Nassau police: Search in woods for human remains
Nassau police and federal investigators have begun searching for human remains in a vast wooded area on the Baldwin-Roosevelt line after receiving a “detailed” tip, police said Thursday.
Acting Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said Homeland Security Investigations received information Wednesday night from a “person of interest” that there may be remains in the area.
“We have not found or identified any human remains,” Ryder said at the scene. “This is going to be a long process. It’s probably going to take a few days for us to get through this wooded area.”
Sources said investigators were searching for the body of a possible victim of gang violence.
Ryder said he could not say whether the remains are linked to MS-13 gang violence or any active missing persons cases in the county.
“We cannot link it to any of our missing persons cases, but as soon as we do, our first concern will be notifying families,” Ryder said.
He conceded the tip was more detailed than prior ones. One such tip had led officers to search a wooded area in Freeport.
“We’ve searched a lot of wooded areas over the last several months,” Ryder said. “As these tips come, we have to run them all down. This is just another tip that we received. It’s a little more detailed, so that’s why we’re putting as much resources” as possible into it.
The approximately 27-acre site contains rugged terrain and overgrown vegetation and includes a lake.
Nassau County police officers remained on the scene into the afternoon, in the area of West Greenwich Avenue and Wilbur Lane.
With Robert E. Kessler and Mark Morales
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