Northeast
New York police ID murder victims linked to Gilgo Beach serial killer investigation
New York authorities on Wednesday announced the identification of a woman previously only known as “Peaches” and her toddler, whose deaths have been looked at in connection to the Gilgo Beach serial killings case on Long Island.
Authorities identified the mother as Tanya Denise Jackson — previously only known as “Peaches” because of her distinctive peach tattoo — and the baby as Tatiana Marie Dykes. Police located Jackson’s torso in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York, in 1997. Authorities later located her 2-year-old toddler’s remains in April 2011 near Ocean Parkway in Babylon, New York.
“The reality is, our work has just begun. Knowing the identities of the mom and the little baby is just a first step to help us get to solving these murders,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said during a Wednesday press conference. “Having their identities helps us say to the public, ‘Please, if you knew Tanya, if you worked with her, if you met her at the grocery store…please, contact us and let us know.’ Everything we can find out about her leading up to her death can help us solve this horrific, horrific crime.”
The Gilgo Beach case, launched nearly 15 years ago, led to the discovery of 10 human remains, mostly women, one man, and a child along Ocean Parkway. One unidentified murder victim, an African American female known as Jane Doe #3, was nicknamed “Peaches” for the tattoo on her left breast.
SUSPECTED SERIAL KILLER’S 1980s SUMMER JOB MAY HAVE BEEN ROAD MAP TO MURDERS: PROSECUTORS
Authorities identified the mother as Tanya Denise Jackson — previously only known as “Peaches” because of her distinctive peach tattoo — and the baby as Tatiana Marie Dykes. Police located Tania’s torso in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York, in 1997. (FBI)
Rex Heuermann, a 61-year-old Manhattan architect from Massapequa, Long Island, has been charged in connection with the murders of seven women whose remains were located in the area. Several victims have been identified as sex workers whose remains were dismembered, stuffed into bags and strewn throughout Gilgo Beach.
SUSPECTED SERIAL KILLER REX HEUERMANN CHARGED WITH SEVENTH SLAYING
A map created by Suffolk County Police shows the locations of the bodies found on Gilgo beach between 2010 and 2011. (Suffolk County Police)
“We are not discounting the possibility that these cases are unrelated [to] that investigation,” Nassau County PD homicide Det. Sean Fitzpatrick said Wednesday.
SUSPECTED SERIAL KILLER REX HEUERMANN CHARGED WITH SEVENTH SLAYING
Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran from Alabama, and Dykes were linked as mother and daughter in 2015 after preliminary DNA analysis, though their identities were still unknown at the time.
Jackson was living in Brooklyn and possibly working as an assistant in a medical office in the 1990s. She served in the Army between 1993 and 1995 in Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Fort Gordon in Georgia, and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
SERIAL KILLER SUSPECT REX HEUERMANN FACES MORE POSSIBLE CHARGES A YEAR AFTER ARREST
“By inviting the FBI to contribute to this case, we were able to contribute new and innovative resources to the table in the form of our immensely skilled Investigative Genetic Genealogy or IGG team,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raya said Wednesday. “The IGG team combines crime scene DNA with traditional genealogy research and historical records to generate leads to identify unknown DNA, which is what happened in this particular case.”
New York police have identified ‘Peaches’ as Tanya Jackson of Alabama and her daughter as Tatiana Marie Dykes. (DNASolves.com)
The DNA evidence in Jackson’s and her daughter’s cases was submitted to Othram in 2020. Scientists with the forensic genetic genealogy lab based in Texas were able to build a comprehensive genetic profile using existing data for the then-unknown woman and ultimately found her identity.
“The circumstances surrounding the loss of Tanya and Tatiana are both horrific and heartbreaking, but finding answers and the truth about who they were is the next step in getting justice for them,” Kristen Mittelman, chief development officer at Othram, a forensic laboratory specializing in difficult DNA cases, said in a Wednesday statement. “We can’t bring back the victims who were lost, but our hope is that we can help bring resolution.”
Rex Heuermann appears in Judge Tim Mazze’s courtroom with his attorney Michael Brown at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, New York on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (James Carbone/Newsday via Pool)
The Gilgo Beach serial killings investigation is ongoing.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
Prosecutors have said Heuermann’s alleged motive was to “identify and ‘hunt’ women for the purpose of committing murder” and that the job patrolling sandy stretches of Jones Beach at night made him intimately familiar with the area.
A sign welcoming visitors to Gilgo Beach outside the tunnel that connects the parking lot to the beach underneath Ocean Parkway. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News)
Heuermann is a South Shore native who bought the Massapequa Park house he grew up in from his mother in the early 1990s. That neighborhood is near both beaches.
Jones Beach is less than 7 miles from Gilgo down Ocean Parkway. Six of the seven victims’ remains were recovered in whole or in part east of Gilgo Beach, and prosecutors call the area the “central disposal site.”
