US

A 911 call from a woman who disappeared more than a decade ago, sparking an investigation into a possible serial killer, has been released by police in New York.

Sex worker Shannan Gilbert vanished on 1 May 2010 after dialling emergency services from the home of her client.

During a search for the 24-year-old in Long Island, the remains of 10 other people were discovered and officers began to suspect a serial killer was involved.

More than a year after going missing, Ms Gilbert’s remains were found about half a mile from where she was last seen, near Gilgo Beach.

Officials at the time said evidence suggested she got lost in the tall reeds and accidentally drowned, with police still maintaining her death was not linked the multiple other women whose bodies were found in the same area.

However, her family had an independent autopsy carried out, which they claim concluded her death was “consistent with homicidal strangulation”.

In the newly-released recording of her 911 call, Ms Gilbert can be heard screaming and saying: “There’s somebody behind me”.

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When the driver who dropped her at the client’s home tries to coax her back into his car, she replies: “You are a part of this all along.”

Throughout the call, Ms Gilbert sounds severely disorientated and is unable to tell dispatchers her location.

She can then be heard panting and running.

Suffolk County police also released recordings of two 911 calls made by residents who saw the young woman after she ran from the house.

The two men who were with Ms Gilbert the night she disappeared described how she appeared to be having a paranoid episode, hiding behind a sofa and then running outside.

Her driver had attempted to follow her but lost sight of her and eventually drove home.

Both men have cooperated with investigators and police have said neither is a suspect.

In December 2010, officers found four sets of human remains wrapped in burlap sacks in the same area Ms Gilbert disappeared and identified them all as missing sex workers.

As police continued their search, they discovered six more sets of remains, with authorities at the time saying one was believed to be a young Asian man who appeared to have died a violent death, and another was the body of a toddler.