Police on Long Island have made arrests days after body parts of a man and a woman were found in a park frequented by children, joggers and walkers.
The body parts, a head, two legs and three tattooed arms, were found at various locations in Southards Pond Park in Babylon, not far from where the Gilgo Beach murders occurred between 1996 and 2011.
The original grisly discovery was found by a group of children on their way to school on Thursday.
As Newsday reports, several arrests were made Tuesday after investigators served a warrant at a home in nearby Amityville.
The head, legs and an arm belong to a woman while the other two arms belong to a man, while officers also found another piece of the woman's leg.
Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer of the Suffolk police declined to comment on whether authorities believe the feared MS-13 prison gang, known for dismembering its victims, could be behind the discovery.
MS-13 members plagued Long Island for years, but since 2017 the region has become quiet.
The park where the body parts were found is popular with children, joggers and dog walkers
The deaths were ruled a homicide, with investigators at the scene throughout the day last Thursday and over the weekend
The third body part, a right arm, was not found in the park until nightfall
Beyrer said it is believed the body parts had not been exposed to the elements for very long before they were found.
The man's arms were tattooed, but the woman's were not. Officers hope to use body art to determine his identity.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine described the incident as “isolated” during a press conference Monday, News12 Long Island reports.
“We will keep you safe and that didn't actually happen in this park – I think this was an isolated incident where people chose a park to dump the bodies rather than the place where it happened – and I think everyone who looks at it.” “I'll tell you this, so it didn't happen in the park,” Romaine said.
He added that he was “very good” with the progress of the investigation. It is not clear whether other agencies are involved in the search.
A resident, Tom Stroppel, who returned to the park Saturday morning, told Newsday he did not suspect a local was responsible.
“It's a beautiful place, a beautiful area.” “Someone must have come from another city and dumped here.”
Stroppel said he was there Thursday around the time of the discovery.
“It felt strange. When I entered there was no one here except the people I see every day. And then I see cop cars on the way out. I said, “Holy cow!”
Beyrer told media Friday that one of the teens, a high school student, alerted her father shortly before 9 a.m., who went to the park, confirmed it was an arm and then called police.
During a subsequent search of the area, a police dog discovered a human leg about a mile away in the same park, near an elementary school, at 1:30 p.m. A right arm was then found about 20 feet deep in a wooded area after dark.
“There’s a pile of leaves. We don't know what will be under the hill. “Once we clear the hill, we may or may not find the rest of the body,” Beyrer said.
Officers from nearby schools detained students inside the home during the investigation.
“It's a little concerning because the school is right here, so I was kind of worried,” local mother Salma Lakhaney told ABC New York.
Another local told the station that she no longer walks her dog in the park in question.
“There's definitely a bad mood here.” Like the last two weeks, definitely. “I stopped walking here alone because there are just crazy people there,” she said.
“It's terrible and very scary to hear that something like this is happening so close to home,” Babylon resident Josephine Roche told Newsday.
“I think we're safe. There is a good police presence and I think that is not necessarily related to this area. I told my children: “Lock the doors at all times, everywhere.”
The area is also close to where accused murderer Rex Heuermann searched for victims over a 15-year period.
The area is also near where accused murderer Rex Heuermann, pictured here in February, searched for victims over a 15-year period
On Tuesday, days after the discovery, several arrests were made following a search of a home in Amityville, about a 15-minute drive from where the body parts were found
Earlier this month, Heuermann was formally charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, months after he was named a prime suspect in her death when he was arrested in July, along with the deaths of three other women.
Additionally, gang violence had been a problem in some Long Island communities for more than a decade, but local police and the FBI began pouring resources into a crackdown that led to the murders of high school students Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas (16) was triggered in 2016.
The most active violent gang was the dreaded MS-13.
The killings in Brentwood, about 30 miles east of New York City, shocked parents and local officials and highlighted the deepening problem of gang violence in the suburbs.
Police also began discovering the bodies of other young people – mostly Hispanics – who had disappeared months earlier, but whose disappearances initially went unnoticed by civic leaders and the news media.
Some parents of the missing complained that police did not do enough to search for their missing children sooner.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Suffolk County police at 631-852-6392 or call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-220-Tips.