Alleged victims of Gilgo Beach killer identified after 27 years
The remains of two victims believed to have been murdered by the Gilgo Beach serial killer have finally been identified after 27 years.
US army veteran Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, who was known as 'Peaches' because of her distinctive tattoo, and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Mary Dykes were named at a press conference by officials at Nassau County on Long Island, New York on Wednesday.
Parts of Ms Jackson's dismembered body were found in a bin in Hempstead Lake State Park, Lakeview, on June 28 1997.
Then, 14 years later, her severed legs and arms were found, along with the skeletal remains of her two-year-old daughter.
For decades, their identities were unknown.
All the police had to go on was a scar, possibly from a caesarean section operation and the tattoo – a peach with a bite taken out of it and two drips from the fruit further down on her breast.
It was not until 2015 that DNA analysis was able to establish that the remains were mother and daughter.
More of the puzzle was put together with the help of the FBI, genealogical analysis and interviews with the family.
By last year, investigators had a positive identification, but the details were not released.
New York architect, Rex Heuermann, 60, is facing seven counts of murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
In December, he was charged with killing Valerie Mack, whose remains were first found on Long Island in 2000.
She was also unidentified for years, before being named in 2020 with the help of genetic testing.
Police have yet to confirm that the latest discoveries were also victims of Heuermann. They are investigating the deaths of at least 10 people.
'I am not saying it is Rex Heuermann, and I am not saying it is not. We are proceeding that it is not and keeping our eyes wide open, ' Nassau County Homicide Detective Captain Stephen Fitzpatrick said.
'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 their cases are unrelated from that investigation,' he added.
Originally from Alabama, Jackson served in the army from July 1993 to February 1995, before moving to Brooklyn, where she worked in a doctor's office.
The bodies have been interred at Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Spanish Fort, Alabama, with military honours.
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USA Today
23 minutes ago
- USA Today
Why wasn't an Amber Alert sent for the 3 sisters found dead in Washington?
Why wasn't an Amber Alert sent for the 3 sisters found dead in Washington? Show Caption Hide Caption New footage of Travis Decker released amid manhunt Travis Decker is wanted on first-degree murder charges in connection with deaths of his three daughters. The deaths of three girls in Washington state whose mother reported them missing after their father didn't return them from a custodial visit, has prompted cries for reform because an Amber Alert was never sent for the sisters. The bodies of Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were discovered on June 2 – just days after they were reported missing by their mother, Whitney Decker. The three girls did not return home from a planned visitation with their father, Travis Decker, a former military member who is homeless and was living out of a pickup. Authorities found the girls' bodies about 75 to 100 yards away from their father's unoccupied vehicle near the Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, about 148 miles east of Seattle. The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Marshals, and U.S. Border Patrol have joined the search for Travis Decker, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Now, Whitney Decker is calling for changes to Washington state's Amber Alert system and improvements in mental health care for veterans as the search for the man stretched into its sixth day on June 6, according to reports. Washington State Patrol was originally contacted on May 30 to request an Amber Alert, but the situation "did not meet the required criteria" at the time, Wenatchee police said. The agency instead issued a statewide Endangered Missing Person Alert (EMPA) for the girls on May 31. As authorities intensify the search for Travis Decker, 32, a family attorney told local media outlets that Whitney Decker believes her daughters might still be alive had an Amber Alert been issued in the hours after they were reported missing. "She really feels that the system let her children down," Attorney Arianna Cozart said in an interview with KING 5. "It was the inadequacies in the services for our veterans that killed those children." Court filings revealed that Travis Decker had exhibited mental health issues prior to the girls' deaths. Cozart told The Seattle Times that Travis Decker had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving active service. "They did not see him as an immediate physical danger to his children, despite the fact that he had a well established history of mental health issues," Cozart added. "And had they had seen it that way, those children might still be alive. And that's the thing that is so brutal, and the one thing she's really hoping can be changed in this tragedy." Cozart did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on June 5. 