Maureen Brainard-Barnes

Maureen Brainard-Barnes ( - July 9, 2007) was an American prostitute and the first victim of the women off of Craigslist by the Long Island serial killer. Maureen, who was only four feet eleven inches tall and one hundred five pounds, went to Long Island, New York, "to spend the day in New York City" and was never seen again. Maureen, a struggling mother escorted off of Craigslist to pay the mortgage on her house, but after successfully leaving the sex industry for seven months Maureen eventually returned to pay her bills after receiving an eviction notice. After the police wouldn't accept to file a missing persons report on Maureen, her sister and brother did investigations of their own; handing out flyers, and driving all over Manhattan, which was unsuccessful. It took the New York Police Department two years to put her name in the database. Maureen wasn't discovered until 2010 when another escort off of Craigslist went missing; leading Suffolk County Police to the largest "man hunt" for a serial killer in Long Island history.