AMITYVILLE, N.Y. — A man and his girlfriend have been indicted in the murders of a couple whose dismembered bodies were found scattered in multiple parks and wooded areas on Long Island last month.

Jeffrey Mackey, 36, and Alexis Nieves, 33, both of Amityville, are each charged with murder, conspiracy, hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and concealment of a corpse in the killings of Malcolm “Craig” Brown, 53, and Donna Conneely, 59, both of Yonkers. According to Suffolk County prosecutors, Brown and Conneely were allegedly stabbed to death Feb. 27 in a violent attack at a home in Amityville.

The couple were acquaintances of the defendants, authorities said.

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Assistant Suffolk County prosecutor Frank Schroeder told the court Monday that Brown and Conneely were slain following a dispute over an armed robbery they, Mackey and Nieves were involved in, according to The Associated Press.

Mackey stabbed the pair to death while Nieves stabbed Conneely and beat her in the head and neck with a meat tenderizer, the AP and CBS New York reported.

“While the case involves the cutting up of bodies of two human beings, the barbarity of those acts were only exceeded by the brutality of the murders themselves,” Schroeder said, according to Newsday.

While Nieves is charged with a single count of murder, Mackey is charged with two counts of murder. Mackey is also charged with robbery in the case.

Two others have also been charged in connection with Brown and Conneely’s deaths. Steven Brown, 44, and Amanda Wallace, 40, also of Amityville, have been indicted on charges of robbery, hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and concealment of a human corpse.

Steven Brown, who the AP identified as Malcolm Brown’s cousin, is also charged with conspiracy in the case.

According to investigators, Malcolm Brown and Conneely participated in the planning of a Feb. 20 gas station robbery that Mackey and Nieves committed.

“There was a lot of illegal conduct occurring between the victims and the defendants, which in part was the impetus for the murders, presumably,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said Monday, according to CBS New York.

Authorities allege that the four met Feb. 27 at the Amityville rental home that they shared with Steven Brown and Wallace. Mackey and Nieves already knew they were going to kill the victims before the pair arrived, prosecutors said.

“They were basically living together and just engaging in all sorts of activities with one another, Tierney said, via NBC New York.

Once everyone was at the house, Mackey and Nieves allegedly attacked the victims. They are then accused of dismembering the victims’ bodies in the bathroom of the home.

New York’s NBC affiliate reported that blood was found inside the house, along with knives and meat cleavers allegedly used in the crime.

The first indication of the murders came two days later when a teen walking to school found a severed left arm in Southards Pond Park in Babylon, according to CBS News. The girl called her father, who met her at the park and called 911.

A responding K-9 unit found a severed leg in a pile of leaves in a wooded area near the initial scene. Several hours later, the dog found a right arm about 20 feet from where the left arm had been found.

The limbs all belonged to Malcolm Brown, according to reports.

The next day, a cadaver dog searching the the opposite side of the found Conneely’s head, torso, an arm and parts of her legs, prosecutors said.

Additional body parts were found March 5 in a wooded area in West Babylon and at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, more than 7 miles from where the first body parts were located.

Mackey, Nieves, Wallace and Steven Brown were initially charged with related to the disposal of the bodies, NBC New York reported. Tierney said it took time and resources to gather enough probable cause to support the murder charges.

“Six individuals go into a house, four come out,” the prosecutor said. “Now it’s left to law enforcement to figure out what happened in that house.”

Tierney thanked his prosecutors, as well as Suffolk County police detectives, for their work bringing the case to this stage.

“Those in law enforcement must do their jobs without fear or favor,” Tierney said in a statement. “Ethically, charges can and should only be brought when the facts and evidence are clear. I thank the team for ignoring the distractions and doing just that.”

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