'One too many': Death of 3 girls in Travis Decker's custody is a familiar tragedy Why wasn't an Amber Alert issued? Chris Loftis, spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol, reiterated to USA TODAY that the request for an Amber Alert did not meet the system's guidelines, which are set by the U.S. Department of Justice. He said that, similar to other states, Washington's system has "specific criteria" to ensure that features of the program are only used in instances where the standards have been met. According to Loftis, the criteria include: "The person(s) must be 17 or younger." "The incident must be investigated by a law enforcement agency, and the subject must be entered into the National Crime Information Center." "There must be enough descriptive information that activating the alert will assist in the recovery." "There must be reason to believe the person has been abducted." "The missing person(s) must be known to be in danger of imminent serious bodily injury or death." While the first three criteria were met, Loftis said Travis Decker had limited custodial rights, and there was not immediate legal presumption that the girls were abducted when the Amber Alert requests were submitted on May 30 and May 31. He added that law enforcement does not "automatically have clear indication that the children are in danger" in situations where a custodial parent is late returning children to another parent. Loftis noted that discussions with local law enforcement did not mention danger as a concern. Citing notes from the intake specialist for Washington State Patrol's Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit, Loftis said initial and follow-up reports from local police stated there was no threat of great bodily harm or death to the children at the time. The notes also showed that Travis Decker had previously "never diverted from the parenting plan in the past" and "no alarming mental health status" had been mentioned in the reports, other than "he may be 'going through a lot' after leaving the military and weathering housing and employment issues." 'No set of standards can protect us from all evils and horrors' Though the case did not meet the Amber Alert threshold, Loftis said there was "ample concern" and State Patrol had enough information to issue the EMPA. Unlike an Amber Alert, the EMPA does not send a push notification or text message to all cell phones in the targeted area about missing children. According to Loftis, issuing an EMPA allows law enforcement to post electronic fliers, send text messages and emails to listservs of people who have requested notification on all alerts, post vehicle information on highway reader boards, and promote coverage by state broadcasters. "The State of Washington handled this incident no differently than any other state with the information they had available. But all of that said, nothing, no process, and no set of standards can protect us from all evils and horrors," Loftis said in a statement to USA TODAY. "We learn from every tragedy, and I'm sure we will review and learn from this set of tragedies, but the depth of this sorrow is beyond a learning opportunity right now, it is a tragedy first and forever." Community mourns amid manhunt: Who were Olivia, Evelyn and Paityn Decker? What happened to the three sisters? The three girls were found dead by apparent suffocation in a remote campground, according to the Wenatchee Police Department. Whitney Decker had reported the children missing on May 30 after they left their central Washington home to visit their father. On June 2, a Chelan County deputy found an unoccupied truck at about 3:45 p.m. local time near the Rock Island Campground. Officers found the bodies of the missing girls soon after, down a small embankment, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by USA TODAY. While Travis Decker was nowhere to be found, investigators traced his cell phone, which revealed that he visited the same campground the day before the kidnapping, the court documents show. Travis Decker is wanted on charges of kidnapping, first-degree murder, and custodial interference in connection with the deaths, according to the Wenatchee Police Department. In an update on June 4, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said Travis Decker may have scoped out a hiding location before going off the grid using his extensive military and outdoor survival training. Contributing: Natalie Neysa Alund, Anthony Robledo, and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY
Business Insider
42 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Musk says Trump is in the 'Epstein files.' Here's where the president has shown up in unsealed records.
