Lee Pedersen, 69, was found dead at his Pine Avenue home in Aquebogue, New York, on the evening of March 8, 2020, one day after his 69th birthday. Riverhead police discovered he had suffered a single gunshot wound to the back of his head; his car keys, phone, and cash were missing from the residence. Neighbors remembered him as a generous man who maintained his parents’ 1930s cottage and split time between that home and another in Lynbrook.

A lengthy investigation over nine months used surveillance footage and cellphone records and led to the arrest of 42-year-old Donatila O’Mahony at JFK Airport on December 28, 2020. Prosecutors said she befriended Pedersen, forged his will to name herself as an inheritor, and enlisted 76-year-old George Woodworth to buy handguns and lend his car the night of the killing. Police recovered unused ammunition from Woodworth’s home that contained the DNA of both O’Mahony and Pedersen.

A Suffolk County jury later convicted O’Mahony of second-degree murder, criminal possession of a forged instrument, and attempted grand larceny; she was sentenced to 25 years to life. Does anyone have information about Pedersen’s activities in Aquebogue in early March 2020 or memories of his neighbors and friends?