Suffolk County woman accused of running Islip Terrace brothel for years
Neighbors complained about a Cedarwood Street home in Islip Terrace that police say had operated as a brothel since at least 2012.
A 67-year-old Islip Terrace woman is accused of using a Cedarwood Street house as a brothel for more than a decade, a case Suffolk County police say surfaced only after community complaints brought the home under scrutiny.
Police identified the woman as Helen Mantell, 67, of 204 Cedarwood Street. Detectives said the alleged operation had been running since at least 2012 and that Mantell used the name “Phyllis” in advertisements tied to the home.
The Suffolk County Police Human Trafficking Investigations Unit worked the case with Third Precinct patrol officers. Investigators said they found online ads and message-board posts connected to the address, building a case around an operation that allegedly persisted in a quiet residential block while neighbors raised concerns.
Mantell was arrested at about 4:45 p.m. on Monday, June 1, 2026, and charged with prostitution. Police issued her a desk appearance ticket, and she was expected to be arraigned later in Suffolk County First District Court in Central Islip.
Authorities said the investigation was continuing, but at this point they had found no evidence of human trafficking. That distinction matters in Suffolk County, where police and prosecutors have increasingly focused on prostitution-related cases through units and task forces that target both street-level activity and more organized enterprises.
The case also lands against the backdrop of a 2025 prostitution enterprise prosecution brought in Suffolk County, where former Suffolk County police officer Frank Saggio, along with George Trimigliozzi and Dana Ciardullo, pleaded guilty to Enterprise Corruption and Promoting Prostitution in the Third Degree for running multiple brothels in Holbrook and West Babylon. For county law enforcement, the Islip Terrace arrest underscores how long-running illegal activity can remain embedded in a neighborhood until complaints, digital traces and sustained police work force it into the open.
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