New York officials announced Wednesday the identification of a woman and her toddler, previously known only as “peaches.” Gilgo Beach serial murders Long Island case.
Authorities identified her mother as Tanya Dennis Jackson (formerly known as “peaches” because of her distinctive peach tattoos,” and as a baby, like Tatiana Marie Dykes. Police found Jackson’s torso in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York in 1997. Authorities placed the body of a two-year-old infant near the Ocean Parkway in Babylon, New York in April 2011.
“The reality is that our work is just beginning, and knowing the identity of our mothers and little babies is just the first step to helping to resolve these murders,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said at a press conference Wednesday. “If you have their identity, say, ‘If you know Tanya, if you worked with her, if you see her at the grocery store…please contact us.’ “Everything we can know until her death will help us solve this horrible, horrible crime. ”
Released almost 15 years ago, the Gilgo Beach case led to the discovery of 10 human bodies, primarily women, one man and child along the Ocean Parkway. One of the unidentified murder victims, an African-American woman known as Jane Doe #3, was called “Peach” with a tattoo on her left breast.
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Authorities identified her mother as Tanya Dennis Jackson (formerly known as “peaches” because of her distinctive peach tattoos,” and as a baby, like Tatiana Marie Dykes. Police found Tania’s torso in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York in 1997. (FBI)
Rex Homan, a 61-year-old Manhattan architect from Massapequa, Long Island, has been charged with the murder of seven women whose bodies are found in the area. Several victims have been identified as sex workers whose bodies are torn apart, packed in bags and scattered throughout Gilgo Beach.
Rex Human, suspected serial killer, has been charged with seventh murder
A map created by Suffolk County Police shows the location of bodies found on Gilgo Beach between 2010 and 2011. (Suffolk County Police)
“We don’t discount the possibility that these cases are irrelevant. [to] The investigation stated, “Nassau County PD HolicideDet. SeanFitzpatrick said Wednesday.
Rex Human, suspected serial killer, has been charged with seventh murder
Jackson and Dykes, US Army veterans from Alabama, were linked as mothers and daughters in 2015 after a preliminary DNA analysis, but their identity at the time was still unknown.
Jackson lived in Brooklyn and probably worked as an assistant at a clinic in the 1990s. She served in the Army between 1993 and 1995 at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Fort Gordon in Georgia, and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
Serial killer suspect Rex Human faces more potential accusations one year after arrest
“By inviting the FBI to contribute to this case, we were able to contribute new and innovative resources to the table in the form of highly skilled research genetics or IGG teams,” FBI Deputy Assistant Advisor Christopher Raya said Wednesday. “The IGG team combines crime scene DNA with traditional genealogy research and historical records to generate leads to identify unknown DNA. This is what happened in this particular case.”
New York police have identified “Peach” as Tatiana Marie Dykes as Tanya Jackson of Alabama and daughter. (dnasolves.com)
DNA evidence for Jackson and his daughter’s case was submitted to OSRAM in 2020. Scientists from the Texas-based Forensic Genealogy Lab used existing data from a woman unknown at the time to build a comprehensive genetic profile and ultimately found her identity.
“The circumstances surrounding Tanya and Tatiana’s loss are both frightening and heartbreaking, but finding the answers and truth about who they are is the next step to getting their justice,” Kristen Mittelman, chief development officer at the Forensic Institute, which specializes in difficult DNA cases, said in a statement Wednesday. “We cannot regain lost victims, but our hope is that we can help bring about a solution.”
Rex Heuermann will appear with Attorney Michael Brown in Judge Tim Matze’s courtroom on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead, New York. (News Day via James Carbon/Pool)
A serial murder investigation in Gilgo Beach is underway.
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Prosecutors said Human’s allegations of motive were “identifying and ‘hunting’ women with the intent to commit murder,” and his job patrolsing Jones Beach’s Sandy Stretch at night makes him familiar with the area.
Signs welcoming visitors to Gilgo Beach outside the tunnel that connects the parking lot to the beach below the Ocean Parkway. (Michael Lewis/Fox News)
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Heuermann is from the South Shore, where he purchased Massapequa Park House, which he grew up from his mother in the early 1990s. The neighborhood is located near both beaches.
Jones Beach is less than 7 miles from the Gilgodown Ocean Parkway. Six of the seven victim sites have been recovered all or part of the east of Gilgo Beach, and prosecutors call the area “central disposal site.”
