Two human arms and a human leg were found at a park on Long Island, New York, on Thursday morning, and police are investigating how the body parts ended up there.
A student was walking to school in the Long Island town of Babylon around 8:40 a.m. when she discovered a “severed left arm” at the eastern end of Southards Park Pond, which is off Siegel Boulevard, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a news release.
The student then called her father, who went to the park before calling 911.
A cadaver dog found a leg in a pile of leaves on the western side of the park, police said.
The dog, after sniffing around the east side of the park, then found a right arm about 20 feet away from where the original left arm was discovered, police said.
NBC New York reported that the leg was found about a mile away from the left arm and not far from an elementary school.
Students at the school were kept inside for recess while police investigated the crime scene, the superintendent of the Babylon Unified School District said in a letter to parents, according to NBC New York. Mental health resources were also available to students at all grade levels who needed support.
Police said the remains found on the east end of the park — both arms — appear to be male.
The limbs appeared to have been discarded recently, police said, according to NBC New York. They are hoping to identify the body parts using DNA and by examining tattoos.
Police did not rule out the possibility that the incident could be gang related, the station reported. Police also declined to say whether all of the body parts are believed to be from the same person or how that person might have died.
