Gilgo Beach victims 'Peaches' and 'Baby Doe' named as veteran mum and daughter 30 years later

A mum and daughter known for so long as ‘Peaches’ and ‘Baby Doe’ have finally been named nearly after the mum's body was found.

victims Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Marie were pictured at a press conference held by Nassau County officials and a $25,000 (£18,800) reward has been offered for information leading to the being solved. The pair were among other bodies discovered A peach tattoo on Ms Jackson’s body had led to her being commonly known by that name before being identified.

Some of Ms Jackson’s remains, mainly a torso, were discovered on June 28, 1997, stuffed inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead on Long Island. More of her remains, and those of her daughter Tatiana, were found off Ocean Parkway in April 2011.

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Police have previously said they’ve confirmed the two are related through DNA analysis. And now new information was shed on the victims as detectives appealed to the public for help in finding the culprit.

Tanya was revealed to have been a 26-year-old single mother and US Army veteran who was originally from Alabama but was living in Brooklyn, New York, at the time of her death. She had served at army bases including in Georgia and Missouri before leaving military service in February 1995.

“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,”' District Attorney Anne Donnelly said at the briefing. “The mother's name was Tanya. The baby's name was Tatiana.”

It is through the use of genealogy and DNA analysis that the breakthrough has been able to be made to identify the two victims. It was back in 2015 that DNA testing found that the pair were mother and daughter. Head of the homicide squad investigating the case, Detective captain Stephen Fitzpatrick, also said that Tanya owned a 1991 black Geo Storm car.

“We're asking for your help to get the word out to the public and our continued efforts to seek justice for Tanya and Tatiana,” he said. “Through our investigation we've learned a lot about them.”

And he continued: “Further information that might help people in the public to recall an account with her, she was born October 22nd 1970 in Alabama she's also associated with Georgia, Texas and Missouri. She's a US army veteran, in 1997 she was living at 230 54th Street in Brooklyn, New York, It’s believed she worked at a doctor's office in a medical assistant capacity while living in Brooklyn.

“When she would go to work its reported to us that they might have been a female friend or neighbour who would watch the baby. She drove the ‘91 Geo Storm. Tanya served honorably in the US army from July of 1993 to February of 1995.”

And he pointed out: “Anybody who's in the military that might have served with her and remembers, please get in contact with us, did you serve with her in the military? Were you a neighbour, a co-worker during her time here in Brooklyn? Maybe you saw them at a medical appointment where she worked or where her friend, we want to hear from you.”

It has long been unclear whether there is any connection between their deaths and other women found slain elsewhere on Long Island. Since late 2010, police have been investigating the killings of at least 10 people — mostly female sex workers — whose remains were discovered there.

Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect, has been charged in the deaths of seven women. He has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting Heuermann, said in a statement he is not commenting on “any topics even tangentially involved to the investigation” while a pre-trial hearing plays out.

DC Fitzpatrick commenting on the the speculation that Heuermann is also linked to the deaths of Tanya and Tatiana, said that police are "not discounting" that the cases are not connected.

"Although Tanya and Tatiana have commonly been linked to the Gilgo beach serial killings because of the timing and locations of their recovered remains we are not discounting the possibility that the cases are unrelated," he said. "Speculation and theories by people on the internet should not be brought into this, as this investigation moves forward we will continue to work closely with all our law enforcement local and federal agencies."