from www.nydailynews.com – Cops are hunting for a Craigslist serial killer after three more bodies that were dumped on a Long Island beach were identified as hookers who found johns online.

Suffolk County cops said Monday that the skeletal remains belonged to Melissa Barthelemy, 24, who lived in the Bronx; Amber Lynn Costello, 27, of North Babylon, L.I.; and Maureen Brainerd-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Conn.

The positive identification came just days after police said missing Maine prostitute Megan Waterman, 22, was one of the victims last Wednesday.

That means all four bodies found on Gilgo Beach in December belonged to prostitutes in their 20s, who advertised on Craigslist.

“There are substantial similarities in terms of the causes of death,” said a source.

The new revelations immediately drew comparisons to the notorious Craigslist killer case, in which medical student Philip Markoff preyed on prostitutes he met via the classifieds website.

Barthelemy, who had been missing since July 2009, grew up in Buffalo and moved to the city to be a stripper about five years ago, her family said.

“She’s a feisty little thing. She loved that fast life,” mom Lynn Barthelemy described her daughter in a 2009 interview with a Buffalo TV station.

She recalled warning her daughter, who stood just 4-foot-11 and weighed 95 pounds, to take care.

“Before we hung up I always said, ‘I love you. Be careful. If you get in trouble, it’s not like you’re right around the block. It’s going to take me seven hours to get to you,'” she said.

Brainerd-Barnes has been missing since July 2007, cops said. Costello disappeared on Sept. 2, 2010.

Each is believed to have been killed elsewhere and dumped on Gilgo Beach.