The rape and murder of a beloved Northport grandmother has finally been solved after 30 years. 

Ann Lustig's family has been praying for answers since her 1997 murder. 

Lustig lived in a group home not far from Main Street. The day she disappeared, she took a cab to King's Park State Psychiatric Hospital for an appointment, but never came home. Her body was found by hunters in Calverton Woods. She had been abducted, raped and murdered, law enforcement said.

"How do you convey the feeling of unimaginable loss?" 

"Who took my grandmother Ann from us in the winter of 1997?" grandson Joseph Saccone said. "How do you convey the feeling of unimaginable loss?" 

Detectives never gave up, and looked into whether the vicious attack was linked to the rape of an 82-year-olf victim, also taken from Kings Park. That victim lived to tell of her nightmare of being kidnapped in a van. 

Carpet fibers and swabs from the victims were saved, and modern scientific techniques were applied. Using a DNA profile from Lustig's sweatshirt and new, advanced forensic technology introduced in 2024, a match was found within months of reopening the cold case. 

"We are able to identify the perpetrator"

"Following the success of Gilgo Beach homicide investigation, the murder of Ann Lustig was one of the first cases that was examined by the task force," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said. "Today, we are able to identify the perpetrator of these crimes as Steven Briecke, who is now deceased." 

Briecke, from West Islip, served time for assault. His DNA was in the database. After he was paroled, the murder and rapes began. Briecke died in 2014. 

"The monster that took her last breath from her is no longer walking among us," Saccone said. "The hope of an answer is always worth holding onto -- and that it's important to never give up."