Bodies found near Gilgo Beach identified as mother and daughter, police say
Nassau County police have released the identities of a mother and child whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island nearly three decades ago.
They say, however, the deaths may be unrelated to Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann.
Woman previously known as "Peaches" lived in Brooklyn
The previously unidentified woman had been called "Peaches" by investigators because of a tattoo on her chest. Some of her remains were found in 1997 stuffed inside a plastic tub in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview. Her skull was discovered 20 miles southeast, near Jones Beach.
She has now been identified as 26-year-old Tanya Denise Jackson. She had been living in Brooklyn and was a U.S. Army veteran from Alabama.
In 2011, more remains and the skeletal remains of her daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes, were found along Ocean Parkway, between Cedar Beach and Gilgo Beach.
Police said the mother and daughter were estranged from family in Alabama, and from the baby's father, who police say has since been identified.
"We have spoken to him. He has been cooperative," said Det. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, of the Nassau County Police Homicide Squad.
There is a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
"Our work has just begun"
The FBI credited its new forensic genealogy techniques and teamwork with Nassau and Suffolk counties for the identifications. It also shared images of the jewelry worn by the mother and the car that she drove, a 1991 black Geo Storm.
"She was possibly employed in a doctor's office as a medical assistant capacity while living in Brooklyn. While she would go to work, it was reported to us there might have been a female friend who watched the baby while she went to work," Fitzpatrick said.
The remains of the mother and daughter were buried in Alabama within the last two months, police said.
"The reality is our work has just begun," Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. "Knowing the identities of the mom and the little baby is just a first step to help us get to solving these murders."
"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," Fitzpatrick said. "Speculation and theories by people and on the internet should not be brought into this."
Thus far, Heuermann has been charged in the deaths of seven women. He's pleaded not guilty.
