Skeletal Remains Believed To Be Sagaponack Native Found: Cops

SAGAPONACK, NY — After 51 years, a grim discovery shocked the community as the skeletal remains of a missing woman are believed to have been found buried seven feet deep in the basement of a Southold home, police said.

According to Suffolk County Police, Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the remains at approximately 11:30 a.m. Monday.

During an investigation into the 1966 missing person case of Louise Pietrewicz, Southold Police detectives searched the basement of a home located on Lower Road, police said.

The current homeowner, who has no involvement in the case, consented to the search, police said.

Suffolk County Police Homicide detectives assisted Southold Police by using ground penetrating sonar which led to additional digging in the basement of the home where skeletal remains were discovered, police said.

Pietrewicz's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance, William Boken, the previous owner of the home, died in the early 1980s, police said. The basement had been searched and parts of it were dug up in 2013 with no results. The Suffolk Times reported that Boken's ex-wife Judith Terry directed police to the basement.

The remains were taken to the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner to determine the identity and cause of death.

At a press conference in Yaphank Acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Stuart Cameron began by saying that it appears that a missing person's case dating back to 1966 "has finally been solved."

The resolution, Suffolk County Chief of Detectives Gerard Gigante, said, "highlights our partnership with local law enforcement," including Southold Town Police.

Gigante said a little more than six years ago, Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley and Det. Sgt. John Sinning began to once again work on the cold case of Pietrewicz's disappearance.

Although the remains have not yet been positively identified, Gigante said indications lead police to believe that they belong to Pietrewicz.

At the time of her disappearance in 1966, he said, she had an "estranged relationship" with her husband and was involved with Boken, who, at the time, had been a Southold Town police officer for about six years.

After she went missing, although there was an investigation, police were "unable to locate her," Gigante said.

At the time, Boken resigned from the Southold Police Department and "essentially disappeared," Gigante said. About a year later, he was arrested and charged with assault after a domestic incident involving his wife, Judith Terry Boken, Gigante said.

"That was the last he was seen," Gigante said, adding that in the 1960s and 70s it was easy to go under the radar and disappear without a footprint. "We believe he was wandering around the New York City area," he said. Later it was learned that Boken had died in 1982 and was buried in Potter's Field; no relatives knew he'd died until 2013.

Suffolk County Police weren't involved in the initial missing persons investigation, Gigante said. When, year later, information emerged that the disappearance might be a murder, Suffolk County Police's homicide bureau conducted a search of the Lower Road home.

The home, he said, is old, with a basement that was at one time all dirt and had later been filled in with five inches of cement.

From the first search a few years ago to last week's search, "additional information was developed" that led police to a different search area, just a few feet away, in the basement, Gigante said. Sonar equipment designed to indicate disturbances in the soil was used in both searches. During the first search, police were unable to locate the body.

But, Gigante said, "after interviewing people" police were able to determine that they were in the right area but needed to go further; the remains were located almost seven feet underground, just a few feet away from the first area that was searched.

"We discovered a jawbone," he said, adding that later, a full skeleton was found. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office helped to excavate the remains and is now looking to identify the body.

Reflecting on how the remains were found, Gigante said, "In cold cases, sometimes, later in life . . .witnesses do come forward to give us information. At one point, maybe the felt compelled not to release" information "or felt threatened by a person." Or, he said, their conscience motivates them to come forward years later.

When asked if Boken's former wife, "who helped reveal where the body might be" was a person of interest in the investigation, Gigante said police would not release the source of information that had led to the discovery of the remains.

The case turns into a homicide investigation immediately when human remains are found, he said. Moving forward, "we will work that case," witnesses will be interviewed and the SCPD will conference with the district attorney's office to determine if there that person is deceased, if it would be listed as a cleared case or if there is "another living suspect," Gigante said.

He added that the condition of the skeleton could potentially determine if death had been caused by gunshot or strangulation.

Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley confirmed that Boken had been questioned early on at the time of Pietrewicz' disappearance by New York State Police but the "investigation ran into a dead end."

Most missing persons, Gigante said, are simply missing.

When asked about speculation that Pietrewicz might have been pregnant. Gigante said the medical examiner would potentially be able to determine that information.

Over the years, Gigante said, the missing woman's disappearance had sparked theories. "There was a lot of talk in town, but in the end unless you have the body, you don't have a murder," he said.

Cameron said the cold case case could never have been solved without the work of Southold Police and Suffolk County Police.

When asked about speculation that the case was not investigated as "intensely as it should have been initially because there was a police officer potentially involved," Flatley said initially the investigation centered on a missing person. The case began on the South Fork and involved New York State Police, but that came to a dead end.

Flatley said as far as he knew, the Southold Police Department was not the lead agency, but he did say that'd he'd also heard the speculation.

Gigante reminded that Boken was arrested a year later, was separated from the police department, "and was not looked at differently than anyone else." He then disappeared at a time when there were no cell phones, videos or ATMs to track his whereabouts.

When asked if Terry would be classified as a "person of interest," Gigante said she was classified only as "the ex wife of Boken."

He added that in 2014, Sinning developed information that the missing woman might be buried in the basement of the old house; there were concerns about how much digging could be done without loosening the beams in the basement. Concrete had to be broken to dig; the sonar equipment was used initially. This year, additional information was garnered — from the "same source" as in 2014, Gigante said.

Once again, the sonar equipment was used and after digging about four feet, they learned it was necessary to go deeper; the body was found in the hole on Monday.

Gigante added that the home changed ownership in the 1970s and the current owners have nothing to do with the case.

When asked if charges could be brought against any other suspects, Gigante said that information would not be discussed.

As Pietrewicz has a daughter, a living relative, Gigante said it's nice to be able to bring closure to the family.

Flatley agreed. "It's been a question mark for so many years," he said. "To bring closure to her family. . . it feels good."

The discovery came after an investigative report about the disappearance of the Cutchogue mom, originally from Sagaponack —who was 38 when she went missing — by the Suffolk Times; —according to a post by the Suffolk Times, the remains were found in the home where Boken, her married boyfriend and a former Southold police officer, lived with his wife and children. A burlap bag was found wrapped around the skeletal remains, the Suffolk Times reported.

The search for answers was the subject of a documentary, "Gone," produced by the Suffolk Times.

Patch photos by Lisa Finn.