What to Know
- Police have found two sets of human remains in Brentwood since Friday
- One of them has been identified as missing high school senior 19-year-old Oscar Acosta
- It's not clear if the case is related to the killings of two teenage girls in Brentwood last week
Police on Long Island say one of the two sets of human remains found in a wooded area in Brentwood has been identified as a 19-year-old high school senior missing since April, police say.
The human skeletal remains found Friday west of Emjay Boulevard and north of the Long Island railroad tracks have been identified as belonging to Oscar Acosta, last seen on April 29, Suffolk County police said Wednesday.
A second set of remains was also found not far from Acosta's, police added. The unidentified remains were being examined by the medical examiner.
Police did not say if the remains were connected to the deaths of teenage best friends Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, whose badly beaten bodies were found in Brentwood last week. There have been no arrests in that case.
Acosta, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador three years ago, was last seen walking near his home on Thomas Street in Brentwood. His mother told NBC 4 New York at the time that he had no cash, no cellphone and no ID. She said it was out of character for him not to call.
She added that her son expressed concern with gangs before the family moved to Brentwood about a year and a half ago, though she insisted her son was not involved with gangs.
Police have said the killings of Mickens, 15, and Cuevas, 16, appear to be connected to gangs. But they did not reveal a further motive in the case.
