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Peaches ////// 877
01:06:11
While law enforcement continues to connect crimes and still more victims to the infamous Long Island Serial Killer investigation we decided to take a look at one of the more recent developments in this ongoing saga. In July of 2023 a family man and architect named Rex Heuermann was arrested in connection with three murders tied to the Long Island Serial Killer case or L.I.S.K. for short. Those names and a few others were given to a series of unsolved homicides where the bodies and remains of several young women, a male, and a toddler were discovered in and around Long Island, New York. It is undetermined at this time if all of the murders were committed by the same killer or killers. Since the arrest of Heuermann, investigators have continued to make progress. Heuermann was charged with four additional murders and we now know the identities of two of the victims - Peaches/ Jane Doe #3 & Baby Doe. For more information on these cases, including victim information and a timeline abou...
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A
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B
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C
Foreign.
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B
Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick. And here he is, folks, the other half of your favorite true crime power couple, the Captain, the lesser half.
- [01:25]
C
It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
- [01:33]
B
Today in the garage we are drinking peach Hefeweizen by the good folks at Southern Tier Brewing Company in beautiful Lakewood, New York. Peach Hefeweizen burst with juicy peach flavor and finishes silky smooth for a taste of spring. So fresh you'll want to drink it by the bushel. It's sweet, it's plump and juicy. Garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five. And let's give some cheers out. First up, we get a prost from Caitlyn in Ramstein, Germany.
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C
A big relay chip goes out to Kylie and Eugene, Oregon.
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B
And here's a long distance cheers to Wendy and Hobart, Tasmania, Australia and the.
- [02:17]
C
Big tall cans in the air to Shane and Waverly, Ohio, which I used to play Waverly all the time at the Emmett house. Shane, maybe we've had a drink together. Who knows?
- [02:27]
B
And last but certainly not least, we have a tall cans in the air Cheers to Stefan Aikenbach in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Everybody we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com and helped us fill up the old garage fridge for this week's show. And for that we thank you.
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C
Yeah, pwwan Beer run. I want you to do me a favor. I want you to go to our YouTube page, True Crime Garage TV and I want you to subscribe. And Colonel, that's enough of the be his news.
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B
All right, everybody, gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
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A
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. The mother's name was Tanya. The baby's name was Tatiana. You'll get more detailed information on their identities from Captain Fitzpatrick. 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. Having their identities helps us now. Say to the public, please, if you knew Tanya, if you worked with her, if you met her at the grocery store, you had an interaction with her, please contact us and let us know every little thing we can find out about her leading up to her death will help us to solve this horrific, horrific crime.
- [04:24]
B
Most of today's information is coming from a website dedicated to several homicide victims. Cases that have not been adjudicated yet, but are moving in the right direction as far as the investigation goes. Unfortunately, there are a lot of victims here and all of them featured on this website. The website is gilgocase.com a website dedicated to the victims and really a central location for folks who want to know more about this case, learn about the case. There's not only victim profiles and evidence information that is featured there, but also some very helpful timelines and maps as well some visual aids if you want to learn more about this case. This is a case that we have covered many times before, but never in the manner that we are about to hear today. Today we are going to hone in on two of the victims and examine those cases specifically. This is a case with no shortage of names. The Long Island Serial Killer or lisk. Also the Gilgo Beach Killer or the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer. And as many of you already know, they have someone in custody after many years of investigating. The man custody is 62 year old Rex Heuerman who was arrested in July of 2023. And the court proceedings are dragging on, but we are nearing what should be a trial here in the coming months. This case involves multiple murders, many cases that went cold over the years, many homicide cases that started off simply as missing persons cases and that from several jurisdictions before bodies were found off of the Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. And this is Long Island Beach, N.Y. while law enforcement are still connecting these unsolved homicides, victims that were killed prior 2010 to victims that were found after. But this true crime story really kind of kicks off in May of 2010. And this is when 23 year old Shannon Gilbert mysteriously disappeared from a gated community on the south shore of Long Island. Shannon Gilbert was working as an escort dancer at the time. At the time of her disappearance, she was working at a late night party in the Gilgo beach area. A party that has been, you can say, well documented at least. Her fleeing the home and Running and knocking on doors in the neighborhood. That portion of it's well documented. Her driver for the evening, Michael Pack, he's given his side of the story. What is doesn't seem to be well documented is who was all in attendance at this party that she was working the night that she disappeared.
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C
Yeah, not only are they being secretive, but the information that they put out seems to be a lot of lies. But we were happy to announce in the garage that at least the full length of the 911 call coming from Shannon was released in its entirety.
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B
Once that was released, we combed through it here in the garage in one of our just many episodes that we've done on this case and in some of the portions that we've covered. It's still unclear what connection or ties they have to the overall case. And I'm talking about the Gilgo case, like the website that we just mentioned. Shannon Gilbert's disappearance ultimately led to a search that uncovered 10 bodies along a desolate beach highway. Some of these cases were linked to other sets of human remains previously found around Long island. And several more may be connected. Due to the similarities in the victimology and in the manner in which these bodies were discarded, it was very quickly believed that several of these cases were in fact connected, possibly all of them. Now, shortly after the discovery, the general consensus seems to be that either we have one killer that was using this area, or perhaps we have two serial killers operating in the same general location and roughly in the same general time periods.
