Prosecutors say the victim was stabbed, wrapped in a blanket and left in woods in Manorville after she disappeared from her Riverhead home.
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A Long Island man has been charged with killing his mother after police said her body was found in a wooded area in Manorville weeks after she disappeared from the home they shared in Riverhead.
Curtis Trent Jr., 36, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Kathleen Harrison Trent, 63, a longtime Riverhead Raceway employee whose disappearance drew public appeals from relatives, co-workers and local police. Prosecutors later added charges accusing him of hiding her body and tampering with evidence, turning a missing-person case into a broader homicide prosecution with a court date now set in Suffolk County.
Police say Kathleen Harrison Trent was last seen Jan. 27 at her Forge Road home in Riverhead. Two days later, another son, Robert Trent, reported her missing after he could not reach her and went to the trailer, where prosecutors said he found what appeared to be blood inside and around the home. He also noticed that his mother’s pickup truck was gone and that Curtis Trent Jr. could not be found. Officers responded that night and searched the property. Prosecutors say they found several of the missing woman’s belongings still at the home, including her wallet, cellphone and medication, along with blood-stained male sneakers and other items later collected for forensic testing. Early the next morning, just before 6 a.m. Jan. 30, prosecutors said police encountered Curtis Trent Jr. returning to the property in his mother’s 2017 Chevrolet Colorado pickup. When officers asked about her whereabouts, Assistant District Attorney Keri Wasson said in court, he told them he had been looking for his mother and said he “would harm himself” if something had happened to her.
The investigation widened over the next two weeks. Police said Curtis Trent Jr. tried to flee before he was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital’s psychiatric center for evaluation. The pickup was impounded, and prosecutors later said blood was found on its tailgate. Friends and relatives continued searching as missing-person flyers spread across Riverhead and on social media. John Ellwood, general manager of Riverhead Raceway, said Kathleen Harrison Trent had spent more than 40 years working at the track and was known by generations of racing families. On Feb. 11, Seventh Precinct patrol officers searching Manorville found the body of an adult woman in a wooded area off Connecticut Avenue, south of River Road. Authorities later identified the body as Kathleen Harrison Trent. Prosecutors said her body was frozen, wrapped in a blanket and located about 25 feet off the road. An autopsy found multiple stab wounds to her torso, face and neck, and prosecutors said she was stabbed additional times after death. News 12 reported court papers accused Curtis Trent Jr. of stabbing his mother in the face, chest and abdomen.
The case shook two East End communities at once. Riverhead residents had first seen the matter as a troubling disappearance involving a familiar local worker, while Manorville became the site where search efforts turned into a homicide scene. Suffolk County police first announced that detectives believed the death was criminal in nature, then later arrested Curtis Trent Jr. and charged him with murder. Family members and co-workers remembered Kathleen Harrison Trent as a caring mother and steady presence at Riverhead Raceway. In an earlier interview during the search, Ellwood said she had been “instrumental” at the facility, working in roles ranging from concessions to security and cleanup. Prosecutors said the violence unfolded inside the Riverhead home sometime between Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, then shifted to Manorville, where they allege the defendant abandoned the body. Robert Trent’s discovery of blood at the trailer became one of the early turning points in the investigation. Prosecutors also said clothing believed to belong to the victim was found on Mill Road in Manorville about 10 days after she vanished, and those items were sent to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory along with swabs and the shoes collected from the home.
The legal case has also moved beyond the initial arrest. Police arrested Curtis Trent Jr. on Feb. 18 at the Forge Road home and charged him first with second-degree murder. He was later indicted on that count and also charged with concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence, both Class E felonies, according to prosecutors. At his arraignment in Suffolk County criminal court on March 6, defense attorney Tara Laterza entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Judge Richard Horowitz ordered him held without bail. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement that the defendant was charged not only with taking his mother’s life but also with trying to conceal the crime and hide her body. The criminal complaint and indictment are accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted. Several questions remain unanswered in public records, including what prosecutors believe sparked the attack and whether additional forensic testing could add detail about the hours between the reported disappearance and the discovery of the body.
Even as the case moved into court, the loss remained personal for the people who knew the victim best. Cries from Robert Trent could be heard in the courtroom as prosecutors described the allegations at arraignment, according to local coverage. Family members have also said Curtis Trent Jr. had struggled with mental illness in the years before the killing, a point that may draw closer attention as the case proceeds. For many in Riverhead, the public memory of Kathleen Harrison Trent still begins not with the criminal charges but with the search notices posted before what would have been her 63rd birthday on Feb. 1. Those notices described a 5-foot-2 woman with blonde hair and blue eyes and asked neighbors to keep watch for any sign of her. Instead, the search ended in one of the region’s most disturbing homicide cases of the winter, linking a modest home in Riverhead, a pickup truck, blood evidence and a remote patch of frozen woods in Manorville.
Authorities say the investigation remains active. Curtis Trent Jr. is due back in court April 22, and prosecutors are expected to keep building the case around forensic evidence, witness accounts and the timeline from the Riverhead home to the Manorville woods.
Author note: Last updated March 25, 2026.