Inset left: Curtis Trent (Suffolk County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Kathleen Harrison Trent (GoFundMe). Background: The wooded area where Kathleen Trent’s body was discovered on Long Island, N.Y. (Google Maps).
A New York man is behind bars after stabbing his mother to death and leaving her body in the woods on Long Island, Empire State police say.
Curtis Trent Jr., 36, stands accused of one count of murder in the second degree over the death of 62-year-old Kathleen Harrison Trent, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred sometime late last month.
The victim was last seen or heard from on Jan. 27. Two days later, a missing person alert was issued by the Riverhead Town Police Department. On Feb. 11, her body was found in a wooded area along Connecticut Avenue in Manorville, a small suburban community located some 25 miles west of The Hamptons.
Her remains were identified four days later and authorities said her death was “criminal in nature,” according to Patch.com.
On Wednesday, the defendant was arrested at his mother’s house on Forge Road in Riverhead, which is roughly 5 miles east of where the victim’s body was discovered during a sweep of the area. That residence is the last place she was ever seen alive, police said.
Details about the slaying are currently scarce.
The missing person report was filed on Jan. 29 by the victim’s other son, Robby Trent, according to law enforcement.
The defendant allegedly stabbed his mother in the face, chest, and abdomen, according to court documents obtained by regional cable news network News 12 Long Island. The slaying is believed to have occurred sometime between the 27th and 29th of January, police said.
While authorities provided few details about the woman’s death, details of her life were not hard to come by. For 40 years, she worked at Riverhead Raceway, the lone auto racing venue on Long Island.
“Kathi was part of the fabric of our beloved track, for generations she knew families from the parents to their children and yes even their grandchildren,” the business wrote in a post on Facebook. “She’d know them by name, ask how they were doing, how the family was, she genuinely cared, it’s just who she was.”
The victim was also fondly remembered in a GoFundMe for funeral expenses started by her other son’s wife.
“She was a loving, caring mother and an amazing friend,” the fundraiser reads. “Her grandchildren meant the world to her, she was the type of person that would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it or find you one. She cared about so many people.”
Kathleen Trent would have turned 63 years old on Feb. 1.
The defendant was arraigned on the murder charge in Riverhead Town Justice Court immediately after his arrest.
The investigation in the case is said to be ongoing.
