THE names of a murdered mom and daughter found in the search for Gilgo Beach victims have been revealed after they were called Jane Does for decades.
Tanya Denise Jackson, a 27-year-old veteran mom, is the woman who investigators called “Peaches” for years due to a tattoo on her body after her remains were found in 1997.
Nassau County Police DepartmentTanya Denise Jackson, left, and her daughter Tatiana Marie Dykes were killed in 1997[/caption]
The tattoo on Tanya’s body, which led to her being referred to as Peaches
Nassau County Police DepartmentJackson was wearing gold bracelets at the time of her death[/caption]
Nassau County Police DepartmentBaby Tatiana was wearing a pair of earrings when she died[/caption]
Jackson and her two-year-old daughter were linked to the investigation into a series of murders after the bodies of at least 10 victims, mostly consisting of female sex workers, were discovered along a highway near Gilgo Beach on Long Island in New York starting in 2010.
Her daughter’s name is Tatiana Marie Dykes, the Nassau County Police Department announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
Jackson was a single mom from Alabama who was born in October 1970.
The army veteran was living in Brooklyn and working at a doctor’s office at the time of her death.
Investigators showed pictures of the gold bracelets Jackson was wearing when she was killed at the press conference.
Baby Tatiana, born in 1995, was wearing a pair of earrings and a necklace.
The mom and daughter are now buried together in the Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
Tatiana’s dad has been identified and is cooperating with police as they investigate the deaths.
Nassau County Police DepartmentJackson’s dismembered torso was found in a green Rubbermaid container in the woods at Hempstead Lake State Park[/caption]
Nassau County Police DepartmentJackson’s body was found stuffed next to a floral pillowcase[/caption]
Nassau County Police DepartmentA red towel was found with Jackson’s body in the Rubbermaid container[/caption]
FOUND IN THE WOODS
A hiker found Jackson’s dismembered torso with a red towel and a floral pillowcase inside a rubber garbage bin in the woods at Hampstead Lake State Park in June 1997.
Investigators believed Jackson had been killed about three days before her body was found.
Based on her torso, she was believed to be between 16 and 30 years old. She had a scar on her stomach, which led investigators to believe she had previously had a cesarean section.
The victim was long referred to by her tattoo, which was a heart-shaped peach with a bite taken out of it on her left breast.
Cops found Jackson’s severed arms, legs, and head in Jones Beach State Park in 2011.
In April of that same year, cops found the remains of an unidentified female toddler along Ocean Parkway, near the body of a Gilgo Beach murders victim named Valerie Mack.
Five years later, DNA testing revealed the toddler was Peaches’ daughter.
Nassau County Police DepartmentBaby Tatiana was wearing a necklace when she died[/caption]
Nassau County Police DepartmentJackson, a military veteran, was wearing gold bracelets when she died[/caption]
SEARCH FOR PEACHES
Cops initially said it was nearly impossible to identify Jackson because they didn’t have any other information about her aside from her having brown hair and brown eyes.
However, the New York investigation traveled South to Alabama in 2022 as cops began looking for answers regarding Peaches’ family.
The FBI searched for relatives and friends of a man named Elijah “Lige” Howell Howard, who died in 1963.
Cops at the press conference on Wednesday didn’t say if Howard was related to Jackson and Dykes.
It’s unclear if Jackson and Dykes’ deaths are related to the Gilgo Beach murders.
A $25,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest of the person who killed Jackson and her daughter.
A timeline of the Gilgo Beach murders
A community on Long Island, New York, was left looking for answers after the remains of numerous people were found in Gilgo Beach. This is a timeline of events that led to the arrest of suspect Rex Heuermann.
April 1996: The first remains are found in connection to the Gilgo Beach murders. Authorities referred to the victim as “Fire Island Jane Doe.”
June 1997: The partial remains of a woman, known only as Peaches, are found in a bin at Hempstead Lake State Park.
September 2000: The remains of a woman are found in Manorville, New York. She was known as Manorville Jane Doe for decades.
July 26, 2003: The remains of Jessica Taylor are found in Manorville. Her skull was found eight years later.
July 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, goes missing. She was reported missing by a friend.
July 2009: Melissa Barthelemy goes missing.
May 2010: Shannan Gilbert vanishes. She called the police before she went missing.
June 2010: Megan Waterman goes missing. Security footage showed her leaving a Holiday Inn Express hotel in Hauppauge, Long Island.
September 2010: Amber Lynn Costello disappears. She left her home in West Babylon, New York, without her cell phone. But, she was never reported missing.
September 2010: Hikers in the Long Island Pine Barrens discover more remains of the Manorville woman.
December 2010: The remains of Barthelemy are found by investigators in Gilgo Beach. The investigators were searching for Gilbert at the time. Later, investigators found three other bodies which were wrapped in burlap at Gilgo Beach. Authorities announced a serial killer may have murdered the females.
January 2011: The remains of Waterman, Barthelemy, Costello, and Brainard-Barnes are formally identified. They are known as the Gilgo Four.
March 2011: Human remains are found near Gilgo Beach.
April 2011: The bodies of three other victims are found near Gilgo Beach. Two other victims were found near Jones Beach, about five miles from where the other bodies were found near Gilgo Beach.
May 2011: Cops announce six more sets of human remains were found.
November 2011: The Suffolk County Police Department announces the victims found near Gilgo Beach were most likely sex workers. They believe one person may be responsible for the murders.
December 2011: The remains of Shannan Gilbert are found in Gilgo Beach. Cops at the time didn’t believe she had been murdered. Gilbert’s remains were discovered around a year and a half after vanishing.
December 2015: The FBI joins the probe into the murders.
May 2020: The remains of Manorville Jane Doe are identified as Valerie Mack. Mack was working as an escort in Philadelphia when she disappeared. She was last seen by her family in New Jersey in 2000.
January 2022: A new task force is created to investigate the murders.
May 2022: Cops release a 22-minute phone call from the night Gilbert disappeared.
July 13, 2023: Authorities announce the arrest of Rex Heuermann. The suspect was arrested in Manhattan. He was charged with the deaths of Costello, Barthelemy, and Waterman. He was named the prime suspect in the murder of Brainard-Barnes, but cops did not charge him.
August 4, 2023: The woman, known as Fire Island Jane Doe, formally identified as Karen Vergata, 34.
October 18, 2023: Attorney John Ray says new evidence has connected Heuermann to victims Gilbert and Vergata.
January 16, 2024: Heuermann is charged with murdering Brainard-Barnes. He pleaded not guilty.
December 17, 2024: Heuermann is charged with murdering Valerie Mack.
Speculation and fear swirled in the Long Island community for years as the Gilgo Beach murders went unsolved, but then a breakthrough came three decades after the first victim was killed.
Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect, was arrested in 2023 and charged with the murders of three victims: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello in 2009 and 2010.
After he was put in custody, he was accused of killing four other women: Sandra Costilla in 1993, Mack in 2000, Jessica Taylor in 2003, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007.
Heuermann, 61, lives in Massapequa Park, just a 20-minute drive away from where the bodies were dumped.
He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and maintained his innocence.
No trial date has been set for Heuermann.
New York State Parks Reserve AmericaJackson was found in a container in the woods at Hempstead Lake State Park in New York[/caption]
APAlleged Gilgo serial killer Rex Heuermann at a hearing in Riverhead, New York, on April 3, 2025[/caption]
GettyAn aerial view of the area near Gilgo Beach and Ocean Parkway on Long Island, where 10 sets of human remains were found in 2011[/caption]
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