HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Four people have been charged after severed human body parts were found scattered at multiple locations on Long Island over the past week—and the Suffolk County district attorney slammed the state's bail reform laws after they were quickly released.
Steven Brown, 44; Jeffrey Mackey, 38; Amanda Wallace, 40; and Alexis Nieves, 33, face charges of first-degree hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence, and concealment of a human corpse. None of them have been charged with killing anyone.
All four pleaded not guilty and were released without bail, though the judge ordered them not to leave the county and to wear GPS monitors, among other requirements for supervised release.
Brown, Mackey and Wallace all live at the same home on Railroad Avenue in Amityville, where police searched Tuesday following a SWAT raid Monday night. Nieves doesn't have a known address, police said, but she's believed to live at the home with the other three.
The charges come after body parts—believed to belong to an unnamed 53-year-old man and 59-year-old woman from the same address in Yonkers—were found in Babylon Village, West Babylon and Bethpage in recent days.
Police said no remains were found during the search of the home, but more remains were discovered Tuesday in a wooded area on Lakeway Drive in West Babylon and inside Bethpage State Park.
The discoveries came after a severed head, right arm and right upper leg from the woman were found at Southards Pond Park in Babylon last Thursday night. A right arm and a left arm from the man were found at the same park Thursday morning; one of his arms was found by a girl walking to school, while the other was found in a pile of leaves by a cadaver dog, police said.
The Suffolk County homicide squad is investigating the case, though police haven’t yet said how they believe the man and woman died.
In a statement Tuesday, police said, "this appears to be an isolated incident with no threat to the public." A source told WNBC-TV that investigators are looking at a love triangle as a potential motive.
Suffolk County D.A. Ray Tierney, who has repeatedly criticized the state’s controversial bail reform laws, said in a statement Wednesday that the charges in the case are not bail eligible.
“Unfortunately, due to ‘Bail Reform’ passed by the New York State Legislature in 2019, charges relating to the mutilation and disposal of murdered corpses are no longer bail-eligible, meaning my prosecutors cannot ask for bail,” Tierney said in the statement.
“This is yet another absurd result thanks to ‘Bail Reform’ and a system where the Legislature in Albany substitutes their judgment for the judgment of our judges and the litigants in court,” the district attorney continued. “We will work with the Suffolk County Police Department to resolve this investigation as soon as possible and implore our Legislature to make common sense fixes to this law.”
