A group of middle and high school students in New York made a grisly discovery on their way to school Thursday morning: a human left arm.
The group walked through Southards Park Pond in Babylon Village, Long Island, just 15 miles from Gilgo Beach, the burial site of accused serial killer Rex Heuermann, who was active between 1996 and 2011.
The fingertips have been removed and a tattoo is visible, reports ABC New York. The arm belonged to a natural man. Authorities have not commented on the cause of death because they believe the tattoo will be part of the investigation.
Suffolk County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer told media that shortly before 9 a.m. one of the teens, a high school student, alerted their father, 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.
The park where the body parts were found is popular with children, joggers and dog walkers
After the first gruesome discovery, another body part, this time a leg, was found by a cadaver dog
Officers from nearby schools detained students inside the home during the investigation
The death was ruled a homicide and investigators were on scene throughout the day
The third body part, a right arm, was not found in the park until nightfall
“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. According to NBC New York, the area is frequented by joggers, children and dog walkers.
Homicide detectives were reportedly on scene. The partner reports that the body parts were recently left at the crime scene.
“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 near where accused murderer Rex Heuermann, pictured here in February, searched for victims over a 15-year period
The area is also close to where accused murderer Rex Heuermann searched for victims over a 15-year period.
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.