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C
Right.
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B
Which expands years. Of course. The case made national headlines with the media naming the perpetrator, the unknown perpetrator, the Long Island Serial Killer, or Lisk, among the other names previously stated. But the name stuck. Long Island Serial Killer, or the abbreviated name of Lisk. So more detail here, Captain. In December of 2010, police discovered a body near Gilgo beach off of Ocean Parkway. This victim would be identified as 24 year old Melissa Bartholomew. Two days later, the bodies of three more women were found nearby and soon identified as Amberlynn Costello, age 27, Megan Waterman, who was just 22 years old, and Maureen Bernard Barnes, age 25. These women are now known as the Gilgo Beach Four. And in the manner that they were found and the particulars of their disappearances has forever tied these victims together. They are all believed to have been killed and discarded by the same perpetrator.
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C
The line of work that they were in, the fact that all these individuals were not thriving, they were all trying to survive, and then also the area in which they were discarded three months later.
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B
This brings us to March of 2011. The partial remains of a 20 year old female victim was found. She was then identified to be Jessica Taylor. These remains were found near Gilgo beach as well. Part of Taylor's body had actually been discovered eight years prior and 40 miles away in Manorville, New York. Days later, three more sets of human remains were discovered alongside Ocean Parkway. The first was 24 year old Valerie Mack, whose partial remains had also been found in Manorville as well, years prior. With Valerie Mack, like some of these other cases, it would take a good deal of time to make a positive identification. An unidentified toddler was found near Max. Remains going off a memory here, Captain. If the old garage memory serves me right, I believe at the time that it was presumed that the toddler, the unidentified toddler, and the then unidentified Valerie Mack remains were a pair, potentially mother and child.
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C
Right. Because they were found so close to each other.
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B
Two miles west of all of this, police discovered the skeletal remains of an unidentified Asian person, believed to be 17 to 23 years, referred to as the unidentified Asian male. A week later, In April of 2011, two more sets of partial remains were found along Ocean Parkway. When you put them all together like that, Captain, and, and have to give a rundown of all of these findings, it's just, it's a lot. It's not just a lot in the way of numbers and number of victims, but a lot in the way of emotions as well. Now there has been a lot, speaking of a lot, there has been a lot of speculation, as one would suspect. And let's say there's also been a lot of movement on the case in the investigation since the time that those bodies were being found, which started in 2010. As far as connecting the cases go. And a lot of that speculation came down to what cases and victims were actually connected, who is responsible for their deaths, for placing their bodies where they were found. And frankly, how many monsters did we have operating undercover on Long island, killing innocent women, a man and a little child? More recently, there has been much more movement on the case since the July 2023 arrest of Rex Heuerman, the murderous ogre. That's right. We've dubbed him the ogre here in the garage. If you have, if you're listening to this, I believe you have access to the Internet and you can pull up pictures of this man for yourself. And I think you will quickly agree he is not only a monster, but very much an ogre. Very large, large man. But for nearly 30 years, Captain, the Remains of one of the victims, a murdered woman, remain unidentified. But this was up until earlier this year. So let's go back to the very beginning because there is plenty of good reason to believe that the two cases that we are going to look at under the magnifying glass today here in the garage are in fact linked to the other cases, the other victims that we just named. We're going to go all the way back to June 28th of 1997.
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C
Yeah.
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B
And this is when the dismembered torso of an unidentified African American female was found in Hempstead Lake State park in the great state of New York.
- [15:06]
C
Yeah, Lakeview, New York.
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B
So we have some hikers. They found a torso that was wrapped in a black garbage bag and crammed inside of a green Rubbermaid container in the wooded Lakeview area. The way that I understand this story to be, Captain, we have a couple folks out walking, taking in nature, enjoying the beautiful sights, getting a little exercise. Yeah, it's summertime.
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C
One goes off the trail, they spot.
- [15:38]
B
This green tote, right? It's like this large rubber made tote box. They say that there's a horrific smell coming from it. There is a lot of insect activity near this Rubbermaid container.
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C
I believe it initially was found by just one individual. Could you imagine walking off the trail, seeing this rubber made tote? And like you said, you got these insects around it. You can smell something and not a familiar smell, not a good smell, not, not stopping and smelling the roses smell. And then you have to go back and tell your buddy, hey, there's something weird over here. And then he has to experience that. And then, and then at some point you go, well, this is above my pay grade to lift up this bin.
