‘Peaches’ and ‘Baby Doe,’ bodies found near Gilgo Beach, ID’d as mother and 2-year-old daughter
The identities of a woman and child whose remains were found 14 years apart on Long Island have been identified as a mother and her daughter, cold case murders that officials say could be linked to the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killings.
Tanya Jackson, 26, was found dismembered in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York, on June 28, 1997. Her 2-year-old daughter, Tatiana Dykes, was found about 20 miles away along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in April 2011, Nassau County officials said at a press conference Wednesday.
Authorities had long identified Jackson as “Peaches,” a nickname drawn from a tattoo that was found on Jackson’s torso, while Tatiana had been referred to as “Baby Doe.”
Stephen Fitzpatrick, a Nassau County Police homicide detective, said that the two weren’t genetically linked until a 2015 DNA analysis. The case was later turned over to the FBI, whose forensic experts were able to identify the bodies.
Jackson was a single mother at the time of her death living in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. She served “honorably” as a U.S. Army veteran between 1993 to 1995, the detective said.
“She was possibly employed at a doctor’s office, in a medical assistant capacity, while living in Brooklyn,” Fitzpatrick told reporters. “While she was going to work, it was reported to us that there might have been a female friend or neighbor who would watch the baby.”
Nassau County officials are asking the public for help in the ongoing investigation into their deaths.
The unsolved nature of their case has drawn speculation that they could be victims in what is known as as the Gilgo Beach killings. Police began investigating the deaths of at least 10 people, mostly sex workers, in late 2010. The bodies were found along an isolated highway not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Island.
The investigation led to the arrest of an architect named Rex Heuermann in 2023. He’s been charged in seven alleged murders and has denied all involvement in the deaths.
Fitzpatrick insisted that the investigation into the deaths of Jackson and her daughter will look at all possibilities.
“Although Tanya and Tatiana have commonly been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killings — because of the timing and locations of their recovered remains — we are not discounting the possibility that their cases are unrelated from that investigation,” Fitzpatrick said.
Internet speculation should not be brought into the investigation, the detective warned. An attorney for Heuermann did not immediately return a request for comment.
