Tanya Jackson ("Peaches")

In June 1997, near Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, on Long Island in Nassau County, New York, a horrifying discovery was made: a Rubbermaid storage container holding the dismembered torso of a young woman, wrapped with a red towel and a floral pillowcase. Her head, arms and legs were missing. The most distinctive clue was a tattoo on her left breast, a heart-shaped peach with a bite taken out of it and two drops falling from the core, which led investigators and the public to call her 'Peaches.'

For years Peaches remained unidentified. In 2011, during the sweeping investigation into a string of bodies found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach, additional skeletal remains discovered at Jones Beach were eventually linked to the same woman, and a toddler's remains found nearby were tied to the case as well. Because of the geography and timing, Peaches and the child were long grouped with the suspected Long Island serial killer investigation, and her tattoo was publicized nationally in hopes someone would recognize her. Still, no name emerged, and repeated attempts to build a usable DNA profile from the degraded remains failed.

The breakthrough came through advanced DNA technology. Beginning around 2020, forensic evidence was sent to Othram, a laboratory specializing in forensic genetic genealogy, whose scientists were able to refactor existing genetic data into a comprehensive profile. On April 23, 2025, nearly 28 years after her torso was found, Nassau County authorities announced that Peaches was Tanya Denise Jackson, a 26-year-old U.S. Army veteran originally from Mobile, Alabama, who had served during the Gulf War era. The child found with her was identified as her two-year-old daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes, born in Texas in 1995. The family was estranged and had never reported the pair missing, which helped explain why they had gone unidentified for so long.

Crucially, investigators concluded that the case was not connected to the Gilgo Beach serial killings after all; Nassau County officials said they no longer believed Peaches was a victim of that killer, and the murders are not attributed to Gilgo suspect Rex Heuermann. Instead, on December 5, 2025, authorities arrested Andrew Dykes of Tampa, Florida, Tatiana's biological father and a former U.S. Army anatomy instructor and onetime Florida state trooper, and charged him with Tanya Jackson's murder. Investigators believe he killed both mother and daughter, though he was charged only in Jackson's death. After nearly three decades as a nameless 'Jane Doe,' Tanya Jackson and her daughter were finally identified, and a suspect with the anatomical knowledge that the dismemberment had long suggested was in custody. As of 2026 the prosecution of Andrew Dykes is pending, closing in on justice for a mother and child whose deaths had gone unrecognized for a generation.