Travis King dashed across the border to North Korea from the South in July.

An attorney representing the families of two women whose bodies were found along the shoreline in Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago has shared his suspicions that newly-arrested suspect Rex Heuermann may have had a female accomplice. A string of murders stumped police in the gated Long Island community of Gilgo Beach for more than a decade. It began in 2010 when 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a client’s house and an investigation into her disappearance led authorities to a trail of young women’s remains. Ten bodies, also including an Asian male and a 10-month-old baby, were recovered along a stretch of a remote highway, prompting fears of a serial killer. The case went cold until last year, when Suffolk County police reopened a probe into the grim murders. Last week, an interagency task force arrested 59-year-old Manhattan architect Mr Heuermann, reigniting hopes that the victims’ families might finally be able to obtain justice. Mr Heuermann is only facing charges for the murders of three of the Gilgo Beach murder victims — Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. But authorities have revealed they’re confident further charges over the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes will stick and haven’t ruled out the possibility that the disgraced architect could become the prime suspect in the other slayings. Attorney John Ray represents the families of Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, whose remains were among those found during the 2010 probe. Mr Ray told The Independent on Tuesday that he has long suspected that a woman may have helped the killer lure the victims. “We have a number of reasons to think a woman may have been involved. Nothing is certain here, [I want] to emphasise that, but there was some evidence that a woman was involved,” Mr Ray said. The attorney said that some of the evidence that could suggest a woman was involved in the killings is the way a “baby Doe’s” body was found. The child’s mother, dubbed “Peaches” for a tattoo on her torso, was found in Nassau County in 1997. Additional remains and those of her child were found years later, and the murders have been linked to the Gilgo Beach case. “The baby was wrapped in a blanket of some kind. And that’s something, you know, if you’re a depraved murderer, as a man ... Would you take the time to do that?” Mr Ray said. “But a mother might do that. That’s just one I use that as one of several reasons why we think that, but we don’t have any dispositive evidence that it was so.” Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011. Suffolk County authorities have previously said that they don’t believe Gilbert was a victim of the Gilgo Beach serial killer, or even that she was a victim of homicide. However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered. “We’ve insisted that she was murdered. We have overwhelming evidence that that is true,” Mr Ray said. “The police had taken bizarre position that she died of natural causes.” He added: “We’re hoping now with the new task force with these great guys and new brains and excellent work of the District Attorney and the new Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. “We’re hoping that they’re going to give it a look, a new look at the evidence with Shannan and investigate it as a murder.” Mr Ray said his clients have welcomed news of the arrest and now hope their loved ones’ killer or killers will also face the criminal system. “Both families are very happy that this man was caught and they’re happy for the other family members of the other victims,” Mr Ray said. “But the murderer of their loved ones has not been found. And even if it turns out to be this Tyrannosaurus Rex monster, there’s no solace in the end. Justice is an idea, but it’s not a feeling in a sense, and their feelings and their senses are still hurt and this resurrected those feelings. So it’s a bittersweet condition.” Mr Ray said that his law firm is joining efforts with the Suffolk County Police Department’s investigating team. Commissioner Harris has said in the aftermath that they’re probing any links Mr Heuermann may have with the Gilgo Beach bodies. On Tuesday, Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told ABC’s Good Morning America that Mr Heuermann is being looked at in connection to missing persons cases and murders far beyond the shores of Long Island – across the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and even nationwide. Mr Tay also told The Independent that although he had a tip that a breakthrough development would be announced in the case, he was not familiar with Mr Heuermann. “His whole background and purpose and so forth, his lifestyle were all quite surprising,” Mr Ray said. “Much more needs to be known about that now, because here’s a fella who purports to be a successful architect. I doubt very much that he was.” Mr Heuermann is the president of the architecture firm RH Consultants & Associates. On his company website, he boasted about working with the likes of Catholic Charities, NYC-DEP Sewerage Treatment and American Airlines and other major tenants at the JFK International Airport. However, court records obtained by CNN show that Mr Heuermann, who lives in the same modest home where he was brought up in Massapequa Park, has a history of filing personal injury lawsuits claiming to have been hit by vehicles. He also reportedly owes more than $200,000 in taxes to the IRS. “He maintained some kind of an office in Manhattan, you know, dipping in Manhattan doesn’t make you rich,” Mr Ray added. “But here he is an architect and yet his house is filthy and broken down and held up by two-by-fours on the front porch. It’s a striking contrast between, you know, the guy in the suit and tie you see in the picture and his circumstances.” An NYPD official told ABC News that the married father-of-two’s DNA has been entered into a statewide database and that his alleged MO is being compared to other cases across New York state – including those during the period he was allegedly active in Gilgo Beach. Mr Heuermann lived close to Gilgo Beach in Massapequa Park, Long Island, but worked in the heart of Midtown Manhattan where he runs an architecture firm. Some of the victims were last seen alive in the city. 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Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian forces have taken the “initiative” after making gains outside the eastern city of Bakhmut as part of a wider counteroffensive. Stating that Ukraine is “advancing, albeit not as fast [as we would like]”, Mr Zelensky said: “We would all love to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time. But there is reality. Today, the initiative is on our side.” On the 501st day of the war, Ukraine is attempting to retake territory and villages that were captured by Russia not long after its invasion began, to the east and south of the country. Heavy fighting continues to rage in two southeast areas, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. This comes as a group of Western allies, including the US, the UK, France, and Germany have huddled in “frantic, last-minute” negotiations as they look to provide security assurance for Ukraine ahead of the Nato summit in Vilnius. And Vladimir Putin’s close aide Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to attack Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities in eastern Europe in retaliation over unconfirmed allegations on Telegram that Ukrainian forces tried to strike a nuclear power plant in Russia’s Smolensk with British missiles. Read More Biden touches down in UK as president expected to be challenged over cluster bombs at Nato summit Biden says Ukraine not ‘ready’ for Nato membership ahead of key summit Cluster bombs: What are the controversial explosives and why is Biden sending them to Ukraine? Why are Russian and Belarusian players allowed back at Wimbledon?

