What to Know
- Authorities are searching with cadaver dogs and a dive team in Hempstead Lake State Park for missing 19-year-old Louis Germosen
- Officials believe the young man -- who has been missing since June 28 -- may have died at the hands of the MS-13 gang, the source said.
- His parents received a pair of cryptic texts on Sunday telling them to search a series of addresses around a pond in West Hempstead
A pair of cryptic text messages have led to a two-day search for a missing young man at a Long Island park in connection with an ongoing investigation into crimes allegedly committed by the gang MS-13, a law enforcement source tells NBC 4.
Authorities are searching with cadaver dogs and a dive team in Hempstead Lake State Park for missing 19-year-old Louis Germosen. Authorities believe he may have died at the hands of the MS-13 gang, the source said.
Germosen, missing since June 28, is presumed dead, and his death is being investigated as a possible MS-13-related murder, according to the source.
The search was sparked after his family said they received the texts -- which say in part for the family to "check" a series of addresses near Schodack Pond in West Hempstead -- from an unknown source on Sunday.
"We couldn't believe what we were reading," said Suzy Bayer, the boy's stepmother.
She added, "We're hearing about MS-13 now, and we're just scared to death."
On Monday morning -- day two of the search --Germosen's family was holding vigil at the park in the town of Hempstead. Family members told NBC 4 that the teen loved music and basketball, but they feared he had started associating with gangs.
Local
Cadaver dogs were on site searching the park, and a police source told NBC 4 that Nassau Police had a dive team that would also be searching the creek.
However police said there was no concrete evidence that there was anything to find at the park.
