DM article with details.
Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Marie were identified in a bombshell press briefing held by Nassau County officials Wednesday.
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Gilgo Beach victim 'Peaches' finally identified after 27 years in bombshell serial killer case update
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16:31, 23 Apr 2025, updated 17:24, 23 Apr 2025By RUTH BASHINSKY IN LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK and
RACHEL SHARP, CRIME CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
The Gilgo Beach victims known only as 'Peaches' and her toddler daughter 'Baby Doe' have finally been named almost three decades after some of their remains were first found on Long Island.
US Army veteran Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Marie Dykes were identified in a bombshell press briefing held by Nassau County officials Wednesday.
The huge breakthrough comes after Tanya's dismembered torso - with ehr distinctive peach tattoo - was found in a Rubbermaid container in Hempstead Lake State Park, Lakeview, in 1997.
Around 14 years later - at the height of the search for Gilgo Beach serial killer victims - more of her remains and little Tatiana's skeletal remains were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.
Now, 27 years on, the victims have names. Tanya was a 26-year-old single mother and US Army veteran originally from
Alabama and living in Brooklyn, New York, at the time of her murder.
She served honorably in the military from July 1993 to February 1995, including at the Army bases Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, and Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks.
While living in Brooklyn, she is believed to have been working at a doctor's office, officials said. She drove a black 1991 Geo Storm.
Her daughter Tatiana was born in
Texas in March 1995 and was just two years old at the time of her death.
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann - who has so far been charged with the murders of seven women on Long Island between 1993 and 2010 - has not been charged in connection to their deaths.
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Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, (left) and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Marie Dykes (right) were identified in a bombshell press briefing
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The woman had this distinctive heart-shaped tattoo of a peach on her left breast, earning her the nickname 'Peaches'
Officials said at Wednesday's briefing that, while the victims have long been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case due to where their remains were found, 'we are not discounting that [the murders] could be unrelated.'
A $25,000 Crimestoppers reward is now being offered for information leading to the perpetrator responsible for the mom and daughter's deaths.
Nassau County officials said they will continue to work closely with local and federal law enforcement agencies on the case, including Suffolk County - the jurisdiction leading the Gilgo Beach case.
'The reality is our work has just begun,' Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said at the briefing.
'Knowing the identifies of the mother and the baby is just a first step.'
She urged anyone who knew Tanya 'if you worked with her, if you met her at the grocery store, if you had an interaction with her please let us know.'
Officials also urged anyone who might have served with Tanya in the military to get in contact. She also had ties to Georgia.
'Help us solve this horrific, horrific crime,' DA Donnelly said.
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A $25,000 Crimestoppers reward is now being offered for information leading to the perpetrator responsible for the mom and daughter's death. Pictured: Nassau County officials at the press conference
Nassau County officials revealed that the mom and daughter had been identified 27 years on from their murders thanks to Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) - an investigative method first made famous in the Golden State Killer case.
The use of IGG eventually led investigators to family members who were able to be interviewed and additional DNA testing was then carried out.
The father of the child has also been identified, officials said.
At the time of their murders in 1997, Tanya was estranged from her family and the father of her child and so neither she nor the infant were reported missing.
Now, the mom and daughter's remains have been buried at Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Spanish Fort, Alabama, with military honors.
'Today is a bittersweet day. Today after decades we are finally going to be able to tell you the identities of two victims back from 1997,' DA Donnelly said at the briefing.
'The mother's name was Tanya. The baby's name was Tatiana.'
When asked how long investigators had known the identities of Peaches and the toddler, Nassau County Commanding Officer of the Homicide Squad Stephen Fitzpatrick told DailyMail.com before the briefing: 'We had it for a while and been catching up on 27 years of investigation.'
It was June 28, 1997, when a hiker found the dismembered torso of a woman inside a black plastic bag in a Rubbermaid container dumped in a wooded area of Hempstead Lake State Park, Lakeview.
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The woman's torso was found in this Rubbermaid container in June 1997. More of her remains were found in 2011
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Inside the Rubbermaid container was a floral patterned pillowcase and a red towel (pictured top). Similar gold jewelry was also found with both the mom and child's remains
She was estimated to have been killed around three days earlier.
The woman had a distinctive heart-shaped tattoo of a peach on her left breast, earning her the nickname 'Peaches' or 'Jane Doe 3.'
Inside the container was also a floral patterned pillowcase and a red towel.
In 2011, some of the victim's other body parts were found off Ocean Parkway, in Jones Beach State Park, during the search for victims in the Gilgo Beach investigation. Her skull has never been found.
The skeletal remains of a toddler girl - dubbed Baby Doe - were also found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011.
DNA testing later determined that the infant was the woman's young daughter.
Similar gold jewelry was found with both victims' remains.
For decades, both of their identities remained a mystery with local police and the FBI seeking the public's help in identifying them.
Peaches was said to be black, aged 20 to 30 years old and had what appeared to be a Cesarean section scar.
In 2022, there appeared to be a lead in the quest to identify them when authorities in Alabama sought relatives of a dead man - Elijah 'Lige' Howell - in connection to the victims.
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