Cops: Remains belong to LI woman missing for 5 decades
The home in Southold where the remains of Louise Pietrewicz from Cutchogue were found. Credit: Randee Daddona
The skeletal remains found in the basement of a Southold home last month positively matched those of a North Fork woman who disappeared more than 50 years ago, Suffolk police said Wednesday.
Through DNA results, the Suffolk County Medical Examiner identified the remains as those of Louise Pietrewicz, Suffolk police said in a news release.
On March 19, Suffolk and Southold police found what they believed to be Pietrewicz’s skeletal remains in the cellar of a Colonial-era Southold home that once belonged to her lover, former Southold Police Officer William Boken.
Pietrewicz’s daughter, Sandy Blampied, said she broke down in tears when she heard the news.
“It’s surreal,” Blampied said Wednesday evening. “I have a lot of emotions. I’m happy. I’m sad. I’m angry. I want to smack somebody.”
Last month Suffolk police said DNA from the family would be used to officially determine whether the bones belonged to Pietrewicz, who was 38 and living in Cutchogue when she vanished.
Pietrewicz, trapped in an abusive marriage, met Boken while working part-time in a drugstore, Blampied said.
The last time Blampied saw her mother was right before she left home for school in 1966. State Police and Southold police launched an investigation after Pietrewicz’s family reported her missing, but the trail soon went cold.
Boken was arrested in 1967 after his wife filed a domestic violence complaint with police, authorities said last month. His family sold the home on Lower Road in the mid-1970s, according to police. Boken resigned from the Southold police and died in 1982.
Pietrewicz’s disappearance was the subject of an exhaustive 10,000-word article and documentary series posted in October by The Suffolk Times. Blampied credited the story and series with sparking renewed interest in the case.
Blampied hopes that the discovery of her mother’s remains brings her a sense of closure. She plans to have her mother cremated and her ashes brought to her home in upstate Middletown.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “But I’ll have her with me. Now and for the rest of my life.”
With Michael O’Keeffe
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
