NCPD: Body found at Cow Meadow Park in Freeport

Gruesome discovery follows likely MS-13 killing of Freeport High School student

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Human remains were found at Cow Meadow Park at the end of South Main Street in Freeport on Wednesday, according to the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force and Nassau County police. The discovery follows another recent case in which a Freeport High School teen was found dead in nearby Roosevelt, likely the victim of the notorious El Salvadoran gang MS-13.

“We’ve identified locations we are interested in that might look like a gravesite,” Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, commanding officer of the NCPD’s Homicide Squad, said of Nassau County’s Cow Meadow Park, which abuts Freeport Bay in a usually quiet waterfront neighborhood. “We’ve done an extensive slow search of that site and what we found are human remains. The human remains have been identified as a male, and any further identification of these remains will be through the medical examiner’s office through DNA process.”

Last week Nassau police found and identified the remains of 16-year-old Angel Soler, of Roosevelt, in a wooded area adjacent to a neighborhood close to the Southern State Parkway, near the Baldwin and Roosevelt border. It is believed that members of MS-13 likely killed Soler, who was last seen at his home on July 21. He attended Freeport High School. He was missing for three months.

Also missing from Freeport High School is 19-year-old Kerin Pineda, of Freeport, who disappeared in May 2016. According to a family friend, Soler and Pineda were friends.

Soler’s mother, Suyapa, partnered with Pineda’s mother, Lilian Oliva-Santos, to look for their sons, with no success, according to the family friend, who spoke with the Herald via Facebook on Wednesday morning.

It was unclear at press time whose remains were found at Cow Meadow Park.

According to sources, the disappearance of Soler and Pineda are not related, but both appear to be connected to MS-13.

Cow Meadow Park's address is Freeport, according to the Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation website. It is not, however, part of the incorporated Village of Freeport, but rather an unincorporated area of the Town of Hempstead, village officials said.