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.”
Read the full article from Here
PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2% for March, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) announced in its preliminary report Friday.
According to L&I, the rate in Pennsylvania was one-tenth of a percentage point below the country’s unemployment rate, which fell to 4.3% compared to February.
The civilian labor force, consisting of residents working or looking for work, increased by 6,000 to 6,593,000, and employment increased by 9,000 while unemployment decreased by 3,000 from February.
Nonfarm jobs also rose in March, to 6,189,600, while jobs in six industry supersectors increased. Trade, transportation, and utilities were up 5,100 during March.
For more information about L&I, visit its website here.
On Friday, May 1, Bravo posted a mid-season preview to YouTube, giving fans a glimpse at the drama still to come during the franchise’s first season in the Ocean State.
Which ‘Real Housewives of Rhode Island’ stars want to do Season 2?
Reporter Paul Edward Parker asks cast members of the “Real Housewives of Rhode Island” if they’re up for another season of the Bravo TV show.
Paul Edward Parker
Enjoying “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” so far? Buckle up – it’s about to get even juicier.
On Friday, May 1, Bravo posted a mid-season preview to YouTube, giving fans a glimpse at the drama still to come during the franchise’s first season in the Ocean State. As expected, the season will continue to follow major developing plotlines, including the fallout from Rulla Pontarelli’s reported husband’s affair and the strained relationship between Rosie DiMare and Kelsey Swanson.
However, the trailer also hints that the season will take some unexpected twists and turns, with new arguments rising between friendly cast members and personal issues coming to a head for many of the women.
Here’s a sneak peek at the rest of Season 1 of “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.”
What happened in ‘The Real Housewives of Rhode Island’ mid-season preview?
According to the mid-season preview, the rest of “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” Season 1 will include many more fights between the cast members. Swanson and DiMare’s screaming matches will continue, with the trailer showing DiMare telling Swanson “Everyone in f***ing Rhode Island knows you f*** married men.”
Surprisingly, disagreements will also rise between LizMcGraw and Alicia Carmody, as well as McGraw and Jo-Ellen Tiberi. McGraw is shown telling Tiberi to get out of her face, with Tiberi storming after her yelling “what did I do?”
Meanwhile, Ashley Iaconetti will continue to struggle under the financial and emotional burden of Audrey’s, with her and husband Jared Haibon discussing their decision to renew the lease or not. After her breakup, Swanson will have to decide if her new man is worth giving up her financial comfort, while Tiberi will finally have a tough conversation with her mother.
As for Pontarelli, it seems that Tiberi will make good on her episode five promise of finding concrete proof of Brian Pontarelli’s reported affair, with multiple housewives discussing video proof in the trailer. After Pontarelli reveals to the group that Brian was arrested for tracking her, the trailer ends with the question looming over everyone’s heads: “Rulla, what are you gonna do?”.
How to watch ‘The Real Housewives of Rhode Island’
Want to see how all the drama unfolds? “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” will air every Sunday at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
Watch ‘The Real Housewives of Rhode Island’ on Peacock
Episodes will be available for next-day streaming each Monday on Peacock.
This commentary is by David Balto, an antitrust commentator and a former assistant director for policy and evaluation in the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission and trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.
Supporting small businesses over big companies is in Vermonters’ DNA. The Green Mountain State was the first state to ban roadside billboards, and our tax code is written to support mom-and-pop shops over large corporations. Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald’s or a Starbucks. So why, days after a federal jury sided with Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark and more than 30 other states, ruling that Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation were operating an illegal monopoly, is the state Legislature advancing a policy that will help this corporation invade our state while undercutting our attorney general’s antitrust suit?
Live Nation, which owns and operates some of the largest music venues across the country, and Ticketmaster, which controls roughly 80% of the country’s initial ticket sales, merged in 2010. Since then, ticket prices are up 120%.
Since the merger, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has used tactics like the “velvet hammer” — withholding concerts from venues they do not control or work with — to consolidate power. Then they force fans to pay sky-high fees, from marking up parking passes to forcing venues to only sell water from a brand Live Nation owns. In internal messages, employees even bragged about how they “gouge” fans and joked they were “robbing them blind.”
It’s no surprise that, after a decade and a half of antitrust violations, the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly made $25 billion last year.
Now, the company, which doesn’t own any venues in Vermont, appears poised to establish a foothold in the Green Mountain State with the help of a well-intentioned but poorly executed bill working its way through Montpelier.
Lawmakers are considering legislation that would cap the price of event tickets being resold at no more than 10% above face value. The measure was recently approved by the House and is currently moving through the Senate.
On its face, the idea sounds appealing: Cracking down on excessive markups should be a win for fans. But the fact that Live Nation-Ticketmaster, which was just found to be operating an illegal monopoly that harmed fans, venues and artists, has supported price caps like those proposed in H.512 in Washington, D.C., California, New York, Minnesota and Ontario should give Vermonters pause.
This billion-dollar corporation doesn’t support ticket resale price caps because it’s good for fans. The company advocates for this policy because the caps don’t apply to “primary” ticket sales: the original point of sale, of which Ticketmaster controls 80%. Instead, the price caps would only apply to resale marketplaces — hitting the only companies that compete with the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly.
Less competition means more power and higher profits for Live Nation-Ticketmaster.
In most states, price caps would consolidate Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s control and allow it to raise ticket prices even further. In Vermont, H.512 may be the final ingredient it needs to enter the state, and, to quote its executives, “boil the frog” — using monopoly power to slowly squeeze out our independent music venues.
With this legislation moving through the Statehouse, Live Nation-Ticketmaster is already establishing a foothold in the Green Mountain State. Earlier this month, it announced a partnership with CashorTrade, a Vermont-based ticketing platform.
But Live Nation-Ticketmaster doesn’t even need to operate in our state to benefit if Vermont passes this law. If Vermont, which prides itself on pushing back against corporate power, enacts resale price caps, we hand Live Nation-Ticketmaster a powerful talking point to advance its power grab in additional states. We become a critical data point; an example of what “good policy” looks like.
H.512 includes some real, positive policies that help venues and consumers, but the price cap provision that came along for the ride squarely benefits Live Nation-Ticketmaster. Vermont can, and should, have the former without the latter.
Vermont needs to stand up to this corporate bully. If any state knows how to, it’s this one.
-
Oregon54 seconds agoPain at the pump: Gas prices jump nearly 20 cents in Oregon & Washington since last week
-
Pennsylvania7 minutes agoPennsylvania unemployment rate remains at 4.2% for March: Report
-
Rhode Island13 minutes agoReal Housewives of Rhode Island midseason preview gets even juicier
-
South-Carolina19 minutes ago1 injured in motorcycle crash near Carolina Forest
-
South Dakota25 minutes agoSouth Dakota’s budget is ahead of revenue targets
-
Tennessee31 minutes agoHeading to the the Tennessee Renaissance Festival? What to know
-
Texas37 minutes agoSmall plane crash in Texas Hill Country leaves five dead
-
Utah43 minutes ago‘It’s past the eleventh hour’: Utah and other Colorado River states call for mediation as current plans near expiration