UID Victim: Toddler's Mother, Peaches, found Hempstead Lake State Park June 1997 #4

[wcasewatch]

If you read through the missing persons threads here, you'll see a lot of cases as you say, but also case after case where family insists they reported their loved one missing and LE doesn't have a record. Or it's just a line in a police log, or it was in a state where reports of runaway minors were purged when the minor turned 21, or the police filled it out but never did anything with it but file it in a cabinet and forget about it.

Even if there was a report filed, and the LE agency took it seriously and tried to find her, it doesn't mean the old record was ever uploaded to any centralized database. I've seen an estimate that only about 10-15% of the missing people in Massachusetts are even in the state database, never mind the national ones, and we're not the only state with that problem. Archived records have been destroyed by accident in fires, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes, and deliberately when sheer volume forces archives to be removed.

You're likely right that she was at least a part time sex worker, but that in no way implies she wasn't reported missing.

The task force has been scraping well below the surface of any centralized database. They're not running searches on the Doe Network. A line in a police log with two names and a set of ages would be enough for them to hone in on Peaches. Many families did report their loved ones missing, but were met with hesitancy from LE. Karen Vergata and Valerie Mack are good examples of this. Regardless, my initial point still stands. If Peaches was officially reported missing, she would have been easier to find. Either she wasn't reported missing, or the relevant LE agency refused take her disappearance seriously. IMO, if Peaches was a regular "civilian" with a child, such a report would have been taken more seriously.

 

[wcasewatch]

Had you read (or understood) my initial comments from several years ago, you would know that I didn’t say Peaches was randomly picked up on the side of the road or convinced to visit her killer’s home.

Peaches’ remains were found in June 1997, prior to the advent of the internet when LISK would’ve trawled for street girls rather than use agencies that kept records. Also during that time, Queens Plaza, almost anywhere along Roosevelt Avenue, and the LIRR hub @ Sutphin & Archer in Jamaica were hotbeds for prostitution.

Photos of Peaches’ tattoo show a lighter complexion so in that vein, perhaps she was from one of the culturally diverse neighborhoods that comprise Queens. If so, then maybe she and her daughter were waiting for a bus or train at one of the aforementioned spots, a stranger approached asking if she was working, she said no, he apologized and offered her a ride, she accepted and here we are today. Inference? The seemingly innocuous stranger was LISK and considering Heuermann’s small arsenal, he could have threatened to shoot her if she tried to exit his vehicle.

Opinion? Yes. Beyond the realm of possibility? No.

I never said that it was beyond the realm of possibility. I said that it's highly unlikely when you consider how such offenders operate. Deviating from his normal victim profile, picking a "civilian" and her child up at a bus stop when he could easily pick up a sex worker who will willingly go home with him, threatening her with a gun enroute, and then driving her to his own neighborhood is an incredibly risky move for a man who we know operated with a relatively high level of caution. IMO, it's too elaborate because you have to add a lot of IFs and BUTs for it to sound plausible. Check out discussions about other previously unsolved cases and you'll find that the simplest explanations almost always turn out to be closer to the truth.

 

[snooptroop88]

Let's just hope we get some answers for Peaches with these recent searches. She doesn't even have her name back yet, or the baby. We'd like to know what happened to her, yes, but it would be incredible if we could just find out who she is, so in death, at least people know her proper name, and so that she can be put to rest in the place her family would like. It matters little to me whether Peaches was a sex worker or not. She may or may not have been, many SKs "cross over" between non-sex workers and sex workers (Cottingham, for example). It's not a "guaranteed" that she was. By the same token, though, I don't see anything "wrong" with speculating that a victim in this context may have been a sex worker. What matters to me most right now is that Peaches is dead, and we don't even know who she was, OR what happened to her. Now, sometimes, you can find out who she was by finding out what happened to her, and sometimes you can figure out what happened to her by figuring out who she was. Maybe we're just seeing some conflict in terms of the approaches people are taking.

