Another Victim Identified in Gilgo Beach Murders on Long Island

Authorities in New York have identified another victim connected to Long Island's Gilgo Beach murders investigation and are expected to make an announcement about the findings on Friday morning, according to multiple reports.

Sources familiar with the case told ABC News that Suffolk County officials are anticipated to identify a woman known as Jane Doe No. 7, whose remains were discovered in 1996 on Fire Island. The island sits east of Gilgo Beach and serves as a barrier between the Great South South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean off of Long Island's south shore.

The woman's remains were connected to other human remains found along the Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach through DNA in 2011. But it was not clear early Friday whether the victim is specifically linked to Rex Heuermann, the accused Long Island serial killer charged last month with the murders of three women whose bodies were found off the remote stretch of waterfront roadway, ABC News reported.

In a media advisory, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said only that an "update in the ongoing investigation by the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force" was planned for a Friday morning press conference in Hauppauge.

A spokesperson told The Messenger prosecutors were unable to provide more information prior to the announcement.

District Attorney Ray Tierney recently told Newsday authorities will be able to soon identify the remains of three more unidentified victims in the Gilgo Beach investigation.

Identifications will be made through using genetic genealogy technology, "among other things," Tierney told the newspaper.

"We’re honing in on that, and I think we’ll have information on that -- on some of the identifications shortly," Tierney said.

Tierney also told the publication a belt with the initials "WH" or "HM" was used to bound the remains of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in June 2007. Her body was found near the others by the Ocean Parkway.

Officials have previously said Heuermann is a "prime suspect" in that case. WH are the initials of Heuermann's father, according to ABC News.

Friday's press conference arrives just two days after Heuermann appeared in a Riverhead court on Tuesday, where prosecutors said authorities have collected a mountain of evidence in the case.

A Manhattan architect, Heuermann was arrested on July 13 and charged with first- and second-degree murder in the slayings of three sex workers whose bodies were found along Ocean Parkway in December 2010. He has pleaded not guilty.

Searches in that area conducted through December 2011 also resulted in the discovery of remains belonging to seven other people, including an Asian male and a toddler.