Live updates: Plea hearing for suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann under way

Other human remains were found during search for victimspublished at 15:34 BST

15:34 BST

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu
Live reporter

The 2010 search for Shannan Gilbert, a woman who went missing on Long Island, spawned the sprawling investigation that led to Heuermann’s arrest and charges that he killed several women over a nearly two-decade period.

Ultimately, Gilbert’s death was ruled to be undetermined by the medical examiner but the police at the time said they believed it was due to accidental drowning. Prosecutors have found no connection between Heuermann and the other bodies.

In December 2025, army veteran Andrew Dykes of Florida was arrested after police used DNA from semen from a vaginal swab to connect him to the 1997 killing of Tanya Denise Jackson. At the time, Jackson could not be identified, and she was given the code name Peaches because of a distinctive tattoo on her torso.

Body parts belonging to Jackson were found in 2011, and nearby were the remains of a young girl. Investigators identified them as mother and child using advanced DNA technology.

Dykes and Jackson were both in the US Army and stationed in Texas when they began an affair. Dykes was married and had children at the time and is the biological father of the toddler named Tatiana Marie Dykes.

Andrew Dykes, who was an army specialist in human anatomy and physiology, was transferred to a base in New York City in 1995, where Taylor and the baby later joined him, investigators say.

As with Heuermann’s victims, the bodies were discovered on a Long Island beach not far from Gilgo. Dykes’ DNA was matched to the swab after Florida police followed him until he threw away a cup and straw he had just finished drinking from.

Dykes was extradited from Florida to Nassau County, where he has been indicted on a charge of murder in the second degree.

Mystery remains about the circumstances of the body of an Asian male also found during the search for Gilbert.

Image source, Tribune News Service via Getty Images