Gilgo Beach killings: Investigators eyeing microbial DNA analysis to help identify Asian victim, DA says

More than a year after investigators publicized sketches of facial reconstructions of an Asian man whose remains are considered part of the Gilgo Beach serial murder case, leads from the public have failed to bring police any closer to identifying the victim, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

As a result, Tierney said in a telephone interview last week, the Gilgo Beach Task Force is learning heavily on investigative genetic genealogy and is open to using an emerging forensic technique to help identify the man whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2011.

"It is a hard nut to crack," Tierney said of trying to identify the man, believed to have been between the ages of 17 and 23 years when he died.

Tierney said that forensic techniques such as microbial DNA analysis might be useful in determining a more precise time of death for the man, which investigators think occurred around 2006.

The widespread use of microbial DNA analysis — the study of the genetic material found in viruses and bacteria — is still years away, scientist Bruce Budowle said.

"That is where the future will be," Budowle told Newsday.

Budowle established the FBI databases that became the CODIS system, known as the Combined DNA Index System, used nationally by police agencies to identify human remains and suspects.

Using microbial DNA

Over the years, Budowle has written extensively about the use of microbial DNA and said it has been used in cases of bioterrorism, fraud, biocrime and cases of accidental releases of toxins. Advancement in sequencing techniques also allows analysis of changes in bacteria and other microorganisms found with human remains to give a better understanding of the time of death, Budowle said.

The case is made more difficult because Asian populations generally do not contribute to public DNA search sites, hurting the chances of getting a good genetic comparison, Tierney said.

The use of genetic genealogy has already led Gilgo Beach homicide investigators to identify the remains in 2020 of another Gilgo Beach victim, Valerie Mack, one of the seven women whose killings have been charged to Massapequa Park resident and Manhattan architect Rex A. Heuermann.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty in the case and has not been charged in connection with the death of the Asian man. Heuermann’s murder case is expected to go to trial sometime shortly after Labor Day, Suffolk Supreme Court Judge Timothy Mazzei said last week.

In 2024, Gilgo investigators revealed that genetic genealogy was used to confirm the identity of the remains of Karen Vergata, whose remains were found on Fire Island in 1996 and was considered one of the victims of the serial killings. Vergata, who worked for a time as a sex worker and was referred to as "Fire Island Jane Doe," but her death has not been linked to Heuermann.

No lead despite sketches

The Asian man’s remains were found in April 2011. The man was clad in women's clothing, an indication he might have been a sex worker, and because of that Suffolk investigators published two reconstructions of his face — one showing him with long hair as a woman and the other with shorter cropped hair as a man.

But despite wide publicity of the sketches, particularly in Asian media, the leads investigators received weren’t plentiful and so far have all been accounted for as not being the victim, Tierney said.

"He is probably not from Suffolk or Nassau," Tierney said last week, adding he may have come from the larger Asian immigrant community in New York City.

When the sketches were first publicized in September 2024, Tierney noted that the man had died from blunt force trauma and his ancestry was traced through DNA analysis to southern China, specifically to the Han ethnic group. The Han group is considered one of the largest ethnic groups in the world and comprises over 90% of Chinese in China and 97% of Chinese in Taiwan, according to internet references.

While genetic genealogy has been used to identify crime victims in numerous cases around the United States, the fact that people of Asian ancestry don’t submit to public databases in significant numbers stems from the traditional use in Asian cultures of detailed, private family records to track genealogy, said Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nationally known genealogist with Identifinders in California.

"Asians just are not really prevalent in databases, they don’t really need it," Fitzpatrick said over the weekend.

She said she is excited about the use of microbial DNA. "It is worth looking at because maybe there is unique signature about a food or toxin [in a body]," she said. "It is another lead, no matter when you do any test, it may give you another lead."

Technique still developing

Budowle said that microbial DNA analysis could help determine where a person died, as opposed to where their body was placed. The analysis can also indicate a medical condition the victim had, he said.

But experts note that microbial analysis in the United States is still relying on only one laboratory and additional work has to be done to make the methodology viable for wider use in the criminal area.

Tierney said he is willing to spend money on microbial analysis, the cost of which has come down drastically over the years, according to experts. But with limited lab facilities available for the analysis, as well as techniques and databases still developing, use of microbial DNA in the Gilgo investigation wouldn’t be immediate.

"It may be helpful ... in determining the time of death" of the man, Tierney said.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.