Nearly 30 years after their remains were found near Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach, a woman and her child were finally identified by police Wednesday.
Nassau County Police said the mother, previously nicknamed “Peaches” by investigators after a tattoo on her body, had been identified as Tanya Denise Jackson, a U.S. army veteran who was 26 at the time of the killing.
Her 2-year-old daughter was identified as Tatiana Marie Dykes, investigators said. Both were living in Brooklyn, where Jackson may have worked as a medical assistant, according to police.
Police said they had no evidence at this time to suggest the unsolved killings were linked to Rex Heuermann, who has been charged in the deaths of seven women whose remains were discovered elsewhere on Long Island.
“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 a briefing Wednesday.
“I’m not saying it is Rex Heuermann and I’m not saying it’s not,” he added. “We are proceeding as if it’s not, keeping our eyes wide open.”
Some of the Jackson’s remains were discovered on June 28, 1997, stuffed inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead on Long Island. More remains, and the skeletal remains of the female child, were found off Ocean Parkway in April 2011.
At the briefing Wednesday, law enforcement officials said they had identified the victims through DNA evidence found at the scene and advanced genetic and genealogy research.
“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.”
Officials said they had spoken with the child's father, who was cooperating with the investigation and not considered a suspect at this time. They said Jackson had been estranged from much of her family. She served in the U.S. Army from 1993 to 1995, living on three bases in Texas, Georgia and Missouri, officials said.
It has long been unclear whether there is any connection between the mother and daughter and other women found slain elsewhere on Long Island. Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people — mostly female sex workers — whose remains were discovered there.
Heuermann, a Manhattan architect, has been charged in the deaths of seven women. He has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all counts. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting Heuermann, said in a statement he is not commenting on “any topics even tangentially involved to the investigation” while a pre-trial hearing plays out.
The two female victims are among three sets of human remains long associated with the Gilgo Beach case that have not been identified, at least publicly, by authorities.
In September, Long Island officials released more detailed renderings of a victim believed to be of Chinese descent whose remains were found off Ocean Parkway in 2011. The victim died in 2006 or earlier, was likely between ages 17 and 23 and about 5 feet 6 inches (170 centimeters) tall.
Officials for years had identified the victim as male, but said they now believe the person may have presented outwardly as female as they were dressed in women’s clothing.
Heuermann has not been charged in the deaths of three unidentified victims.
