Gilgo Beach killings: Andrew Dykes pleads not guilty to murder of Tanya Denise Jackson, previously known as 'Peaches'

The DNA on a straw from a fountain drink, tossed in the garbage of a Tampa, Florida, cheesesteak shop, was the final clue, Nassau County prosecutors said, that linked the death of the dismembered Gilgo Beach victim once known as "Peaches" to her alleged killer, Andrew Dykes, a former Tennessee state trooper.

Dykes, 66, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to second-degree murder for the 1997 death of Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, a Gulf War veteran who had given birth to his child and was living with him in a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, apartment while he was stationed at Fort Hamilton Army Base. Dykes, officials said yesterday, is also suspected of killing his toddler daughter.

Tatiana Marie Dykes, the couple’s child, was 2 years old when she was killed, placed in a rubber container and dumped on Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, investigators said. Her remains were found 14 years later on April 11 and 14, 2011, with other body parts belonging to Jackson, though no one knew her name, officials said.

Prosecutors said the DNA from a vaginal swab taken from Jackson matched with DNA from Dykes’ drink straw — a determination that took nearly 20 years and eliminated  a connection to the Gilgo Beach serial killings.

"I believe the mystery of her murder has finally been solved," Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. "The person responsible for ending Tanya Jackson's life can be prosecuted now for this unspeakable and grotesque crime we have as a Long Island community."

Law enforcement officials initially believed she could be the victim of the Long Island serial killer and called her Jane Doe No. 3 or "Peaches" for a tattoo of the fruit found on her body.

Dykes has not been charged with the death of Tatiana, but for the first time on Thursday, Donnelly and Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said both mother and daughter were killed by Dykes.

"He threw a baby out like the trash into the weeds," Ryder said at a news conference after the arraignment. "He cut the other body up and dumped it in a container and threw it into a sump. What kind of man does that?”

Jackson’s aunt, sister and her sister’s husband attended the news conference and nodded in agreement but declined to comment.

Investigators originally believed the killings were the work of the Gilgo Beach serial killer, who they believe was responsible for the deaths of nearly a dozen people, some of whose remains were found along the waterfront strip on the South Shore of Long Island in 2010 and 2011.

Massapequa Park architect Rex A. Heuermann, 62, has been charged in the deaths of seven women — including six found near Gilgo Beach. His case is currently pending in Suffolk County. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to multiple first- and second-degree murder charges in connection with the killings.

"She wanted a future with him."

Nassau County Homicide Bureau Deputy Chief Ania Pulaski confirmed that Dykes and Jackson met while serving in the Army, assigned to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. She was a medical assistant; he was an instructor in anatomy and physiology.

Pulaski said Jackson wanted to pursue a relationship with Dykes, but he rebuffed her and then killed her.

"She wanted a future with him and a life with him and his child, but he was already married with children," Pulaski told Supreme Court Justice Tammy Robbins.

Dykes’ son, Aundrey Dykes, 43, of Orlando, Florida, told Newsday earlier this month that his mother knew about Jackson and the baby when she gave birth to Tatiana on March 17, 1995.

"None of it makes sense," Dykes’ son said. "He’s a teddy bear, my dad. It's just not possible. I can't even imagine something like this being done by him."

Prosecutors have not detailed the moments that led up to the killings, but Pulaski said Dykes, also an operating room technician, used his knowledge and the skill to dismember Jackson with "surgical precision."

Military records collected by investigators discuss his "excellence, specifically in skeletal systems, muscular systems, digestive systems and blood," prosecutors said.

Dykes was transferred to the base in Brooklyn under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1995 and Jackson joined him shortly thereafter. He held the lease on her Sunset Park apartment, prosecutors said.

Jackson and Tatiana were killed on June 28, 1997. Investigators believe the mother’s remains were found three days after her death. No one reported them missing, prosecutors said.

The prosecutor said it took investigators years to identify Jackson "because of the precautions this defendant took."

A cup and a straw

The identities of the mother and child remained a mystery until 2023, when authorities said they used genetic genealogy and Tatiana's birth certificate to connect Dykes to the slain pair.

Alhough Dykes acknowledged paternity during subsequent interviews with investigators, telling them that he had looked for the mother and child over the years, he denied any connection to the killings.

"His story didn't add up, and based on what we learned during this phase of the investigation, we began surveillance operations on the defendant in October of 2024," Donnelly said.

Investigators trailed him from his home in Ruskin, Florida, to a Charleys Cheesesteaks in Tampa, prosecutors said. They retrieved a cup and a straw from a drink he threw away and were able to get enough DNA to match with the swab from Jackson through testing.

Pulaski asked that, based on the strength of the case, Dykes be remanded into custody without bail because he has no ties in New York.

Dykes' attorney, Joseph LoPiccolo, said he would be reviewing the discovery in the case, especially the DNA results, which he said were matched using a new, relatively untested method.

"The technology used to reach the conclusion that he may be involved in this case, I believe, is the newer technology and very subject to scrutiny and challenge in New York State," LoPiccolo said. "That is the defense that will be going forward to start with."

He said his client was feeling "physically overwhelmed."

LoPiccolo reserved his bail application for a future date when he is more familiar with the evidence in the case, but initially said he was not surprised his client's DNA had been discovered on the victim.

"I'm not terribly concerned," he said. "The fact that someone may have had sexual relations with someone doesn't mean they're responsible for their death. People have consensual sex all the time, so it doesn't mean that they cause the death of their partner."

Donnelly would not discuss the evidence further.

"I think they'll see at trial how we respond to that," she said.

Newsday's Grant Parpan contributed to this story.