the bullets used were .22-caliber short rounds, the same type linked to his other killings, though police stressed they cannot yet confirm he was the shooter. Biegenwald died in prison in 2008.S1S2

Other identified victims include 41-year-old Ramon Perez Y Rivera, long known as "Raymond Doe" because of a tattoo on his body, who was found by hunters in Deer Park in 1976 with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The Puerto Rico native had been living in Brooklyn at the time of his death. Antionette Rugg, 27, was found in Islip in 1978 after a dog scratched at the ground and uncovered a human skull, and a belt was discovered tightly fastened around her neck. The remaining victims were 32-year-old South Korean national Kyong-Ok Kim, found in Riverhead Town in 1990 with her cause of death still under investigation; 27-year-old Omelios Steward, found in 1990 and believed to have drowned; and 27-year-old German national Andreas Kupke, discovered in 1999, whose cause of death remains unclear.S1S2

Suffolk County still has roughly 244 unsolved death investigations dating from 1970 through 2025, with about 210 victims connected to those cases still unidentified. Tierney said his office continues to work toward identifying them and would use the same DNA technology to do so.S1S2