- [16:32]
B
Basically, I do a good amount of walking the woods and trails and you find an animal carcass regularly and you do catch that smell from a distance. And because of what we do in spending so much time in this garage and talking about these cases, of course it's on the top of my brain. Oh, no. Today is the day that I never wanted to experience. Thankfully, that's never happened for me. So these poor people, or this poor person that found this gruesome discovery, I couldn't imagine. What we quickly learn here is that while we have these remains, and of course we've already said, dismembered torso of an unidentified female victim found inside of this Rubbermaid container, the unidentified victim's arms, head and legs, so legs cut below the knees were not present in this finding. They were not in the Rubbermaid container with the torso. They were not scattered around the area. This, they simply weren't found. What was found inside the Rubbermaid container with the torso was a red towel and a floral pillowcase. I'm a little uncertain of this particular detail here, Captain, because it's not present in most of the reports that I've seen regarding this finding. But in some reports it is stated, and these are reports much later that it stated that some jewelry, some gold jewelry, bracelets. Yeah, bracelets and such were found with the torso. But like I said in the original reports, none of that was mentioned. I don't know if that was going to be early holdback information regarding the pillowcase that was found, we said that was of a floral design. It's very green, dark colored, with some, some brighter colored flowers kind of scattered about on it. Red and white, looking like a red flower with the baby's breath. It's a Wham Suda Super Cow brand. The reports state 1997, but I don't know if that's because it was found with the body in 97 or if they were able to determine that it was manufactured or sold in 1997, but it was Wamasuda Super Cal brand.
- [19:08]
C
It's a little odd to me that this story wasn't covered more in 97. The victim's head's not found. Both the arms and the legs below the knees were missing. You would think that this would gather some more attention.
- [19:26]
B
Yeah, one would hope so. Us not being from that direct area, I can't say with a great deal of certainty how much attention was given to it. But we would get some leads based off of some good work that the police are going to do and using different forms of media to, to get a lead and the. I'm looking at a picture of the Rubbermaid container. These containers, if you have a garage or basement and you're storing things, things like Christmas decorations, these are great for storing books too because they keep moisture out while they're not airtight. They, they're pretty secure. But if you have a basement or garage, you, you know what kind of container we're talking about. These are larger containers that the, the one that they found had the, the sticker that would be on the container when you purchase it, that sticker is still present. You can see it. I think that this was called a keeper's tote or a keeper's container. And you can even see the barcode still there. But while from an investigative standpoint, here's what you're looking at of course you want to identify the victim that was found. However, somebody has gone to great lengths and measures so that you would not or make that very difficult at the very least. But you're also going to, like in so many other cases that, that we've talked about, you're going to use the other items that were found with the victim, the container included in that, as possible identifiers or a way to at least hone in on a specific area or time frame regarding your victim. All this could potentially help lead you to learning who the victim is. And you do not have, in most cases, you do not have a suspect pool until you know the identity of the victim. So that is step number one and that is going to be the most important part of your investigation.
- [21:30]
C
Well, the fact that the victim is found in this rubber container and wrapped in a towel, wrapped in a pillowcase, then that's probably going to make it harder to figure out when they were discarded there. But also you'd think, well, Rubbermaid just makes probably a couple different versions of these bins. So that's going to be hard to figure out if this one is unique at all. But they, they are able to find out it's somewhat unique as far as they know when it was manufactured and when they stopped manufacturing it.
- [22:07]
B
Yeah, and as said, there were, I don't have the exact number on me, but there were thousands of these. This particular container that were made, the victim, as we said, was found in a green plastic container dumped next to a road. Is the short version that you get. The long version you get is located approximately 200 yards north of of Peninsula Boulevard on the west side of Lake Drive. The victim had a tattoo of a heart shaped peach with a bite out of it on her left breast. Thus she was given the nickname of Peaches when they could not identify the victim later. Also, the name of Jane Doe number three would be applied to her. And we'll get into the how that came to be as well. Police estimated that she had died less than three days before being discovered. Here is the report that went out at the time in hopes of identifying the victim. So this is the information that they put out to the masses in hopes that somebody will come forward. And they simply state, we found an unidentified female located on June 28, 1997 in Lakeview, Nassau County, New York. Estimated date of death, no more than three days. And in fact, I saw some of the reports here, Captain, where they were telling the public no more than three days, less than a week or 36 hours. At least 36 hours, but no more than a week. Cause of death, homicide. Estimated age of the victim suspected to be 16 to up to 30 years of age. Approximate height and weight unknown for obvious reasons. Scars and marks, identifiers on the person. She had an abdominal scar, possibly from a cesarean section, and a distinctive tattoo of a peach in the shape of a heart with a bite taken out of it and two drips falling from its core. This located on her left breast. And it was noted that the Tattoo was approximately 2 inches in size.
- [24:14]
C
Well, there's your identifier. And I. And like I said, I don't think this got a lot of national attention, but I'm sure it got some local attention. So then you have this killer out there going, well, I murdered this victim. I disposed of them. Probably not in the manner in which he wanted to, but he obviously, because basically a severed torso, no head, no arms, no legs. So the killer put in some effort. But within three days, possibly of discarding the victim, then this hits the news. This probably had the killer sweating a little bit.
- [24:50]
B
One would hope so. And like you said, it's obvious that while he may not have wanted her to ever be found, all of his effort went way more into the idea that she would not be identified if she was found.
- [25:05]
C
Yeah, and I think the problem is it's. It's hard to learn much about how they discard a victim in the sense of, well, we don't know if he was interrupted and so if he was interrupted, did that change his plans on how he was going to discard this victim? Because I believe there was a body of water that was somewhat close. So you just wonder what the mind frame is of this killer at the time. But I think it's hard to say because I think in these locations that seem to be pretty remote, once you see headlights coming at you, you might alter your plan.
