Bones may offer clues in N.Y. slayings

Grisly mystery on N.Y. beachSTORY HIGHLIGHTSPolice and federal agents are searching for skeletal remains on Long IslandThe remains of at least eight bodies have been found since DecemberAuthorities are awaiting test results from bones found in the water along Long IslandAn FBI Black Hawk helicopter is expected to join the expanding investigation this week New York (CNN) -- Authorities are awaiting test results from bones found in the water near Long Island, New York, as they investigate possible serial killings.

"Bones were found in the water off of Oak Beach, and the physician's assistant will make a determination on whether or not they're human," Miros Kroupa, spokeswoman for the Suffolk County Police Department, said Sunday.

Four bodies were found on Oak Beach in December, prompting federal agents to join the search.

An FBI Black Hawk helicopter is expected to join the expanding investigation this week.

Their efforts are part of a probe into suspected serial killings linked to at least eight bodies -- four of them identified as prostitutes -- found since December 2010.

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More bones found at N.Y. beach; brings total to 10

By Seth Wenig, AP

A New York State police officer examines an object on the side of the road near Jones Beach in Wantagh, N.Y., on Monday, where more bones were found.

EnlargeCloseBy Seth Wenig, AP

A New York State police officer examines an object on the side of the road near Jones Beach in Wantagh, N.Y., on Monday, where more bones were found.

The discovery came as police expanded a search from Long Island's Suffolk County westward into the Jones Beach area of Nassau County, just over the border from New York City. The expanded search was prompted by Suffolk's discovery in the past two weeks of four sets of unidentified human remains; the bodies of four women who worked as Craigslist escorts were found in the same area in December, leading authorities to suspect that they may be contending with a serial killer.

LONG ISLAND: Police search for evidence in 8 serial killingsThe highway runs along a barrier beach island south of Long Island and is home to several county and state-run parks featuring miles of white sandy beaches about 45 minutes from Manhattan.

Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, a Nassau County police spokesman, said the two sets of remains found Monday — separated by several miles along the north side of Ocean Parkway, were sent to the medical examiner's office to confirm whether they are human. Police also made several discoveries of bones Monday that were quickly determined to be animals.

"It appears to be a skull, whether it is human or not, is unknown at this point," Smith told reporters of the second discovery of suspected remains Monday. He did not offer any description of the possible remains found earlier in the day.

Nassau joined the search this week after Suffolk police found eight victims dumped just steps from Ocean Parkway, a highway leading to the popular Jones Beach State Park.

Police in December were following up on the disappearance of a New Jersey woman seen working as a Craigslist escort in the Long Island area last spring when they happened upon the first of the corpses. None of the victims, however, is 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance remains an open case.

Detectives said it appears some victims had been dead for a long time. The first of the four victims found late last year went missing in 2007; a second in 2009 and the remaining two in June and September 2010.

Suffolk investigators ended a four-day search of a 7-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway last week. Approximately 125 officers from Nassau, as well as state police and state park police, took part in the Nassau search. Smith said officers might return to the beach on Tuesday to continue searching, although he said predictions of inclement weather could alter those plans.

Earlier Monday, Smith sought to tamp down speculation of who may be responsible for the killings, because no suspect has been named.

"For anyone to come out and say a specific person, a specific occupation, or a specific type, I think, is unfair," he told reporters. "I think it's mere suspicion, it's mere speculation. Right now it could be anybody."

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Researchers to dig in convent tombs for bones of real Mona Lisa

Italian researchers say they plan to dig up bones in a Florence convent to try to identify the remains of a Renaissance woman long believed to be the model for the Mona Lisa.

The mystery of the model for Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, now in the Louvre in Paris, has puzzled scholars and art lovers for centuries and generated countless theories.

Silvano Vinceti, an art historian and the project leader, tells reporters today in Rome that the goal is to locate the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, the Associated Press reports.

Tradition has long linked Gherardini to the painting, which is known in Italian as "La Gioconda" and in French as "La Joconde."

A few years ago, an amateur Italian historian said he had found a death certificate showing that Lisa Gherardini died on July 15, 1542, and her final resting place, the Convent of St. Ursula in central Florence.

That's where the digging will begin later his month, Vinceti says.

The project will employ such sophisticated forensic techniques as ground-penetrating radar to locate hidden tombs, carbon-dating and DNA tests.

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