The FBI has asked a court for permission to search a computer belonging to a man under scrutiny for his ties to a prostitute whose body was discovered along with three other corpses near a Long Island beach.
An agent filed an application Thursday seeking access to a laptop belonging to Akeem Cruz, of Brooklyn.
Cruz is one of the last people to have been with 22-year-old Megan Waterman, of Maine, the weekend she disappeared after traveling to a hotel in Hauppauge to meet clients for sex.
Months later, she and three other prostitutes were found dead, their remains scattered along a beach road.
In the court filing, agents didn't mention the killings, but said they were seeking evidence of sex trafficking.
Cruz is currently jailed in Maine on an unrelated drug charge.
The remains of the four women were found at Gilgo Beach back in December. All four victims were prostitutes who, according to police, advertised their services on Craiglist and other internet sites.
Police also said the deaths were the work of a serial killer.
Each of the victims had been reported missing. Melissa Barthelemy, 24 of the Bronx, was last seen in July, 2009. Amber Lynn Costello, 27, of North Babylon, had been missing since September, 2010. Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Connecticut was last seen in Manhattan in July, 2007.
Waterman, of Maine had been missing since June of last year. Each had met a client or clients just prior to their deaths, according to investigators
A police task force is working the four homicide cases. The general public should not be concerned, investigators said; but those in the prostitution business were warned to be on guard and urged to call police with any pertinent information that might help catch the person or persons responsible.
The possibility that more may have been killed was not ruled out by police.
