Police On Body Search: 'This Is Going To Be A Long Process'

Nassau County police have spent all day Thursday scouring a large wooded area in Roosevelt for a possible body, following a tip the department received from the Department of Homeland Security.

According to Commissioner Patrick Ryder, the department received the tip from DHS Wednesday night, and immediately sent officers into the area to secure it. The tip came from an investigation that Homeland Security agents were working on.

"We are looking at a couple of different locations that were identified," Ryder said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "At this time, we have not found or identified any human remains. This is going to be a long process. It's probably going to take a couple of days for us to get through the area."

The reason it will take so long, Ryder explained, is the area police are searching. The wooded area is dense and overgrown, making traversing it difficult. It is also 27 acres, making it a large area to cover.

The area is located along West Greenwich Avenue in Roosevelt, along the Southern State Parkway.

Ryder said he could not address whether the body they were looking for was related to any gang activity. "I cannot comment on if it's MS-13 until we know, if we know, what has been recovered," he said.

Ryder did not detail exactly how the area was being searched, but said that police were using "every tool that's in the toolbox" to search.

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