A 66-year-old man from Florida has been charged with murder in the death of a woman whose body was found close to her 2-year-old child’s near the Gilgo Beach serial killer’s dumping grounds on Long Island, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter.
The man, Andrew Dykes, of Ruskin, Fla., was indicted this week by a grand jury in Nassau County on charges of murdering the woman, Tanya Denise Jackson, the official said. Ms. Jackson was known as Jane Doe No. 3, or “Peaches,” after a tattoo on her torso.
Mr. Dykes was the father of Ms. Jackson’s slain 2-year-old, Tatiana Marie Dykes, the official said. Mr. Dykes was arrested on Wednesday in Florida on a felony fugitive warrant, meaning he was being sought in connection with a felony in another state, according to court records in Hillsborough County. The arrest was first reported by Newsday.
He is awaiting extradition to Nassau County, where he will be arraigned.
Ms. Jackson and Tatiana had initially appeared to be possible victims of the Gilgo Beach serial killer, in part because of their proximity to the other victims, but on Saturday, the law enforcement official said that the cases did not appear to be linked.
In the serial killing investigation, Rex Heuermann, a Massapequa Park, N.Y., architectural consultant, faces charges of killing seven women, six of whom were found in the Gilgo Beach area.
Ms. Jackson was identified by Nassau County police officials in April, nearly 15 years after her remains, and her daughter’s, were discovered along a remote stretch of Long Island oceanfront now known as the place where the bodies in the Gilgo Beach serial killings were scattered in brush.
Pieces of Ms. Jackson’s remains were first discovered in 1997 at Hempstead Lake State Park, several miles from the New York City border in Nassau County. But in 2011, after investigators began turning up bodies along Ocean Parkway in the Gilgo area, the authorities discovered more of Ms. Jackson’s remains there, too.
The body of Ms. Jackson’s daughter was also found near Gilgo Beach in April 2011, not far from her mother’s remains. Tatiana, who the police believe was roughly 2, was found in a thicket, wrapped in a blanket and wearing gold jewelry. She was linked to Ms. Jackson by DNA.
Prosecutors in the Gilgo killings say that Mr. Heuermann, a family man, led a double life, waiting for his wife and children to leave on vacations, during which time many victims were killed.
Mr. Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 and later charged with killing the women who became known as the Gilgo Four. Their bodies had been found in a group along a quarter-mile stretch near Jones Beach. He was charged with three more killings in 2024.
Mr. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders of the seven women, all of whom had worked as escorts, and is facing an expected trial next year.
He has not been charged in the deaths of two others whose bodies were found in the Gilgo Beach area: Karen Vergata and an unidentified person whom the authorities call “Asian Doe.”
Ms. Jackson was born in Alabama and served in the U.S. Army from 1993 until 1995, when her daughter was born, according to the police. She later moved to Brooklyn and may have worked as a medical assistant there.
The police said Ms. Jackson had been estranged from many of her relatives and was not reported missing after her disappearance.
For years before she was identified, law enforcement officers had nicknamed Ms. Jackson “Peaches” because of a tattoo on her chest depicting a heart-shaped peach with a bite taken out of it.
In April, after she and Tatiana were identified, Detective Capt. Stephen E. Fitzpatrick of the Nassau County Police Department said at a news conference that the discovery had brought Ms. Jackson’s family some peace. The two were later buried at the Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Spanish Fort, a military cemetery in Ms. Jackson’s home state.
“We never gave up on searching for justice, for either Tanya or Tatiana,” Captain Fitzpatrick said.
Corey Kilgannon contributed reporting.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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