- [25:45]
B
The other thing of this too, is my guess is this being a park. What did we say? A state park. That and it being surrounded by some heavily populated areas. This wasn't the first body that was found in this park. And maybe he had read that in the newspaper even decades prior, seen something on the news and thought, well, if somebody else dumped the body there or. Or others have this. This might be. In a weird way, it's a. It's a suggestion. Right. To. To the killer.
- [26:20]
C
Right.
- [26:21]
B
After finding the woman's torso in 1997, her distinctive peach tattoo was distributed widely in hopes that someone would recognize it. To the specifics of that, I go to a July 3, 1997 Daily News article that was titled Grizzly Find Puzzles Cops, and it reads, Nassau county detectives are hoping that a chest tattoo of a peach will help them identify the headless, naked torso of a woman found in a state park. Police think the tattoo artist or someone close to the mutilation victim was will recognize the design and step forward to identify the woman whose partial remains were found in Hempstead Lake State park by a hiker. The woman's head, arms and legs below her knees had been hacked off and have not been recovered. Quote We've shown photos of the tattoo to tattoo artists in Nassau county and they've told us whoever made it should be able to recognize their own work, end quote. That was a police source that had said that to the newspaper. The victim was an African American woman with a medium build between 18 and 30. According to this article. We said 16 and 30 earlier. The Peach tattoo is above the woman's left breast. The body also has a scar from a cesarean section on the abdomen. Cops believe the victim had been dead for more than 36 hours in less than a week.
- [28:09]
C
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- [29:36]
A
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B
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- [33:12]
C
All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Tall cans in the air, Colonel.
- [33:19]
B
Way up there in the air. Yes. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to all the good people in listener land. I love what the police decided to do here. This was very smart. So they put this information into a tattoo magazine. Right. Makes a lot of sense. We can already see the groundwork that they're doing within their own county. They go around to different tattoo artists in, in that county and they're asking them, have you made this? Did you make this? Is this your artwork? Do you remember putting this on anyone? And the information they're getting from those tattoo artists is great information for police. While it doesn't tell you anything who the artist was or who the victim was, you're hearing from these artists that, no, this is, this is unique enough that whoever created this, if it's somewhat recent within the last several years or what have you, they should be able to recognize and remember doing this work. So what you're learning when you hear that from different artists in your county, it's telling you. Well, we've talked to every artist that's still licensed. They're still operating today.
- [34:27]
C
Right.
- [34:28]
B
And this didn't come from our county.
- [34:30]
C
Well, and that makes sense to me because especially at that time period in the late 90s, it was very common for people to go on a, a trip. We're going to go to Panama beach and, and we're going to get a tattoo while we're there, or we're going to. Especially a tattoo like this. And also an individual that doesn't have a lot of tattoos. So it wouldn't be like, you know, a lot of people that have multiple tattoos are going back to the same artist over and over.
- [35:02]
B
I have multiple tattoos of the Rolling Stones lips logo all over my ass from a Fort Lauderdale trip that I took while ago last week.
- [35:17]
C
You should see them.
- [35:18]
B
Yeah, I can't because, hey, we'll post.
- [35:21]
C
Those on our social media.
- [35:22]
B
That's right. So in the, I have a, A, a snippet from the tattoo magazine. It shows, it very clearly shows the tattoo as pictured on the victim's body. And underneath it says, it looks like this is, was part of a larger article. But the portion I have says Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible who committed this crime. So They've already probably described the murder or described the finding the victim. And it gives a 1-800-tips line to call and says that all calls are anonymous. You don't have to reveal your identity to help solve this crime. But it works, right? Casting a wide net usually works, and here it does as well. So then we get a tattoo artist in the state of Connecticut who comes forward. He says that he believes that he is the one who gave the tattoo to the unidentified woman. The tattoo artist claimed that the woman was about 18 or 19 at the time that he said that he did the work. So this is a good lead, right? They got the lead because of a picture of the tattoo was featured in a national tattoo magazine. It was Connecticut tattoo artist Stephen Cullen that recognized it and claimed he gave the tattoo to a woman in the year of 1996. So the year prior to the body being found, saying that she came in with two other women when she got the tattoo, who going off of memory, he says he believed they were said to be her aunt and cousin. She also said that she was from either the Bronx area or the Long island area and that she came to Connecticut because she was having some troubles with her boyfriend. Pretty descriptive lead there. Despite this lead, no other person came forward to identify the torso, and no other information was gleaned from this tip. The victim remained unidentified, and investigators continued to use her nickname of Peaches.
- [37:39]
C
And law enforcement wasn't able to look up missing person cases in those areas that matched her description because it seems like nobody made a report that she was missing.
- [37:53]
B
Yes, that seems to hold true. The other thing, too, is the reason why you like this lead is because, as you know, and with my Rolling Stones tattoos, oftentimes these tattoos can also be very personal. And the given the location of this tattoo on her body, you, as a detective, you're wondering, well, how many people would know about this tattoo? But the lead you're getting is telling you that she came in with two other people. You just really hope that there would have been a missing person's report that they could have connected this to at that time. And obviously, that's not the case.
