Investigators search preserve in Massapequa for human remains
MASSAPEQUA, Long Island (WABC) -- Investigators on Long Island searched a preserve in Massapequa Thursday for human remains.
Federal agents and local law enforcement teams scoured the area less than a week after the body of a 16-year-old boy was found buried in Roosevelt, and one day after remains were found in Freeport.
The search Thursday focused on the 432-acre Massapequa Preserve, where the body of a slain 19-year-old was found in May.
Authorities are acting on a tip in their investigation of the murderous gang known as MS-13.
On Wednesday, the FBI Long Island Gang Task Force, along with the Nassau County Police Department, discovered what appeared to be a body at Cow Meadow Park in Freeport.
Investigators were processing the scene. The remains have not yet been identified.
Photos: Police find possible human remains in Freeport
Investigators searching in Massapequa believe they may find the body of a missing teenager, believed to have been slaughtered and dumped by gang members.
Last week, the remains of 16-year-old Angel Soler were discovered along the Roosevelt-Baldwin border.
Investigators have not said how Soler died, or specifically whether he died at the hands of MS-13, the notorious street gang responsible for 17 murders.
Police are not saying whether Wednesday's discovery is related to Soler's death.
Soler went missing from his Freeport home in July. His remains were discovered last week at Milburn Creek Park in Roosevelt -- about two miles from his house.
Eyewitness News was the first to speak exclusively with a Freeport mother who fears her missing son, Kerin Pineda, may be the remains police have now discovered at Cow Meadow. Pineda went missing in May 2016. LilianOliva-Santos believes her son was lured to the park by a gang member posing as a girl on Facebook.
This past spring, the Suffolk police commissioner testified before Congress that gangs accounted for 38 percent of homicides in the previous 16 months alone.
Police are looking for 59 missing people, including at least six people with known ties to gangs.
A heavier police presence is expected in the area over the next couple of weeks.
