Doctor Who Found Karen Vergata's Remains On Fire Island Hopes 'They Have A Killer'

DAVIS PARK, NY —Danbury, Connecticut oral surgeon Andrew Ragona and his brother, Robert, were scouring a pristine patch of beach on Fire Island in hopes of finding some good driftwood to use in the repair of the deck of their Blue Point Beach home back in the spring of 1996.

They were about halfway down between Blue Point Beach and Davis Park on the bay side of the wilderness area, when they found a black plastic garbage bag washed up on the beach.

They could see that the bag had what they believed looked like a ham or a roast sticking out of it, Ragona said. It was clean cut, with no blood.

“My brother said, ‘What kind of meat do you think that is?’ I said, ‘I don't know,’” said Ragona, now 86.

He asked him to open up the other end of the bag, and Robert did so; using a stick, he started poking it and the bag tore open.

“As soon as he tore it open, a [painted] red toe came through,” Ragona said. “I said, ‘Oh boy,’ and [Robert] got a little green.”

The pair knew they had to immediately call the police, but the bag was still in the water, so they knew they had to pull it out.

“We took this piece of wood and put it through the string and brought it onto the shore, and then went back to the house and called the police,” he said.

Ragona doesn’t think that the first police officer who arrived believed him.

After the two walked him down the beach to the bag, he immediately got on the phone.

“Shortly after that, I think the entire police force in Suffolk County was on the beach,” Ragona said.

When he returned to his house, a reporter was already outside his home.

Ragona remembers the morning distinctly — he was making tomato sauce for lunch.

He was not very upset by the shocking find on the beach, he said, but added, “It was just weird.”

His brother was a little “freaked out by it.”

Ragona’s never been turned off by visiting the island since then.

He was first introduced to the community by his fraternity brother, a prominent local municipal law attorney. He has a share with his daughter this summer on the barrier island.

Over the years, he has always maintained a curiosity about the unsolved case, and has often been asked by people if he ever found out the woman’s name.

“People always ask me, ‘Do you know who she is?’ Well, I don't know. But now that they identified her, whatever, it doesn't affect me," he said.

The release of Vergata’s name comes three weeks after the arrest of Massapequa Park architect Rex Heuermann in connection with the slayings of three of the Gilgo Four, four women who worked as escorts and were found dead along Ocean Parkway.

Heuermann's attorney, Michael Brown of Central Islip, maintains his innocence, and said Tuesday that he looks forward to his day in court.

At the announcement of Vergata’s identification on Friday, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney reportedly said that his office would not discuss any development of suspects in the case.

Ragona said it was “nice” to hear “Jane Doe” was identified as Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old Manhattan woman.

“I hope they have a killer,” he said. “It’s an awful thing to know there is somebody around like that.”