- [38:30]
C
It could be her first tattoo. So people love to show off their tattoo. It doesn't matter where it's at. I mean, I can't stop you. I mean, you've had these tattoos for years. I can't stop you from pulling down your pants and showing me those big, big old lips.
- [38:47]
B
In 2007, there's a possible new lead here in this case, but it's not the good kind. This comes in the way of another victim that could potentially be tied to this victim in some form or fashion. So this comes about on March 3, 2007, when a suitcase containing a dismembered female torso with a similar tattoo design was found in Harbor island park in New York. The similarities raised the possibility of a possible connection between the victims. The victim this time described as possibly a Hispanic or light skinned African American. This is a female victim. A stab wound was noted to the torso. One of her dismembered legs washed up at Cold spring Harbor on March 21, 2007. So just a few weeks later. And her other leg washed up at Oyster Bay in the village of Kovnik the following day. The victim this time had a tattoo of two cherries on her right breast and she is referred to as cherries by investigators. She is estimated to be 5, 4 in to 56 inches tall and approximately 160 to 200 pounds in weight. This finding is almost 10 years later.
- [40:25]
C
Right.
- [40:26]
B
And it's after this another horrific finding in 2007 of the victim referred to as cherries, that we have to fast forward all the way to 2011. Remember, we were already talked about the victims being found in December of 2010, but they would continue to search that general area and unfortunately continue to find things scattered in that general area in the weeks and months to come. So let's go to April 4, 2011, when we have an unidentified toddler that was found along Ocean Parkway at Gilgo Beach. The gender of the child was undetermined, but believed to be female. I've come across this in some of the other cases that we've talked about. When you have the younger victims and there's a good deal of decomposition or you're only finding skeletal remains or partial remains that because of the body being, it's not developed that it gets very difficult to determine the gender, the sex of the, of the remains that are found. So this victim is referred to as Baby Doe or in some cases the toddler. Police estimated her age to be approximately two years old. She was found wrapped in a blanket with no apparent signs of trauma. So found along Ocean Parkway. Now this is where police had recently discovered murder victims Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello and Marine Bernade Barnes the previous December. So this is, you have this horrible case on Gilgo beach and now you're finding a child victim that you have to think or believe just given the proximity is probably connected to your Gilgo 4 case.
- [42:32]
C
Right.
- [42:33]
B
And then as we mentioned earlier there was similar jewelry that's found with this baby Doe that you found with your Peaches victim. You're still unidentified Peaches victim.
- [42:45]
C
What do you make of the discarding of the victims and how the. The Gilgo 4 are like a cluster? Do you have any thoughts?
- [42:55]
B
Yeah. So I think that the often what we have here is that the killers will operate in a area that they're comfortable with. And oftentimes, though, that will be referred to as their comfort zone. And that could mean a couple of different things, like where do they find their victims? They find them in their comfort zone. Where do they kill the victims in their comfort zone. Where do they discard of the victims in their comfort zone. And it doesn't have to be all three done in that area. But what it appears to me, with the. These victims being found so close together, the. The Gilgo 4 and found very much in the same way with burlap bags. And there was some bindings and they're. They're placed off of the road, but in some very heavy brush. And what we do know that did work for the killer was that they weren't found for a considerable amount of time. And I think what we have here, let's say, let's pretend for a moment that our unidentified Peaches victim that was found very. In a very different manner, right. Just simply placed in a state park in a large storage container compared to burlap bags and heavy brush kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I think that you're seeing a couple things. If it, if it is connected, it goes back to what you had said. Oh, shit, three days later, that thing that I placed, the item that I placed in the state park has now been located, has been found. And all there is an identifier on this victim. Because what do we know that the killer did? We can surmise that he went to the efforts to make sure that she would not be identified because of the removal of the. The hands and the head.
- [44:46]
C
But he left identifier by the tattoos. And so if you connect these to Rex Herman, he eventually has this documentation that says, well, you got to make sure that you distort and destroy these. These markers of identification. And so I almost think that you can hypothesize that Rex is responsible for peaches and possibly cherries, because similar victimology, similar way that he discarded the victims. And I think maybe he learned something in the idea of, well, if I wrap the victim in burlap, which is more of a natural material that they'll.
- [45:33]
B
Be less likely to.
- [45:35]
C
Well, they'll break down faster. But also, when you're out in the woods, a big plastic tub or luggage bag sticks out like a sore thumb.
- [45:46]
B
Yes. And the nature of that container would be likely to preserve the. What's inside as well. So you're right where. And we can see that, too. We can directly tie some. Some evidence found inside of his home later, Much, much later that. That appears what he was doing. Like you said, he's learning, he's educating himself. And some of this is coming by way of trial and error. But referring back to our Blueprint for Murder episodes, where we went through the findings in his home in the computer, and it appears that he was, as cryptic as they may be, was taking notes, almost setting reminders of, hey, last time this didn't work out so well for me, but this did. So keep doing this part of it, but don't. But let's stop doing that part of it. He was working to get better. This again goes, this is a slap in the face of the old serial killer myth that they all, deep down inside, they all want to get caught. There might be a few that want to get caught, but when you see somebody learning and trying to perfect the way and that the bodies would not be located, that's every indication that this guy has no desire to get caught. In fact, he has every desire to make sure he can stay free so he can continue doing what he loves to do. And that, unfortunately, is to kill young, petite women.
