A Long Island teenager on a high school track run found skeletal remains in a Manhasset park that police say may belong to a missing 79-year-old woman with dementia, offering a possible end to a year-long search.

The discovery came Thursday afternoon on trails behind Plandome Pond Park when a young runner spotted what turned out to be human remains in the brush. Nassau County police responded to the wooded area at 192 Lindberg Street in Manhasset and opened a homicide squad investigation while working to identify the remains.

Breitbart News reported that authorities are examining whether the remains belong to Shi Hua Xu, a 79-year-old Great Neck resident who left home in late 2025 and never returned. Her family has already said clothing recovered at the scene belonged to her.

Police timed the investigation to 5:44 p.m. on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The department’s homicide squad stated the find plainly in an official release and said the probe remains open.

"The Homicide Squad reports the details of an investigation that occurred on Thursday, October 1, 2026 at 5:44 pm in Manhasset. According to detectives, skeletal human remains were located in a wooded area of Plandome Pond Park located at 192 Lindberg Street. The investigation is ongoing."

Clothing match points to missing Great Neck woman

Xu had dementia and was known for long walks. She was not wearing her tracker when she disappeared from Great Neck. Neighbors and others launched a search after she failed to come home. For months, her family lived without answers.

That wait is familiar to relatives in other disappearances, including a Southern California mother who vanished after a routine drop-off and left police and family searching for leads.

At the Manhasset scene, Xu’s relatives positively identified a piece of clothing as hers. Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told reporters the remains are female and that investigators do not see signs of a crime. DNA work is still needed for a final identification.

The New York Post reported Ryder’s direct assessment as crews moved to confirm the identity.

"It is a female. We are looking to positively identify the body by the end of the day. We don’t believe it to be criminal in nature."

Final ID in cases like this often rests on lab results. DNA testing has identified long-unknown remains in other investigations after years of uncertainty, and Nassau detectives are following that same path here.

Runner kept his composure and thought of the family

The finder was a teenage boy running with a track team, described by a reporter as a Manhasset High School athlete and noted elsewhere as an Eagle Scout. He came across the remains during ordinary practice, not a search party.

Plandome Heights Mayor Kenneth Riscica later described the young man’s response when detectives checked on him. The teen did not center himself. He pointed straight at the family that had been waiting.

"When the detectives asked him how he was doing, his response was ‘I’m doing fine. I only hope this brings closure to a family that lost someone.'"

That instinct matters. A high-school runner kept his head, called attention to what he saw, and hoped the find would give relatives peace. Local officials took note because it said as much about character as about the discovery itself.

Neighbors watched police flood a quiet park

Diana Cotumaccio, who lives near the park, told reporters she saw a heavy police presence after the find. Officers made clear that remains were in the park. She said she had lived there three decades and had never seen anything like it.

"Last night there were several cop cars along with police officers, and they indicated to me there were remains in the park. I’m here 30 years and this is a new one for me."

Plandome Pond Park is a wooded, trail-lined stretch of Long Island, not a place residents expect to become a death investigation scene. Homicide detectives still took the call, secured the area, and began the slow work of identification.

Similar remains discoveries elsewhere have ended in careful rule-outs before families get certainty, as when human remains found in the Arizona desert were checked against a high-profile missing-person case and excluded. Nassau’s posture is the same: verify first, announce later.

Police say no crime suspected while ID work continues

Commissioner Ryder’s early read is that nothing criminal occurred. The clothing identification by Xu’s family is a strong lead, not a closed case. Detectives still need DNA confirmation before they can say with certainty that the remains are hers.

Until that result lands, the official line stays measured. The homicide squad is handling the file. The park location is fixed. The timeline runs from Xu’s late-2025 disappearance through the Thursday afternoon discovery and the department’s same-day release.

Missing-person work often turns on small breaks, clothing, a tracker that was not worn, a runner who looked twice in the brush. Families cannot manufacture those breaks. They depend on neighbors, first responders, and ordinary people who refuse to walk past what does not belong.

Other long-running searches have shown how delays and dead ends compound grief, including coverage of investigative setbacks when an FBI director flagged a sheriff's delay that may have cost critical video. In Manhasset, the sequence moved faster once the remains were found: police on scene, clothing reviewed by family, and a public statement that crime is not suspected.

Xu left home on a routine walk and vanished. A community searched. Months passed. Then a teenager on a track run found what detectives are now testing. If the DNA matches, one Long Island family may finally bury their mother and grandmother with clear answers instead of open questions.

Closure does not erase the loss. It does restore order, name, timeline, and truth, so a family can stop searching the dark for someone who cannot come home.