Missing Woman’s Remains Discovered

Human remains discovered buried underneath a home on New York’s Long Island last month have been identified as Louise Pietrewicz, who went missing in October 1966 at age 38.

The remains were discovered March 19 nearly seven feet below the basement floor of the home in Southold, located on the North Fork of the island in Suffolk County. The house was once owned by William Boken, a former cop with the Town of Southold with whom Pietrewicz was having an affair. Boken was a prime suspect in Pietrewicz’s disappearance. In December 1967, just over a year after Pietrewicz went missing, Boken was arrested on a domestic violence charge for beating his wife. He died in Queens in 1982.

DNA swabs from Pietrewicz’s only child, a daughter who was just 11 years old at the time of her disappearance, and her last surviving sibling confirmed that the remains belonged to Pietrewicz.

Pietrewicz’s daughter, Sandy Blampied, said she “broke down” when Southold Det. Sgt. John Sinning informed her they’d found her mother. Pietrewicz’s brother, Leo Jasinski, expressed gratitude that their family’s ordeal was finally over.

“I just broke down,” Ms. Blampied said. “I just broke down and cried. It is so hard to believe what has happened. I still can’t believe it. This was my mother.”

Det. Sgt. Sinning also notified Ms. Pietrewicz’s brother, Leo Jasinski of Riverhead.

“He’s looked out for us,” Mr. Jasinski said of Det. Sgt. Sinning. “I choked up. I have never forgotten Louise and I never will. She was my sister. It is over now.”

The medical examiner’s office did not give a cause of death when announcing the identification of the remains on Wednesday. However, Blampied is “optimistic” they’ll soon find out.

Southold police reopened Pietrewicz’s case after The Suffolk Times published a special on her disappearance last October. The basement of the house where she was found had been previously searched in 2013 but turned up no results. Detectives used ground penetrating sonar in the new search, which led them to the remains last month.

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