Human skeletal remains were found in a wooded area just feet away from a busy Long Island highway, the New York State Police said.
Officers responded to a call just after 7 a.m. Thursday after a driver noticed something in the woods off the Southern State Parkway in the Suffolk County town of Islip, according to state police. The remains were located in the woods near the Exit 40 off-ramp on the eastbound side of the highway.
At a brief press conference later in the day, police confirmed that the remains were of a human, but it was too early in the investigation to identify the person to whom the bones belonged. Police did not speculate on how long the remains had been there or if the death was criminal in nature.
No gender was shared, nor did police say if anything was found along with the remains.
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"This is currently an ongoing investigation at its onset and it is too early to tell the identity of the human remains or the involvement of my type of criminality," Capt. Christopher Casale said.
Police also did not state how the remains may have gotten there. The state police's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Identification Unit were called to the scene.
An investigation is ongoing.
