A man and a woman out for a seaside stroll on a Long Island beach discovered a human jawbone on Monday evening, police said.
Suffolk County police responded around 5 p.m. to the report at Smith Point County Park, Newsday reported. The man and woman who found the human remains brought them to a park attendant, cops said.
“The Suffolk County Medical Examiner determined the remains are human,” cops told Newsday, adding that the county coroner would also attempt to identify who had died.
Body parts have been discovered before at the same beach about 60 miles east of Central Park. In March 2023, a human bone was found at the park, but it was never connected to a deceased person.
“It is under investigation if the two incidents are related,” cops told Newsday.
The beach is not far from where TWA Flight 800 exploded in 1996, killing all 230 people on board. There is a memorial to the victims at the park, and amateur investigators speculated that the previous case could’ve been connected to the flight.
“It could very well have floated away and deposited itself on the beach after the incident,” forensic anthropologist Angelique Corthals told WNBC last year.
An entire body was also found on the beach earlier this year. Michael Petruzzo, 64, was found dead at the park in July. Cops said beachgoers found Petruzzo’s body in the water and pulled him out.