Long Island body parts case: Family IDs male victim, says suspect is his cousin

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - Siblings of a man whose body parts were found scattered throughout Long Island said one of the four people charged in the case is the victim's cousin.

Steven Brown, 44, and Amanda Wallace, 40, appeared in court Monday on charges tied to the discovery of several body parts, including a woman's head, in three separate locations. The remains belong to a 53-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman, who police have yet to publicly identify.

The brother and sister of the 53-year-old victim in the Long Island body parts case attended a court appearance. (Jodi Goldberg/FOX 5 NY)

The brother and sister of the 53-year-old victim attended their court appearance. They said defendant Steven Brown is their cousin and their younger brother, Malcolm Craig Brown, was the male victim, FOX 5 NY's Jodi Goldberg reported.

"We’re a family or at least I thought we were a family. He was our baby brother," Coreen Bullock, Brown's sister said. "He was not perfect but no one deserves murder like this and his cousin has something to do with it."

Steven Brown, 44-years-old, at First District Court, after being arraigned and released without bail at the courthouse in Central Islip, New York, on March 6, 2024. (Photo by James Carbone/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

Police also released the identity of the female victim: 59-year-old Donna R. Conneely.

Brown, Wallace, Jeffrey Mackey, 38, and Alexis Nieves, 33, are charged with tampering with physical evidence, hindering prosecution and concealing a human corpse. All four pleaded not guilty and are out on supervised release. These crimes aren't considered violent under New York State bail laws, and all four were released without bail.

According to prosecutors, the four allegedly used butcher knives and meat cleavers to dismember the victims' bodies. 

Police began investigating the case on Feb. 29 after a student discovered a man's arm in a Babylon park during her walk home from school.

Babylon, N.Y.: A Suffolk Police command post is seen along the western edge of Southards Pond Park in Babylon, New York on March 1, 2024. (Photo by J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images)

Investigators then found more limbs and a woman's head at the scene, and a few days later, more body parts were discovered in West Babylon and at Bethpage State Park.

Police announced the arrests after executing a search warrant at an Amityville house where three of the accused lived.

News of the suspects' release without bail set off a firestorm of reaction from local and state officials.

Inside the courtroom Bullock shouted at Brown "How could you" and Williams yelled at him in the hall to "do the right thing." His attorney left on Monday without commenting.

"He knows what he needs to do. We lost a brother. Our parents and his mom, my aunt, are home, suffering and hurting. He has nothing to say," Charles Williams, Brown's brother said.

In an interview Friday morning on Good Day New York, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday the DA should have been able to bring murder
 charges, which would have been bail-eligible. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney blamed bail reform for their release.

"As a prosecutor, you're ethically required to only charge the cases which you can either establish probable cause for or prove beyond a reasonable doubt," Tierney said. "These particular charges are what we can charge now."

According to officials, those charged were forced to surrender their passports and wear monitoring devices. They are unable to leave the county.