- [47:20]
C
Well, we've heard from a lot of serial killers that after the kill, there's a time period where they, like, paranoia sets in because they're all, the cops are going to, you know, come get me right away. And so it's something that I'm sure that these killers think often about. And like you said, some of them maybe will. I. I think maybe it's just something that, oh, I got caught. So then I tell you, oh, well, I'm actually smarter than you guys. I wanted to get caught. Sure you did. You wanted all your freedoms to be taken away. But my question, if I'm studying these individuals, is when you're processing this idea of I could get caught one day, was there any thought of how you would handle that? We have some killers that when they're caught, they will not confess to any crimes. They'll claim they're innocent no matter what evidence.
- [48:20]
B
Right.
- [48:21]
C
And then we have other ones that once they get caught, it's almost like they're like, okay, the game's over. Let Me tell you all about my statistics.
- [48:31]
B
It gets. No, I think you're. I think you're spot on. I think a lot of them do. The, the more organized type. I think they do think about that and I think they do take that into consideration. I also think that just the more organized ones seem to study other serial killers. And so in, in that study, what you're going to find is killers that were caught, identified and, and convicted, and then killers that were never identified and still remain a mystery till this day. So when you're studying that part of it is, like you said, these guys got caught. Well, how did they handle it? What did they choose to do? And it's also what. What it. What motivating factors where we can look at this in, and boil it down to its simplest form and say whoever's doing this very likely is doing it because they are a sexual sadist. But I also am of the belief, and I think you are as well, that there's a lot of motivating factors in this. Some of it is ego. We see that with somebody like bt. I think that Heuerman has that in him where he wants credit for these.
- [49:46]
C
Yes.
- [49:46]
B
But I don't think he's. I think he's happy to not be the one to stand up, raise his hand and say, I did this. Give me, give me the credit. I'm some genius serial killer. I do think he has some egg on his face because he was caught. Who knows how he will behave. What I would be interested to see, Captain, is does his behavior change with a conviction when he's convicted?
- [50:13]
C
Yeah, because it could be at that point the game is over. And now I will tell you about my. My masterpiece and their sick, twisted ogre brains. But hey, I speak for all the listeners. Stop agreeing with me on a lot of stuff. You're being too nice lately.
- [50:35]
B
Agreed, agreed. There. So there's a lot that happens, some behind the scenes and, and some right in front of us regarding this Peaches victim. Between the time that the torsos found in 97 and then we have the identification made and announced earlier this year. That's a long time that's gone by now. During the course of that, we talked about the additional human remains, the toddler being found in 2011. But there were also additional human remains that were discovered in a plastic bag on Jones beach at Jones Beach State Park. And this is the. To put it short, it's Peach's torso, torso's extremities, and they're found about 15 miles apart from where the toddler was found. It's from my. It's my understanding here, captain. This is why I think the jewelry portion of this is a little confusing. But I think it was only when these. When this portion of remains were discovered that the jewelry was discovered. They figure out, using DNA, that the additional human remains belong to the torso. Unfortunately, the head is never found. What we then learn, we really do.
- [52:04]
C
Talk about some sick in this garage.
- [52:07]
B
This is terrible. They should burn the garage to the ground. In September of 2011, at a press conference, Investigators displayed images of that jewelry that we talked about, Believed to belong to some of the victims. Among the items was a rope necklace and a pair of hoop earrings, which were likely worn by the toddler whose remains were found. There were two bracelets recovered with the child's remains that are believed to have belonged to her mother. So one bracelet featured an X and an O patterns adorned with stones resembling diamonds, While the other was a snake style chain.
- [52:43]
C
Were they ever able to figure out anything from this? Because these were pretty generic designs.
- [52:51]
B
Oh, yeah, I don't think so. This doesn't appear to be how. What led them to the identification. So what we learned is DNA analysis confirmed that the torso found in 1997 and the remains found in 2011 were from the same individual. It was also confirmed that the woman known as Peaches was the mother of the child found in 2011. So you're. It's taking a long time here. Right. But you are starting to connect the dots. You're starting to connect the victims, and you're in. While you do not know the mother and child's name at this time, you are learning more about them, the jewelry and such.
- [53:33]
C
Yeah, but 14 years later.
