Karen Vergata, a victim of the Gilgo Beach killings, made one farewell phone contact to her father on the day she was last seen alive, it has been found.

According to a court petition filed in 2017, the 34-year-old woman called her father Dominic Vergata on his birthday, February 14, 1996. She was never seen or heard from after that.

Long Island authorities reported on Friday that Vergata went missing on Valentine’s Day 1996.

She was living on West 45th Street in Manhattan at the time and was working as an escort.

According to police, no missing persons report was made at the time.

Also Read: Who was Karen Vergata? Gilgo Beach victim Jane Doe 7 identified as Manhattan woman

However, court records reveal that Dominic Vergata filed a petition to have his daughter formally declared dead in July 2017 – more than two decades later – in order to acquire the unclaimed assets from her estate, including two life insurance policies.

Vergata’s father states in the petition that he last spoke with his daughter on February 14, 1996, when she called him on his birthday.

He had previously stated that she would phone him on occasion.

Dominic Vergata claims that after his daughter went missing, he tried to find her by hiring an investigator and contacting law enforcement agencies and people who knew her.

But her attempts were futile since she had been murdered and her body had been dumped on Long Island.

On 14 February 1999, the Surrogate’s Court in New York found that, because Vergata’s whereabouts had been unknown for so long, she was considered deceased, and her father was named provisional administrator of her estate.

According to records, Dominic Vergata passed away in December of 2022.

It’s unknown whether he was aware of what happened to his daughter before he died.

Long Island officials identified Vergata as the victim of the Gilgo Beach killings previously known only as Jane Doe 7 or Fire Island Jane Doe on Friday.

Vergata’s partial remains were recovered along Long Island’s coastlines over 26 years ago, but the victim’s identification was unknown until today.

Also Read: Who is Michael Brown, Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s defense lawyer?

On April 20, 1996, a woman’s legs were discovered wrapped in plastic at Davis Park on Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach.

On April 11, 2011, almost precisely 15 years later, the woman’s skull was discovered off Ocean Parkway during the hunt for Gilgo Beach victims. The skull was discovered beside the body of another unnamed victim, Jane Doe 3, also known as Peaches.

The two sets of remains discovered on Fire Island and Ocean Parkway were later discovered to be the same person.