Elon Musk has an allegation about why President Donald Trump hasn't released all of the so-called "Epstein files." He's in them. Musk's claim, tying the president to the dead financier and sex trafficker, is the latest punch in the escalating beef between the richest man in the world and the president of the United States. "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public," Musk posted on X Thursday afternoon. "Have a nice day, DJT!" "Mark this post for the future," he added in a follow-up post. "The truth will come out." Musk didn't elaborate on his claim or provide evidence that backed up his assertion. House Democrats nonetheless seized on Musk's claim, with two members of the oversight committee demanding a response from Justice Department officials. Trump's relationship with Epstein has long been part of the public record. None of that record supports any notion that the president was involved in Epstein's sex trafficking. The two were friends in the 1980s, spending time in the same wealthy social circles in Palm Beach and Manhattan, and Trump's name has repeatedly come up in litigation related to Epstein. The two had a falling-out in the 2000s. Trump has previously denied involvement in any wrongdoing related to Epstein. In 2019, following criminal charges against the financier, Trump said he "wasn't a fan." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Musk's claims about Trump and Epstein were "unfortunate." "This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted," Leavitt said in a statement. "The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again." During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump indicated he supported making government documents related to Epstein public if he were elected. It's not clear exactly what Musk meant by the "Epstein files." Attorney General Pamela Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have promised to release documents in possession of the Justice Department related to the wealthy pedophile. Other agencies that may have Epstein-related documents, like the CIA, have been publicly silent about the matter. We already have a lot of Epstein documents Bondi and Patel have published one batch of documents, in February. Aside from a three-page list of evidence seized during a 2019 criminal investigation into Epstein, it included only information that had previously been made public during the criminal case against his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and in other civil litigation. 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Documents including Trump's name became public in January 2024, when a federal judge unsealed and unredacted thousands of pages of court documents in a lawsuit that Giuffre brought against Maxwell. The judge had previously referred to Trump with the pseudonym "Doe 174." The lawsuit did not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing. Many of the people whose names were initially kept under seal in the court documents were identified as Epstein's victims or had only an incidental connection to the financier. The documents from that lawsuit include excerpts of a deposition by Johanna Sjoberg, who has accused Epstein of rape. At one point during the deposition, Sjoberg was asked about giving massages to various associates of Epstein at his residences, and she denied giving any to Trump. Asked about a trip to Atlantic City, she described visiting one of Trump's casinos after flying on Epstein's private jet. "Jeffrey said, 'Great, we'll call up Trump, and we'll go to' — I don't recall the name of the casino, but — 'we'll go to the casino,'" Sjoberg said in the deposition. Other documents mention Trump only in passing, referencing him as one of the many high-profile people who have been friends with Epstein. Epstein — who also spent time with other powerful figures, including Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Steve Bannon, and Ehud Barak — died by suicide in a federal Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. As part of the same investigation, Justice Department prosecutors brought sex-trafficking charges against his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in late 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Musk was famously photographed with Maxwell at a 2014 Vanity Fair event. He has said she "photobombed" him. The Tesla CEO has denied a connection to Epstein. 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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fox News rushes to Trump's defense after Elon Musk says he's ‘in the Epstein Files': What about Bill Clinton?!
Fox News suddenly found itself in a pickle on Thursday when a high-stakes feud erupted between the two leading lights of the MAGA universe – President Donald Trump and the world's richest man, Elon Musk. While the breakup always seemed inevitable due to the egos involved, as well as Trump's history of shedding one-time loyalists and stabbing them in the back on the way out, the hosts at the conservative cable giant have appeared to be in mourning over their two heroes duking it out. Since the spat exploded, the network's top MAGA personalities have been careful not to fully take a side, especially considering the media power Musk wields due to his control of the social media platform X. They've also expressed hope that the president and his former 'first buddy' will eventually work it out, essentially saying the two are 'just blowing off steam' like a couple of college bros. At the same time, though, there was one Rubicon that Musk crossed that was a bridge too far for many of Fox's opinion hosts – the loaded accusation that Trump was in the so-called 'Epstein Files' and this was 'the real reason' why the administration has yet to release them in full. During his off-the-rails tweetstorm on Thursday that escalated the war of words to