Human remains recovered in wooded area in Nassau County
FREEPORT, Long Island (WABC) -- Authorities in Nassau County say human remains have been recovered after searching a wooded area on the Freeport-Merrick border.
The remains have not yet been identified.
Members of the FBI Long Island gang task force along with state police and Nassau County police returned to the area Saturday with heavy machinery to conduct the search.
"The gruesome discovery of human remains here in Nassau County is a deeply disturbing reminder that we have to do everything we can to make sure that our county remains safe and that our children remain safe," said Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas at a press conference Saturday morning.
The FBI said the latest discovery, in a wooded preserve near Commercial Street and Lakeview Avenue, is believed to be gang-related.
Authorities also announced 58 gang-related arrests since Wednesday.
Three days ago human remains were found in Freeport's Cow Meadow Park.
Photos: Police find human remains in Cow Meadow Park
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.
Investigators also searched a preserve in Massapequa Thursday for human remains.
That search focused on the 432-acre Massapequa Preserve, where the body of a slain 19-year-old was found in May.
Authorities were acting on a tip in their investigation of the murderous gang known as MS-13.
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 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.
