The Other Asian Males: Possible LISK Victims?

We've talked a lot about Ocean Parkway in our discussion of the Long Island Serial Killer case and the ten sets of remains discovered between December 2010 and April 2011.

The only man found in the bramble has been referred to as 'Asian Male,' or John Doe, a victim of slight stature (112 pounds) dressed in women's clothing, thought to be between 17 and 23 years old. His skull was crushed; it's believed he was dead between five and ten years.

Captree Bridge, Asian male, recovered under the span in January 1984.

His ankles were bound & he’d been shot six times in head.

But what if there's a deeper Gilgo mystery involving Asian males that dates back to 1984?  At least two other cases are worth a closer look.

"We're aware," a law enforcement official with the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force told me this week, when I inquired about two other 'Asian male' cold cases.

The writer who publishes the website Murder, Inc. was already talking about the Captree Asian male, shortly after architect Rex Heuermann's arrest as the accused serial killer in July 2023.

The Captree Bridge crosses the Great South Bay into the barrier island that's home to Captree State Park, Oak Beach, Cedar Beach, Gilgo Beach, Tobay Beach, and Jones Beach.  The bridge is the link between Robert Moses Causeway in West Islip and Ocean Parkway on the island.

Great South Bay Bridge, leaving the barrier island at Captree State Park.

A slim Asian male was found under the bridge in 1984.

On January 20, 1984, a motorist noticed a man's body on the ice, under the mid-span of the Captree Bridge.  Police discovered the victim was Asian, his feet bound with cord.

He was about 113 pounds and he'd been shot six times in the back of the head with a small-caliber pistol.  The man had a scar over his right eye and "tattoos on both feet," according to the Daily News.  He was wearing jeans, along with a gray ski jacket.  

This victim has never been identified, although police created a sketch, which was posted in Newsday.  Detectives said they believed the victim had been shot someplace else and then thrown in the water.  

Perhaps we should state here that police found 283 guns in Rex Heuermann's home when they searched initially in 2023.

Captree State Park and Ocean Parkway are accessible from the Great South Bay Bridge.

The 1984 Asian male's dump site near the gateway to Ocean Parkway is noteworthy, when you consider how close Captree Bridge is to the Gilgo burial grounds and also reflect on the alleged searches LISK suspect Heuermann did on his computer.  

In 1984, Heuermann was doing seasonal work at nearby Jones Beach and lived on the other side of the Great South Bay in Massapequa Park.

The second, unsolved case is also compelling--from a geographical and a crime scene standpoint.

On September 25, 2002, boaters discovered an Asian man floating in Bellmore Channel under Goose Creek Bridge, which connects the Wantagh Parkway in Nassau County to Jones Beach and Ocean Parkway.

The victim was described as very thin, only clad in underwear.  His hands were bound behind his back and his feet were also tied up.

There was also binding around his neck that was similar to the material around his feet and hands.  A cinder block had been attached to the man's body, probably to have him sink in the water.  

Goose Creek Bridge runs over the Bellmore Channel. Murdered Asian male was found here in 2002.

The location is close to Jones Beach, Ocean Parkway, and the Gilgo burial ground.

At the time, Detective Lt. Dennis Farrell, who was the Nassau County Homicide Commander in 2002, told Newsday, "There's no question that whatever the circumstances here, this person endured a pretty horrible death."

The Wantagh Parkway is close to Rex Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park.

Heuermann allegedly did at least one computer search for "asian twink tied up porn' and had a history of browsing for violent pornography involving children, women, and men.

The term 'twink' is a slang word for a slim, gay man who has a youthful appearance.

The victim in Bellmore Channel was bound in a very similar way to the Gilgo Four, the first female victims discovered on Ocean Parkway in December 2010.

All three Asian males found in the vicinity of the Jones Beach barrier island (including the Gilgo victim) were slim and died violently.

This map depicts the Great South Bay Bridge (on right) leading to Captree/Ocean Parkway and the Goose Creek Bridge in Nassau County that connects to Jones Beach and Ocean Parkway.

When I asked the insider on the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force about possible connections between Rex Heuermann and the three Asian victims, the official responded, "We've linked the Gilgo case to Rex more definitively."

In the past, the task force has had some success identifying victims with investigative genetic genealogy (IGG), by utilizing ancestry sites popular with members of the public.  The sites helped to identify 2000 Gilgo victim Valerie Mack, who was previously known as Jane Doe # 6, and 1996 victim Karen Vergata, once known as Jane Doe # 7.

But the Gilgo investigators have apparently not had much luck identifying the Asian John Does with genetic genealogy.

"We don't have a lot of DNA from the Asian community," the official said.  "That's a very insular community."

The official noted it's possible the unidentified male victims came to the United States on their own and lost contact with relatives.  Or perhaps the victims had lifestyles their families were not accepting.

The task force is working with some good DNA evidence preserved from the crime scenes of three, other John Does (non-Asian) found in the Manorville area in 2000, 2003, and 2012--all of them in the cluster site that's close to the Long Island Expressway.  

"We can work with those crime scenes," the official told me.  "There's stuff to look at."

But other cases may prove to be more challenging.

"At some crime scenes, the integrity was not maintained," the source said.  "There has to be some evidence...to get lucky with."

And without getting specific, the task force insider spoke about a huge number of cold cases that are being reviewed in the Gilgo investigation:

"If I told you the list of names, you'd be shocked," the person said.  "We have a universe of names."