Greater Moriches coverage is funded in part by Angels of Long Island, a charitable nonprofit. Shopping at the Angels’ Mastic and Patchogue thrift stores helps Long Island families in need. Or, click here to donate.
Update: The teenage Manorville couple who went missing Dec. 9 have been found and are safe, Suffolk authorities reported.
15-year-old Vincent Abolafia and his girlfriend, Kaileigh Catalano, also 15, were located today in Manhattan.
The NYPD and MTA Police Department assisted Suffolk police in this investigation.
Original story below
The father of Gabby Petito is pleading for the public to help authorities locate a teenage Manorville couple who went missing on Thursday, Dec. 9.
“These are just kids. Please, remember what they look like. Share this if you can,” Selden native Joseph Petito tweeted to his 108,000 followers earlier today, sharing an official missing person alert that included photos of 15-year-old Vincent Abolafia and his girlfriend, Kaileigh Catalano, also 15.
Joseph Petito urged that anyone with information on the whereabouts of the youngsters to please contact Suffolk County Police.
The police continue to enlist the public’s help in a desperate search for Vincent and Kaileigh, who apparently boarded a westbound train out of Ronkonkoma on Thursday. They were last seen at the Long Island Rail Road’s Ronkonkoma train station on Thursday, Dec. 9, with the intention of boarding the 3:11 p.m. train to Manhattan, police said.
Authorities described Abolafia as white, 5-foot-3, and 110 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Catalano is white, 5-feet tall, and 118 pounds with dyed black hair, cops said. She was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt adorned with the words “Lil Peep” and black sweatpants.
Police believe the teens may have been seen together in Times Square.
Gabby Petito, an aspiring travel blogger from Blue Point was murdered in August in Wyoming while on a cross-country trip in her van with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, also of Blue Point. Her case captivated the attention of people across the nation and around the world.
Police identified Laundrie as a person of interest in the case, but he too went missing, weeks after returning home to Florida without Petito. Laundrie’s remains were eventually found in an environmental park just north of where he lived in North Port, Florida, with his parents, who are both formerly of Bayport and have relatives with ties to Sayville.
The New York Post reported today that Catalano’s mother, Ehrin, said her daughter was spotted at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant in Times Square, but it is not clearly when she was seen at either location.
A spokesperson for the Suffolk County Police Department said the department had no updates regarding either teen’s whereabouts and is coordinating with the New York Police Department.
Earlier Monday, Ehrin Catalano, asked for the public’s help via Facebook.
“With a little work I rise up because it isn’t in my blood to give up!” she said. “Help me please.”
Anyone with information on Abolafia or Catalano’s location is asked to call Seventh Squad Detectives at 631.852.8752 or 911.
With reporting from Brian Harmon
