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Investigators stumbled on a woman’s head in a Long Island Park, hours after other body parts were discovered there — and are probing if the ruthless MS-13 gang may have been involved, police and sources said Friday.
The grisly find came as authorities were sweeping the west side of Southards Park in Babylon Thursday night, following the discovery of two legs and a left arm earlier that day, according to cops.
Later in the evening, a cadaver dog found a right arm, belonging to a woman, “about 20 feet further into the woods from where the left arm [was found], almost in a direct line,” Suffolk County Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer told reporters.
The left arm, a man’s, had tattoos all over and the fingertips gone, possibly making it hard to identify, according to police sources.
The sliced-off fingertips would hamper cops’ efforts in identifying the man, if he had a criminal record, sources said.
Investigators are hoping the tattoos are helpful, since many law enforcement agencies keep records of suspects’ ink, according to the sources.
Based on a preliminary investigation, cops believe the other arm, the leg and the head all belonged to the same woman, “but that’ll be determined through scientific tests and through the autopsy,” Beyrer said.
Sources also said cops were eyeing if the hair-raising discoveries were the work of MS-13, which has been known to be active in the area.
The first find was made by a girl walking to school with a group of pals, who stumbled upon the dismembered left arm dumped in bushes by the side of a road off Siegal Boulevard on the east side of the park at around 8:40 a.m., police said.
The girl called her dad, who headed to the scene and reported the heinous find to police, Beyrer told reporters Thursday.
None of the remains appear to have been inside the park for long, the police official said Friday.
A doctor from the medical examiner’s office examined the findings “in the field,” but the official autopsy was ongoing Friday morning, Beyrer said.
“Preliminarily, it appears it’s a matter of a small amount of days, if not hours,” Beyrer said.
The female remains did not have any tattoos, Beyrer said.
Authorities have said that the investigation is being handled as a homicide.