A severed arm was found on a side street near downtown Hempstead, 22 miles from where a partially dismembered woman’s body was found in Bay Shore a day earlier, police said.
Hempstead village police confirmed that a 911 caller reported discovering the arm outside of their Webb Avenue home near the corner of Washington Street shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday.
“The body part was removed to the Nassau County Medical Examiner’s office for further examination,” Suffolk County police, who crossed into Nassau to join the investigation, said in a statement.
It is unclear if the arm is from the unidentified dead woman’s dismembered body that was found in a vacant lot on the corner of Maple Avenue and Gibson Street by two people walking to the Fire Island ferry terminal on Tuesday morning. Suffolk medical examiners are conducting an autopsy to determine the woman’s identity and cause of death.
Suffolk police said their homicide squad detectives responded to the scene in Hempstead along with their Nassau County police counterparts. Nassau police declined to comment.
After the first discovery, Suffolk police said in a statement that they dispatched K-9 units to search the Gilgo Beach area “in the interest of being thorough.” But, they said that “there are no known links between the partially dismembered body found in Bay Shore … and the Gilgo Beach murders.”
A total of 11 sets of human remains were found in a year between Jones and Oak beaches after police uncovered the bodies of the first four, who investigators have said they believe to be the victims of a serial killer, in December 2010. Only half of the remains have been identified and no suspects have been named.
Homicide Squad detectives are continuing the investigations. Suffolk police ask anyone with information on the Bay Shore or Gilgo cases to call them at 631-852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