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Connecticut
Connecticut Launches New Era for Community Hospital Care – UConn Today
Marked by a ceremonial ribbon cutting and attended by Governor Ned Lamont, state legislators, Waterbury officials, and community leaders, UConn Health celebrated the acquisition of Waterbury Hospital which as of today is now the UConn Health Waterbury Hospital.
“This is a defining moment for healthcare in Connecticut,” said Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, CEO of UConn Health Community Network. “We now have the opportunity to take the award -winning academic quality and service of UConn Health and share it with the wonderful employees, doctors and community of Waterbury.”
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont described the initiative as a forward-looking investment in the future of healthcare access across Connecticut.
“Connecticut is leading with innovation,” said Connecticut Governor Lamont. “The UConn Health Community Network reflects a proactive approach to strengthening community-based care by connecting it directly to the capabilities of our state’s public academic medical center. What begins in Waterbury today, represents a new model designed to expand opportunity, access, and excellence for communities statewide.”
In addition to UConn Health Waterbury Hospital, the Network includes UConn Health Community Network Medical Group and UConn Health Waterbury Health at Home. The model preserves each member’s local identity and will grow thoughtfully over time to improve quality, expand access, and reduce the total cost of care.
“This reflects a bold step forward in how we think about healthcare in Connecticut,” said John Driscoll, Chair of the UConn Health Board of Directors. “Today we celebrate the beginning of a new approach to community-based care. We move forward with clarity of purpose and shared commitment to serve our communities better together.”
Comptroller Sean Scanlon highlighted the significance of the model for the long-term evolution of healthcare delivery in Connecticut.
“This partnership represents thoughtful leadership at a pivotal time for healthcare,” said Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon. “By aligning community hospitals with academic medicine, Connecticut is building a modern framework that positions our healthcare system to meet the needs of patients today and into the future.”
“Hosting this celebration on our campus is deeply meaningful for our staff, physicians and the families we serve,” said Deborah Weymouth, President of UConn Health Waterbury Hospital. “Waterbury’s legacy of care continues, and we are tremendously proud to have a strong partner who is deeply committed to our community and help lead this next chapter for healthcare.”
Welcome UConn Health Waterbury Hospital!
Maine
Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition
For a lot of people throughout Maine, there’s some built up frustration that they’ve just been keeping inside.
That frustration can come in a lot of different forms. From finances to relationships to the world around you.
So it makes plenty of sense that a rage room opened in Portland, Maine, where people can let some of that frustration out.
It’s called Mayhem and people have been piling in to smash, crush and do dastardly things to inanimate objects that had no idea what was coming.
But Mayhem has realized not everyone is down with swinging a sledgehammer. So they’ve decided to cook up something new.
Mayhem Creating ‘Scream Room’ at Their Space in Portland, Maine
Perhaps the thought of swinging a baseball bat and destroying a glass vase brings you joy. The thought of how sore your body will be after that moment makes you less excited.
Mayhem Portland has heard you loud and clear and is developing a new way to get the rage out. By just screaming.
Mayhem is working on opening their very first scream room. It’s exactly what you think it is, a safe place to spend some time just screaming all of the frustration out.
There isn’t an official opening date set yet but it’s coming soon along with pricing.
Mayhem in Portland, Maine, Will Still Offer Rage Rooms and Paint Splatter
While a scream room is on the way, you can still experience a good time at Mayhem with one of their rage rooms or a paint splatter room.
Both can be experienced in either 20-minute or 30-minute sessions.
All the details including some age and attire requirements can be found here.
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Massachusetts
Ice covered highways, streets and sidewalks in Boston area rattled nerves during morning commute: “I’m ready for the thaw”
It was a treacherous commute for drivers across Massachusetts Wednesday morning. Ice on roads and highways caused several crashes during rush hour.
In Danvers, 22 miles north of Boston, the ramp from Interstate 95 to Route 1 north was covered in ice, leading to three separate crashes involving twelve cars. Three people were taken to local hospitals.
In Revere, just seven miles north of the city, two tractor-trailers collided on North Shore Road. Police said it will be shut down for most of the day. It’s unclear if this crash was caused by icy conditions.
Forty-four miles west of Boston, a tractor-trailer ran off the westbound side of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Westboro. One person was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester with what were described by the fire department as “non-life threatening injuries.”
The ice wasn’t just a problem for drivers. People walking around Boston were also slipping and sliding Wednesday morning.
“I almost fell at least five times but I didn’t. I don’t know how. I screamed and caught edges,” Swapna Vantzelfde told CBS News Boston about her walk to work in the South End. It took longer than usual.
“The internal streets they just don’t get plowed, the little ones that people live on and then these arteries, the big streets, they’re cleaned a lot better,” she said.
Those on two legs and four were all stepping gingerly across slick spots.
“A little treacherous. Very slick and icy out here,” said a father pushing a stroller. “Sometimes you have something to hold on to, which helps.”
With plenty of snow piled along sidewalks and between parking spots, most people are done with winter.
“I’m over it. I’m ready for the thaw,” said one man.
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