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A salon owner with incurable cervical cancer who lost her hair while having chemotherapy has said wearing wigs has given her “reassurance in a world where nothing is certain”, and she now sells handmade, customisable bespoke wigs to help others feel “confident” in their own skin. Amanda Humphrey, 43, who owns Saramanda1 hair salon in Great Denham, Bedfordshire, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2017 after delaying her smear test by seven years. She underwent a radical hysterectomy in December that year – a surgical procedure to remove the womb and surrounding tissues – and was in remission weeks later. The cancer returned and Humphrey received her second cervical cancer diagnosis just two days before Christmas in 2021, and she then started chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She described this as “hell on Earth”, and within two weeks of starting chemotherapy the second time, she noticed her hair was being “blown out of [her] head” by the wind. Humphrey shaved her head and embraced her baldness but soon realised she missed having “that comfort blanket” – and she then searched “high and low” for a realistic, non-synthetic wig. Through her own searches, which were often fruitless, she realised that the number of people selling customisable wigs made of human hair in her area were few and far between. This led to Humphrey making and selling her own – and now, despite her uncertain prognosis, she said her mission is helping people struggling with hair loss feel like themselves again. “My message is I get it, and that’s why I love the wigs that we produce,” Humphrey told PA Real Life. “I’m proud of the wigs that we produce, and I’m so grateful that people choose us to be a part of their journey. “Every wig is made with love and strength, they are made from the heart, and me and my entire team, we all want them to be just perfect.” Cervical cancer is a cancer that is found anywhere in the cervix – the opening between the vagina and the womb. Symptoms include unusual vaginal bleeding, changes to vaginal discharge, pain during sex or pain in your lower back, the NHS says. Humphrey, who was working as a detective in London at the time and had only just opened her salon, said she had no symptoms prior to her diagnosis and “always found an excuse to cancel [her] smear test”. It was only when a colleague strongly encouraged her to book her smear test, seven years after she was first invited to have one, that she received her diagnosis in October 2017. She said she holds herself responsible for this and has since campaigned for other women to book their smear tests without delay by sharing the message “Don’t be me”. Speaking about her first diagnosis, she said: “I walked into the room and I looked at the consultant and, before I’d even sat down, I said ‘Have I got cancer?’ And he said ‘Yes’. “Then I said ‘Am I going to die?’ And he said, ‘I need to examine you and then I can tell you.’” Humphrey explained that telling her son, who she wishes to keep anonymous, was the hardest part, and she later underwent a radical hysterectomy, which was performed via keyhole surgery. A biopsy revealed she was in remission just weeks later, and while this was positive news she felt “lost” afterwards. She did not process the “trauma” of the cancer and the fact she could no longer get pregnant due to the radical hysterectomy until much later. “Emotionally I struggled because although I didn’t necessarily want more children, I wasn’t ready to to lose that option,” Humphrey explained. “I grieved not having more children, I grieved something I didn’t have, and I never sought help on that, ever. “Given it’s a gynaecological cancer as well, when I visit my local hospital for any appointment, I sit in a room with pregnant people waiting for their appointments. “They come out of their appointments happy, with their files and scan photos, and you’re sitting there, thinking ‘I can’t have that any more’.” In the years that followed, after Humphrey was medically retired from the police, she continued with cervical cancer awareness campaigns and focused on her salon. However, she started to experience agonising pain in her left leg in 2021 and could not pinpoint the exact source of it. After undergoing scans and tests, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer recurrence just two days before Christmas that year. She then underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which caused her to experience sickness, muscle aches, nose bleeds and ulcers in her mouth. During her second round of chemotherapy she lost her hair within two weeks. “I remember saying to one of the nurses ‘The next time I see you in three weeks, will I have hair?’ And she just said ‘No’, and it was true,” Humphrey said. “I was stood outside my salon on week two and it was really windy and I was trying to make a phone call outside. “I said to my colleague ‘My hair is being blown out of my head’ – it was literally just floating past us – so we shaved it off.” Humphrey said she embraced being “bald and proud” initially, but she missed the “comfort” that having hair gave her – and so her journey to creating her own human hair wigs began. Each wig starts from approximately £450, depending on the length and thickness, and can take up to three weeks to make as Humphrey and her team at the salon custom-colour each one. Humphrey said she will often “work into the night” to finish an order, if required, and some customers have even cried when seeing the finished product. She has since partnered with Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust as well, and for every wig sold through the charity she will donate 10 per cent of the proceeds to the organisation. She explained: “Wearing wigs has given me so much reassurance in a world where nothing is certain. “Just having a wig on gives me that comfort and ability to just be normal, and I want to help others achieve that feeling.” In October 2022, Humphrey was informed her cancer is incurable and she will most likely not reach remission again – however she is determined to keep fighting. She is now having pembrolizumab – a type of immunotherapy – and has regular check-ups, and although she was told that statistically she may only have 18 months to live, she said she wants to “prove everyone wrong, even if (she dies) trying”, and she will not stop her “passion” of making wigs for others. “The results we get are amazing, they’re happy, and being able to support someone with part of their journey is so rewarding – it’s always something I’ve wanted to do,” she said. “It helps them feel confident, and the comfort comes in, but it’s just the fact they can walk out their front door feeling normal.” She added: “If my journey can help someone in the future, then I’m all in.” To find out more about Humphrey and the wigs she and her team make, search @saramanda1_wigs on Instagram. For more information and support about cervical cancer, visit Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust’s website here. 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CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 30, 2023--