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Immigration bust & more: most read stories of 2013

CYNDI MURRAY FILE PHOTO | Law enforcement officials outside Cutchogue 7-Eleven.
CYNDI MURRAY FILE PHOTO | Law enforcement officials outside Cutchogue 7-Eleven.

It was an eventful 2013 on the North Fork. We’ll spare you the details, since we’ve run plenty of year in review items for you to catch up on from last year.

But, since they interested you so much the first time around, we figured we’d share our top five most-read stories from last year.

Without further ado:

5. Price Wins Handily, GOP Sweeps the RestIn a year of local elections, incumbent Town Justice William Price keeps his seat, while Jim Dinizio and Bob Ghosio earn full terms on the town board.

4. County Tells Fire Fighter it’s Time to LeaveThe saga of the displaced floating museum continues to this day. However when Suffolk County announced it planned on kicking the Fire Fighter to the curb in late November, it was big news in the process.

3. Boston Marathon Suspect Falsely Reported on Orient Ferry: Imagine being the poor guy who resembled Dzokhar Tsarnaev — the Boston Marathon bombing suspect? Well, when the suspect goes missing for hours on end — eventually shutting down an entire major American city — one passenger on the Orient Ferry figured it was better to be safe than sorry, resulting in a massive flock of police forces to the Orient dock. False alarm, though.

2. Ashley Murray Disappearance Captivates the North ForkAn entire community was captivated with the apparent disappearance of Peconic teenager Ashley Murray, who went missing for over a week in late February and early March. Luckily, after running away for about a week, she returned home after showing up unannounced one day at the Southold Police station.

1. Immigration Sweep Leads to Arrest of 7-Eleven OwnerWhile the Ashley Murray stories were, as a collective storyline, more well read, the single most read story of the year involved a 7-Eleven owner who reportedly forced over 50 illegal immigrants to work long hours for scant pay at his convenience stores — including the Cutchogue and Greenport locations — and stealing the identities of over 20 people in order to do so.