nuclear levels, the Tesla CEO brought up the president's previous relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Considering right-wing media's long-standing obsession with Epstein's supposed client list, which they've speculated would include a number of high-profile Democrats and celebrities who engaged in sex crimes with Epstein, the Musk allegation seemed primed to sow division within MAGA world. This has especially been the case since many of the president's supporters are still bitter over Attorney General Pam Bondi's botched release of the FBI's documents on Epstein and the FBI's leaders – who were Epstein conspiracists themselves when they were MAGA media figures – now saying Epstein actually committed suicide and wasn't murdered in jail. Sean Hannity, the Trump confidant who also serves as the 'White House shadow chief of staff,' was crestfallen that the back-and-forth between Trump and the one-time DOGE chief had grown so 'personal,' specifically with Musk's Epstein claims. Hannity, meanwhile, decided the best way to address the accusation was to pivot to another famous friend of Epstein's. 'Wasn't it Donald Trump who booted Epstein out… because he was one of the first people to realize just how horrible Epstein really was?' Hannity wondered, referencing the falling out between the president and the deceased sexual predator. 'I guess if Donald Trump felt that Epstein had something on him, he probably wouldn't have kicked him out of his club.' After insisting that Trump was fully in the clear when it came to his past ties with Epstein, Hannity then fully pivoted to former President Bill Clinton, who also associated with Epstein in the past. 'Now, Democrats and the media – I'm just thinking out loud here – I truly wonder, is Bill Clinton in those files also? If I was a betting man, I know where I'd put my money,' the Fox News star openly speculated. Hannity's primetime colleague Jesse Watters, meanwhile, took a slightly different tack when it came to the billionaire's shot at Trump. 'Elon's calling the president a pedophile. Wow! I don't think Musk has seen the Epstein Files and if Trump was in them, Biden probably would have released them,' Watters declared on Thursday night. 'And everyone knows that Trump kicked Epstein out of his clubs and cooperated with the victims' attorneys,' he continued. 'But the silver lining is that now Democrats are demanding the release of the Epstein Files.' Watters went on to say that it's up in the air if Musk and Trump will 'patch it up,' acknowledging that if someone 'said I was on the Epstein list, it might take me a little while' to get over it. At the same time, he insisted that 'guys get over stuff' easily and that 'both men are patriots and hopefully they will do the right thing.' Elsewhere on the network, afternoon host Will Cain was a bit more critical of the SpaceX founder, taking issue with his abrupt about-face and wondering why Musk was such a supporter of Trump if he believes he had nefarious dealings with Epstein in the past. 'Elon Musk is — he seems to be unstable right now on X. He is talking about impeachment. He is talking about the Epstein files, if I were to believe that would be true, why would Joe Biden not have used them in trying to get elected over Donald Trump?' Cain asserted. 'I hate it when people say this, but it's not a good look for Elon Musk.'Later on in his program, Cain said he wanted to ask Musk about his suggestion that Trump is 'in the Epstein Files,' wondering if the billionaire would have remained silent on it if the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' had met his satisfaction. 'What is this truth-teller today exposing about the guy yesterday, if everything is true that Elon is saying?' Cain added. Meanwhile, on the president's favorite morning show on Friday, the hosts made sure to let Trump know where their loyalties lay, at least when it came to Musk's Epstein claims. 'The Epstein file thing was way over the top and just crazy to say that Trump was in the Epstein files,' co-host Brian Kilmeade exclaimed. 'I mean, sometimes when people get drunk. They do crazy things. But this is a total escalation by Elon Musk.' Still, as was the case with much of Fox News programming over the past 24 hours, the curvy couch crew was trying not to explicitly take a side in the spat, seemingly waiting to see how it developed throughout the day and weekend. Instead, they mostly expressed hope that the two would eventually smooth things over for the good of the Republican Party, adopting the role many of Trump's allies have taken in trying to broker a Trump-Musk peace. 'Maybe I am a little too optimistic, but they're both alpha males,' Lawrence Jones insisted. 'They fight. It's dirty. I got a friend like this. I love him to death. But when we fight – I don't know what gets over us. We don't do it publicly, but we love each other.' This was similar to how Watters explained the situation the previous evening, likening the feud to a pair of fraternity bros who got into a brawl because of a love triangle. 'Guys sometimes will punch you in the face, and the next night you're having beer; sleep with your girlfriend, and you patch things up,' Watters bizarrely proclaimed at one point. Kilmeade, meanwhile, went on to praise Trump for his 'measured' response to Musk, all while claiming that the spending bill at the center of this blowup 'might actually get better because of Musk.' For now, though, the network's MAGA hosts continue to be a bit despondent over the entire affair, urging the two to 'knock it off' for the good of the country and that the whole situation makes them sad. And though many express optimism that Musk and Trump will make up, Laura Ingraham is worried that they may have already gone past a point of no return. 'I talked to an insider today who said it is irreparable,' she sighed on Thursday night.
