The peach tattoo above the left breast of Jane Doe #3 in LISK case..jpeg
The story of 'Peaches' and her toddler daughter, whose remains were found on opposite ends of Ocean Parkway in the spring of 2011, moved many of us who have followed the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK) case. Mother and child were wearing similar gold jewelry, although the mom had been dismembered, while the girl's body was left intact.
The toddler daughter of ‘Peaches’ was wearing gold hoop earrings and bracelets similar to mother’s jewelry.
The woman, Jane Doe #3, was called Peaches, because of the tattoo above her left breast. It depicted a peach with a bite taken out of it. Her torso and a floral pillowcase were found in late June 1997 in a green, rubber container inside Hempstead Lake State Park. We knew nothing of LISK at that point.
In April 2011, some of Peaches' skeletonized extremities turned up in the bramble of Jones Beach, on the same barrier island where Gilgo Beach is located. The victim's skull was never recovered, but forensic DNA testing later established Peaches was the mother of the little girl found a week before on Ocean Parkway, who was wrapped in a blanket.
Floral pillow case discovered inside green rubber container holding the torso of Jane Doe # 3, known as ‘Peaches.’
Aside from working hard to identify Peaches and her child, the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force has had the unusual challenge of dealing with two bodies....in two counties.
Most of the known victims of the Long Island Serial Killer were discovered in Suffolk, so the Suffolk County District Attorney's office took over the investigation.
D.A. Raymond Tierney has introduced six murder indictments, so far, against architect Rex Heuermann of Massapequa Park. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Suffolk Police map shows locations of LISK victims in Suffolk County.
Peaches' daughter was found closest to Jane Doe # 6 (Valerie Mack).
But Peaches was found in Nassau County, New York, the jurisdiction that's adjacent to Suffolk.
Nassau's homicide detectives were pursuing the Peaches case since 1997, ever since her torso was uncovered inside the container.
Green rubber container where the torso of Jane Doe # 3 (‘Peaches’) was found in Hempstead Lake State Park, 1997.
With that much time invested by Nassau investigators in the Peaches probe, there is a level of negotiation and cooperation that will be involved in weaving the Peaches murder into the Suffolk County criminal case. But it seems these issues are being addressed now.
Because the tiny skeleton of Peaches' daughter was located ten miles away from the mother's extremities on Ocean Parkway, positioned in close proximity to the dismembered remains of presumed LISK victim Valerie Mack in Suffolk County, investigators can argue mother and daughter died during the same time frame.
It's been nearly two years since the FBI asked the Mobile, Alabama police department to post a Facebook appeal for relatives who could be related to Peaches.
It became apparent then that genetic genealogy testing was being done in the Peaches case, and we're eager to hear the results.