Nassau County police have made an arrest related to the murder of a Roosevelt teenager whose remains were discovered in late October in a wooded area off the Southern State Parkway.
In a Friday media advisory, a police spokesman said that an arrest had been made related to the killing of 16-year-old Angel Soler, but that due to the “sensitive and ongoing” investigation, police would not be commenting further.
Police found and identified the remains of Soler, of Roosevelt, in a wooded area adjacent to a neighborhood close to the Southern State Parkway, near the Baldwin and Roosevelt border. It is believed that members of MS-13, the violent El Salvadoran street gang, likely killed Soler, who was last seen at his home on July 21. He attended Freeport High School. He was missing for three months.
Also missing from Freeport High School was 19-year-old Kerin Pineda, of Freeport, who disappeared in May 2016, and whose remains were identified after being found in the woods on the Merrick-Freeport border. According to a family friend, who spoke to the Herald in October, Soler and Pineda were friends.
Pineda's remains were found in the forest, just north of the Long Island Rail Road tracks that run parallel to Sunrise Highway. According to a Herald source, Pineda came to the United States from Honduras as an unaccompanied minor. He started his studies at Freeport High School in October 2014. He repeated the ninth grade twice, and he was no longer listed as a Freeport student as of March.