- [53:35]
B
Exactly. Well, and a lot of. Some of that information is coming up in. In 2016. What was not known to the general public was it appears that they had not 100%, but very close to it, had believed that they had. Had identified Peaches way back in 2022. Okay, so this is how this works out. In October of 2022, we get several law enforcement agencies that are announcing through Facebook, through other forms of media, that they were looking for relatives of Elijah Howell slash Howard, who lived from 1927 to 1963, stating that this Elijah lived in mobile, Alabama with his wife Carrie. He had died in 1963. They were hoping that friends and relatives of this Elijah could help identify Peaches and her child. So when you're specifically looking for a deceased individual, like people that knew this deceased individual and relatives of this deceased Individual, that's telling me that you've pretty much narrowed it down to who Peaches is either to an actual individual or to a small group of persons. So Elijah was also known by the surnames of Howell and Howard and was born in Frankville, Alabama. He spent the majority of his adult life in Pritchard, Alabama. By 1950, Elijah was living with his wife Carrie. During the 1960s, his residence was listed as 616 Garrison Ave. At the time of his death in 1963, he was employed as a construction worker with the Sullivan Concrete Company. On October 31, 1963, Elijah and a neighbor were found deceased in a car off of Highway 45 near Atmore street in Mobile, Alabama. The cause of death was determined to be the combined effects of alcohol and carbon monoxide poisoning. According to records, Elijah's mother Luanna and his brother Sid still resided in the state of Alabama. And so they're saying anyone with information about this Elijah guy is urged to contact the FBI or submit a tip online on the FBI's official website. As we mentioned, in July of 2023 a suspect was arrested in connection with the Gilgo beach serial killings. While not directly charged in Peach's case, her invest the investigation into her murder remained active. And of course there were a lot of people, right, yours truly included, that suspected that the Peaches case is probably connected to some of these other victims.
- [56:41]
C
One, we also have Google search data from Rex Herman and he was I, and I don't know if they put it at the time, you know, back in 1997, but he was basically searching for like it would say, like a African American sex slave, like weird porn searches.
- [57:06]
B
It was this year, 2025, April 23rd, that police in Nassau County, New York announced that the remains of Jane Doe, previously known as Peaches and Jane Doe number three. So I want to break this down because there is a little bit of confusion out there because the unidentified victim was given two different names. The torso was nicknamed Peaches. It was the other additional remains that were located later and far away that to be Jane Doe number three. And then eventually they figure out Jane Doe number three and Peaches are one in the same. It was this year that they formally identified or announced the identification of Peaches as that of 26 year old US army veteran Tanya Denise Jackson and Baby Doe, as we said, or the toddler was her child. So what we learned here at the official press conference was that Peaches and her daughter identified as Tanya Denise Jackson, the mother and two year old Tatiana Marie Dykes, Tanya was born in October of 1970 in the state of Alabama. That makes sense. While they were, why they were looking in Alabama for the Elijah person, this is somebody that they absolutely believed was related to Tanya Denise Jackson. So they're doing that before, prior to making this announcement to the world, which actually took place two years later, two or three years later that they, they had narrowed it down pretty well is my guess. And then it's the following year that they find relatives and then they have to work through the process of comparing the DNA to confirm that they're unidentified, is a relative of these folks. Then they also have to identify the daughter. We have some information on her. She was a U.S. army veteran, served from 1993 to 1995. She was living in Brooklyn in 1997. Tatiana's father has been identified through birth records as a one Andrew Dykes, originally from Florida. Dykes moved from. Moved away from Brooklyn in May of 2000. He's been questioned many times by detectives and Nassau county has said openly multiple times that this guy has been very cooperative and was cooperating in the investigation. They gave more information about her too. Her vehicle, a Geo, a black Geo. They gave information that they believe that she was working as a medical assistant maybe part time at the time that she was killed in 97, and that it sounds like her and the father had been split up for some time.
- [60:16]
C
But it's probably very hard for law enforcement to clear the father because so much time has passed. So for him to present an alibi with some solid evidence would been pretty difficult.
- [60:31]
B
Yeah. And while, while I say that he's been cooperative, I've also not seen anything that says outwardly that he's. He's been cleared. But what we also know is that, that Rex Herman, who's been arrested and charged with some of the. Charged with the Gilgo four murders, he's not been charged with the murder of Peaches. So she had been estranged from her family for much of her adult life. She served in the US army, as we said, living on three different army bases in Texas, Georgia and Missouri. And she drove a black 1991 Geostorm. The Geostorm is quite interesting to this case because it's. This geostorm was found, but it was never connected to the case because your victim was unidentified for so very long.
- [61:28]
C
Right.
- [61:28]
B
It's believed that, that the killer would have had to. So it sounds like she was working in some kind of part time capacity as a sex worker at the time or in some form of. That that's not been confirmed across the board. But that is something that's been openly discussed. The thinking here, Captain, is that for some reason she was unable to secure a babysitter and that her and the toddler arrived at a prearranged meeting together and the. The. Her killer unexpectedly finds the toddler at some point.
- [62:12]
C
Right.
- [62:12]
B
And that she would have drove her black 1991 Geostorm to this meeting. And if she did in fact do that, then it's believed that the killer at a later time moved it or forced her to move it to where it was eventually found.
- [62:29]
C
On. The saddest thing about the Peaches case is that nobody reported her missing or reported her daughter missing. It's sad to think that there's somebody out in this world that people, I guess they just didn't value her. I don't. I don't know. Doesn't make any sense. Or you could, I guess maybe make the argument that a lot of her connections were states away. So maybe they didn't even know.
