Year in Review: Case closed on shocking crime

Shelter Island Police Department (SIPD) officers brought in the final suspect that they identified as being part of a group who committed shocking acts of vandalism during a burglary in Silver Beach in 2023.

According to police, an arrest was made regarding the unlawful entry into a residence where extensive vandalism and damage to the interior of the home occurred. 

Det. Sgt. Jack Thilberg said the suspect, a 19-year-old resident of Sayville — an adolescent when the crime occurred, he was not identified by name — was arrested at 8:05 a.m., Aug. 1, when he surrendered in the company of his attorney at SIPD headquarters. He had, Det. Thilberg said, become aware that police had identified him and had attained the services of the attorney and an arrangement was subsequently made to turn himself in. 

The defendant was charged with burglary and criminal mischief. He was arraigned in Suffolk County Criminal Court and referred to the Suffolk County Probation Department. Det. Thilberg said the other members of the group, who had been arrested and convicted, had confirmed the defendant had been a participant in the crime.

Three others, previously arrested by the SIPD, are from Sayville. They are, Det. Thilberg said, all on “supervised release probation.”

In the second week of April 2023, Shelter Island Police were called to a Silver Beach residence on Peconic Avenue to investigate a break-in with significant vandalism to the interior. A week later another break-in was discovered.

At the time, Silver Beach residents were not just concerned, but “deeply concerned,” former councilman Jim Colligan, a Silver Beach resident, told the Reporter. It wasn’t just trespassing, but the damage left by the perpetrators was “major,” said Mr. Colligan.

He knows the homeowner whose property was damaged and was on the scene not long after the crime was reported. Mr. Colligan said the damage looked to be “malicious,” with broken furniture, a musical instrument broken and lamps smashed, among other scenes of destruction. 

“Clothes were tried on and clothes were ripped. It was obvious they were drinking and partying over a period of time,” Mr. Colligan said.

A nearby neighbor, who preferred not to give her name, was also at the house not long after the break-in was discovered. “It was very scary,” she said, describing how the vandals took knives from a wooden holder in the kitchen and “slashed beds, and every down comforter and pillow.”

The vandals also carved a threatening obscenity in a wall along with a grotesque sexual image, the neighbor said. “It seemed so … angry,” she said. She and other neighbors offered the homeowners a place to stay and also brought food for them in the aftermath of the shocking discoveries.

The second incident was similar, and Det. Thilberg said at the time that “we believe they are related.”

The seriousness of the crimes, and the extent of the investigation by the SIPD, were such that Det. Thilberg said, the “Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, Suffolk County Police Department,  the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Major Crimes Office, and SUNY Police at Oneonta assisted in the investigation, which led to the arrests.”