The Long Island teenagers found brutally murdered in a park Wednesday night have been identified. The four teens, ranging from 16-18 years of age, were found dead, their bodies mutilated with machetes.
The victims were identified as Justin Llivicura, 18, cousins Michael Banegas and Jefferson Villalobos, both 18, and 18-year-old Jorge Tigre.
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The boy’s bodies were found at the intersection of Lowell Avenue and Clayton Street in Central Islip, and authorities say one of them was so badly disfigured that he could only be identified through a tattoo. The youngest victim was just 16 years old. “He had a plastic bag over his head in order to suffocate him,” said Yensi Fuentes, victim’s cousin. “And from what my cousin saw, his brother saw, they were really, they had a lot of trauma done to their bodies and they were all cut up.” h/t abc7
Relatives say the victims were going to the park to meet friends when they were attacked by a group carrying machetes. On Friday, they placed flowers at the crime scene, then stood and embraced one another with tears in their eyes, horrified at the violence that had taken their sons.
“He wasn’t in it, because I asked him several times and he said no,” mother Lourdes Banegas said. “He didn’t like the things they were involved in.” Relatives said the bodies were dismembered, and that Llivicura’s ear had been cut off, along with at least one limb. Llivicura’s family is from Ecuador and has been in the United States for about 20 years.