Nassau County police officials gathered on Wednesday to provide the latest development in–or perhaps not related to—the ongoing “Long Island Serial Killer” investigation.
Meanwhile in Suffolk, District Attorney Ray Tierney’s spokeswoman issued the following statement: "DA Tierney has refrained from making any comments about Rex Heuermann and any topics even tangentially involved to the investigation, pending completion of the ongoing pre-trial hearing. Once the hearing is concluded, DA Tierney will resume speaking with the media.”
NYC architect Rex Heurermann, of Massapequa Park, still awaits trial following his bombshell July 2023 arrest for the murder of four women from 2007-2010. He was charged with three more killings since, most connected to him via DNA evidence—including a woman slain in the early ’90s.
For years, law enforcement worked to identify the bodies that began to be discovered en masse along the Gilgo Beach area where Heurermann allegedly disposed of his victims.
Some remains of a mother, infant daughter pairing were found stuffed inside a plastic tub in a West Hempstead State Park on June 28, 1997; even more, including the skeletal remains of the female child, were found off Ocean Parkway in April 2011. Investigators nicknamed the mother “Peaches” after a tattoo detected on her body.
On Wednesday, Nassau County Police announced she had been identified as Tanya Denise Jackson, a U.S. Army Veteran (1993-1995). They confirmed she was just 26 years old when killed.
Even before Heurermann’s arrest, it’s long been a topic of debate as to whether or not Jackson and her daughter, identified as Tatiana Marie Dykes, 2-years-young, could be victims of the same killer who primarily targeted caucasian sex workers. No evidence has been found linking Heuremann to Jackson and Dykes.
Tanya and Tatiana were living in Brooklyn at the time, not dissimilar to the NYC residence of other Gilgo Killer victims. According to police, Jackson was working as a medical assistant at the time.
"Although Tanya and Tatiana have commonly been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killings because the timing and locations of their recovered remains, we are not discounting the possibility that their cases are unrelated from that investigation," Homicide Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said on Wednesday.
Law enforcement explained that Jackson and her daughter were identified through DNA evidence and advanced genetic and genealogy research.
"Knowing the identities of the mom and the little baby is just a first step to help us get to solving these murders,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donelly.
The child’s father is cooperating with the investigation, and not considered a suspect, per officials.
“If you had any interaction or any information regarding either of these two individuals [Tanya and Tatiana], please contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers” at 1-800-244-TIPS, the Nassau County Police Department posted to Facebook on Wednesday, along with photos of the departed, Tanya’s “peaches” tattoo and a vehicle similar to the 1991 black Geostorm car she drove.
"I'm not saying it is Rex Heuermann and I'm not saying it's not," Fitzpatrick added. "We are proceeding as if it's not, keeping our eyes wide open."