While searching for a missing grandmother on Long Island, New York police ended up recovering the remains of a totally different woman — and now, investigators are trying to determine who she was and what led to her death.
The grisly discovery was made on Wednesday, February 11, in a wooded area in Manorville. Police searched a nearby wooded area last summer, reportedly as part of their ongoing investigation into suspected Long Island Serial Killer Rex Heuermann.
Police were in the area where the body was discovered looking for any sign of 63-year-old Kathleen Harrison Trent.
Suffolk County Police Department said in a press release that Trent, a Riverhead grandmother, was reported missing by her son back on January 29.
Her whereabouts remain unknown as of press time, police said.
The body of the unidentified woman was found at around 3:21 p.m. on February 11. Homicide investigators are said to have recovered preliminary evidence that indicates the woman’s death was likely “criminal in nature.”
“The woman’s identity and cause of death will be determined during an autopsy by personnel from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner,” said the police statement.
Police have described Trent as a white female, who stands approximately 5-foot-2 and weighs around 140 pounds. She has strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes.
Trent was well known to folks in the area, having worked for 40 years at the Riverhead Raceway.
Trent was last seen at her Riverhead residence, police said.
In a statement to the Riverhead News-Review, Riverhead Raceway general manager John Ellwood said, “From concession stands to security, working at the facility, cleaning, she’s just been instrumental. I hope the community gets together and helps as she would — she would be that person [that] always had our back.”
“I thought it was fake,” explained Trent’s god-sister, Kelly Turbush, speaking to ABC 7 New York. “I thought I was dreaming … then I called her son and I asked him, ‘Is it true?’ And he said … they tried calling her and she wasn’t picking up, and that wasn’t like her, which it wasn’t.”
Turbush said that she can’t think of a single person who would want to harm Trent.
“She didn’t have a bad bone in her body,” she continued to ABC 7 New York. “Anybody who knew her loved her. Anybody she came in contact with, if they needed anything, if she could give, she would.”
The last night that Trent was seen, relatives told police she failed to call her grandchildren to wish them goodnight, which she did every single evening.
When calls to her phone went unanswered, relatives drove out to Trent’s home. They said that her truck was not parked outside of her home, but they did locate her phone inside.
Her vehicle, a 2017 Chevy Colorado, has since been located by another family member, but police have not said where.
Investigators ask that anyone who may have any information regarding either Trent’s location or pertinent to the ongoing homicide probe call (631) 852-6392.