- [62:58]
B
Yes, they. They were several states away. And as said, she was estranged from her family for most of her adult life. And so they. They probably didn't keep in touch. And she. We already know that she's moving around considerably for several years with her time in the army and she served in the Gulf War. She was a private first class in the US army and served in the Gulf War. Tanya gave birth to her daughter Tatiana in 1995 and had two addresses in Brooklyn, New York. 54th street in Red Hook, Brooklyn and Sterling Place in Bed Stay in Brooklyn. She also had PO Boxes in Brooklyn and in Maplewood, New Jersey. And the authorities go on to say, while we do not yet know the circumstances of their murders, we do know that Tanya and Tatiana have, like all of the girls, captured our attention and our empathy. It is a blessing to know that authorities have not given up on any of these victims. And they also note that Othram, the great Othram down in. In the great state of Texas, was a partner in building the DNA profiles for both Tanya and Tatiana.
- [64:20]
C
So then I guess now the challenge for law enforcement is to figure out if these are connected to the Gilgo 4 and if they're connected to Rex Herriman.
- [64:30]
B
Yeah, that is where it stands with Peaches and her daughter Tanya and Tatiana today. Where it stands with Rex Heuerman. For those that don't know, just a quick overview. He's a New York architect and the suspect in the notorious Gilgo beach serial killings. He managed to evade capture for quite some time, well over a decade. He was arrested in July of 2023. For those that have followed the case, you'll remember that he was initially only charged with three of the homicides. And over in 2024, that increased from three up to seven. So as of this date, he's being charged with the murder of seven women. One of those, the Valerie Mack one, I believe it is, Captain. Or the Jessica Taylor. Pardon me, One of those. He's only charged with second degree murder in those cases. But as said, he's an architect. He's was also a family man. Currently 62 years old. He worked in midtown Manhattan, lived in Massapequa Park, Long island with his wife and children. Neighbors described him as unremarkable other than his size. I think there was some weird story of him getting into it with, with some neighbor from down the street. I don't know the particulars of that. But ultimately he would be charged in all four of the murders of the Gilgo Four. And the evidence that led investigators to him was identifying a dark green Chevrolet Avalanche that was registered to him that matched witnesses descriptions from one of the victim's disappearances. And further, that investigation linked him to the case through burner phones and then advanced DNA analysis. And if you follow the case, everybody knows about the, the famous discarded pizza crust that they used in this case.
- [66:36]
C
And then also the, the digital.
- [66:38]
B
Yeah, the digital. The digital forensic findings on his, his computer have, were, were, well, have been well documented, especially by us here in the garage in our blueprint find for murder episodes. Since his arrest, his wife, Asa, has filed for divorce. However, it is reported that they do remain in some kind of contact. The divorce settlement was reached earlier this year and the authorities in Suffolk County. So he's being kept in custody up until his trial at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County. And there they're saying that he is compliant, he's polite and seems to be adapting well to jail life. More recently here, Captain, in just last month, in September, a judge ruled that the DNA evidence collected using the whole genome sequencing technology is admissible at Heuerman's trial. This was a major blow to the defense, which sought to have the high tech evidence thrown out of court. And this, I think this was great too. And we've, we touched on this prior to our conversation here today. But the judge also ruled, well, denied the defense's request to sever the seven murder cases. Right. So the defense wanted to say, well, he's got to stand trial for each one of these murders that he's being charged with in a Separate trial. The judge denies this ruling that we're going to try all these together, which is considered a big win for the prosecution because what the jury is going to be faced with now rather than looking at each case and really when. All right, in his defense, I hate to be one coming to Rex Hereman's defense, but in his defense. Thanks a lot. If. Yeah. What a. What a jerk.
- [68:45]
C
What a jerk.
- [68:45]
B
Kick me out of the. He's just been voted off the island. You've been voted off the island there.
- [68:51]
C
Colonel Nick will not be back with us next week.
- [68:54]
B
But if you look at some of these cases individually, you wouldn't go, wow, there's a mountain of damning evidence against this guy. But when you throw all the cases together, you see it and I think you see it very clearly. This guy looks to be very guilty. He is the ogre monster that we described him to be. And where it stands now. And of course this is a high profile case. But Rex Herman's next scheduled to appear in court on January 13, 2026 and the trial is expected to begin sometime next year. And until then, Rex Herman has pled not guilty to all of the charges.
- [69:54]
C
Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. And we are are excited to announce the new Halloween 2025 T shirts and hoodies are here. They're available@TrueCrimeGarage.com that look great. Treat yourself.
- [70:15]
B
They do look great. Very seasonal, very Halloween. And here's the deal where where our garage is positioned parts unknown. But I can tell you this. While it remains bright, sunny and warm during the daytime, last night dipped down into the 50s. It's getting to be hoodie weather very quickly. So go get you some for this year's Halloween and save it because you can wear it again for all of the wonderful Halloween festivities to come in years ahead.
- [70:49]
C
So go to the website and treat yourself. We're going to treat ourselves to a delicious beverage. And until next week, be good, be.
- [70:56]
B
Kind and don't live sa.
- [71:35]
A
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