John Bittrolff (born July 1, 1966) is an American convicted murderer and former suspect in the

Gilgo Beach serial killings The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1996 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. Most of the known victims were se ...

case. In July 2014, he was charged with the murders of Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee. He is also a suspect in the murder of a third woman, Sandra Costilla. Bittrolff became a suspect in the unsolved murders after his brother, Timothy Bittrolff, was partially matched to DNA found on the bodies in 2013. Timothy Bittrolff submitted the sample after violating an unrelated order of protection, in 2013. On July 5, 2017, Bittrolff was found guilty of the second degree murders of Tangredi and McNamee. He was sentenced to 50 years to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

on September 12, 2017. He is imprisoned at

Clinton Correctional Facility Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision maximum security state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannem ...

. His department identification number is 17A3925.

Victims

Bittrolff was convicted of killing two women and is a suspect in the death of a third.

Rita Tangredi

Tangredi was found dead on November 2, 1993 in Suffolk County, New York. Tangredi lived in East Patchogue and was known by police to be a sex worker.

Colleen McNamee

McNamee's body was found on January 30, 1994 in

Shirley, New York Shirley is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. At the 2010 census, the population of Shirley was 27,854. Shirley is the western terminus of Atlantic Crossing 1, a major submarine telecommunication ...

, also in Suffolk County. Believed by authorities to be a sex worker, she was beaten, strangled to death and left naked in the woods, near the William Floyd Parkway.

Sandra Costilla

Costilla's body was found on November 20, 1993 in North Sea, New York.

Former suspect in Long Island serial killings

After Bittrolff's sentence, the case's prosecutor announced that Bittrolff was also a suspect in at least one of the 10 murders attributed to the

Long Island serial killer The Long Island serial killer (also referred to as LISK, the Gilgo Beach Killer, the Manorville Butcher, and the Craigslist Ripper) is an unidentified suspected serial killer who is believed to have murdered between 10 and 18 people over a p ...

in New York's Suffolk and Nassau counties. Suffolk County District Attorney's office prosecutor Robert Biancavilla released a statement noting that Bittrolff was likely responsible for the deaths of other women, and that, "There are remains of the victims at Gilgo that may be attributed to the handiwork of Mr. Bittrolff, and that investigation is continuing". Bittrolff was a carpenter who lived in Manorville, where the torsos of Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack were recovered. The remains were discovered roughly three miles away from Bittrolff's home. He also reportedly once "cut out the heart of a deer he had just shot and ate it raw in the woods." The adult daughter of Bittrolff victim Rita Tangredi was reportedly "best friends" with Melissa Barthelemy, one of the first victims discovered at Gilgo Beach. Barthelemy's mother also reported that Melissa "had a lot of calls to Manorville from her phone" at the time. On July 13, 2023, another man, Rex Heuermann, a long-time resident of

Massapequa Park Massapequa Park is a village and hamlet located within the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 17,008 at the 2010 census. Areas south and east of the village bo ...

on Long Island, was arrested and subsequently charged with three murders attributed to the

, including for the murder of Melissa Barthelemy.

References