MASTIC BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A Long Island man is at the center of a gruesome homicide investigation halfway around the world.

On Monday, Japanese media staked out the Mastic Beach home of 26-year-old Yevgeniy Bayraktar. Neighbors on Lynbrook Drive weren’t sure what to make of it.

“We were shocked,” Jim Pisano told CBS2’s Tony Aiello. “Like I told my wife, it seems like Mastic Beach has gone international now.”

Seven-thousand miles from his Suffolk County home, Bayraktar was shielded from cameras. He was taken into custody after police found the head of a missing Japanese woman in his suitcase.

The gory discovery was made at a building where Bayraktar was renting a room during a multi-week visit to Japan.

The New Yorker reportedly led police to remote areas in parts of Kyoto and Osaka where they found a torso, arms, and legs in three locations on Sunday.

Investigators say surveillance video shows Bayraktar walking with the woman he’d met on a social networking site. Local media said the woman was a 27-year-old office worker from Sanda City.

The circumstances of her death and dismemberment remained under investigation. Meanwhile, a Japanese television network says it interviewed Bayraktar’s mother. She reportedly expressed shock at the allegations, saying her son has a longtime fascination with the country and wanted to marry a Japanese woman.

Neighbors say the suspect and his family are quiet and private.

“Just a neighborly hello and goodbye,” Rick James said. “Shocking to think it’s someone that close to you, next door.”

Others say they can’t imagine how their neighbor ended up in so much trouble so far from home.

Local media reports the victim posted on social media she was going to meet an American. When she didn’t return home, her family contacted police.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)