I think they still don't have Peaches' skull recovered yet, and that's why they don't have a sketch for her. That's going to slow things down. I've got a feeling Peaches was special to her killer, and I've got a feeling that kiler's RH. If we get more RH info, maybe we can get closer to who Peaches was, and what happened to her and her baby. @fidgeypie, Josh Zieman's noting the initials on her tattoo, and I can probably go back and get those, but the thing is, I've heard those initials may be for the tattoo artist, so I'm not sure if they're going to ultimately lead to her identity. Plus, they might be the initials of the baby rather than Peaches herself. I'll try and get them, but right now, I'd unfortunately view the fastest road to getting info for Peaches by shaking down RH-- who's quite possibly very prolific, and may not have "always" just murdered sex workers. Have definitely looked at victims, both identified and unidentified, who are non-sex workers in association with RH. I'd be surprised if it turns out he "only" went after sex workers. But I mean, maybe he did. We don't know yet.

 

[willy wagtail]

The initials may help sleuthers!

 

[snooptroop88]

The initials may help sleuthers!

Well, okay, looking at the tattoo myself, it's either TBA or TBH. I'm trying to remember what Josh Zieman said. Just looked it up, I finally found it. It actually wasn't Josh Zieman that said it's TBH. It's a "Catch Lisk" guy that interviewed on the same show with Joseph Giacalone, it's like the three of them together on the show. It's at about 1:10.

I mean if it's TBA, it could be some odd "To Be Announced," like an inside reference only known to her. This "Catch Lisk" guy thinks it's TBH.

 

[summergirl1]

I didn't realize there were any initials by her tattoo. I don't remember having heard of that before.

 

[Blueeyedbrowngirl]

Yes, they’re in the leaf.

 

[willy wagtail]

What about EMBA

 

[willy wagtail]

Also the severed parts were found 2011 so do they have this poor lady's skull? Why no reconstruction?

 

[snooptroop88]

Also the severed parts were found 2011 so do they have this poor lady's skull? Why no reconstruction?

Most recent article I could find is 2916 but as far as I know, this is still the case: "Since Peaches' skull has yet to be found, investigators have not been able to put together a composite sketch of what she looked like."

Murder Victim Dubbed ‘Peaches’ Linked to Long Island Serial Killer Case

Exclusive: Authorities linked an unidentified woman’s torso found 19 years ago in Rockville Centre with skeletal remains discovered on Ocean Parkway in '11.

www.longislandpress.com

 

[Blueeyedbrowngirl]

In October 2022, the FBI asked for the public’s help in identifying Peaches. Since then, the medical examiner has been summoned to Heuermann’s storage unit (last year) and home (last week), and the FBI has been exceptionally silent about Peaches. I’m not saying these events are related, but it’d be nice if they are. Perhaps Peaches has been identified and much like the Karen Vergata case - whose identity was known and withheld from the public for over a year (if I recall correctly) - we’ll learn the truth in due time.

 

[snarast]

She might be listed as missing several years before 1997, even before she had her baby.

 

[snarast]

In October 2022, the FBI asked for the public’s help in identifying Peaches. Since then, the medical examiner has been summoned to Heuermann’s storage unit (last year) and home (last week), and the FBI has been exceptionally silent about Peaches. I’m not saying these events are related, but it’d be nice if they are. Perhaps Peaches has been identified and much like the Karen Vergata case - whose identity was known and withheld from the public for over a year (if I recall correctly) - we’ll learn the truth in due time.

Yes, I agree. And that is very interesting. Withheld from whom?

 

[wcasewatch]

They probably withheld Vergata's identity while they worked on building the case against Heuermann. Announcing her identity would have let him know that there was significant movement in the investigation. They also wanted to sift through her background, trace her last known movements, and exhaust possible leads before the public was notified. I've heard rumors in private channels about Peaches' identification and supposed background. But that's all they are—rumors. I wouldn't associate my name with them. The last thing this case needs is more hearsay. It's possible that they already know Peaches' identity and are tying up loose ends, notifying family members, etc.