Victim "Peaches" IDd as Tanya Denise Jackson, and toddler IDd as Tatiana Marie Dykes, found Hempstead Lake State Park, June 1997 #4

[sds71]

 

[summergirl1]

It's interesting that he held the lease on Tanya's apartment. He seems to have had power over her. She trusted the wrong person. She trusted him enough still that they were intimate not long before she died, it appears. Unless-a remote possibility-it was after her death, or even not consensual.

I wonder how he ended Tanya's lease/tenancy without raising any red flags. And he had to dispose of everything in her apartment himself.. I wonder how he managed that. He knew, of course, her family wouldn't be trying to reach her, or at least not for sometime as they were largely estranged. So that's one concern he didn't have. In the photos of his most recent court appearance, he looks slightly in disbelief he was ever caught in my opinion.

 

[FromGermany1]

Dec 18, 2025 #nyc #crime #police
Dykes is a former Florida state trooper.

I can't imagine at all, that (allegedly) Tanya and (probably) Tatiana were his only victims. Too ruthless, too many skills, too many opportunities, MOO.

 

[Ladyotm]

MOO. Dykes wife may not have questioned Tanya and Tatiana's sudden disappearance because she accepted it as relief, that her husband had moved on from messing around with her. He probably has children all over the country.

He may have been truly invested in this relationship with Tanya, getting her an apartment (likely due to residency and rent income requirements). Not to leave his wife, but to have as his regular woman on the side. The fact that he had another girlfriend and was not showing any efforts to leave his wife may have been the last straw for her. Perhaps she was planning to leave him. Or maybe she did apply for public benefits and it triggered him.

A member questioned if it was possible someone reported her missing back in 1987. Possibly her employer and/or Tatiana's childcare provider when they didn't show up as expected?

 

[snooptroop88]

Dykes probably took Meadowbrook State Parkway over.

"As for Dykes, he made a straightforward request in court in Florida on Thursday. “I’d like to go to New York and defend myself,” he told the judge at his arraignment".

Good. I hope so.

"The cold case expert also pointed out that because Dykes may get linked to Gilgo because the little girl’s remains were found there could possibly help in the defense of Rex Heuermann. He’s the 62-year-old man whom prosecutors have charged in the killings of seven of the 11 people whose remains have been unearthed at Gilgo...
“The surprise here of arresting Andrew Dykes in the murder for Tanya kind of upsets that whole apple cart, so to speak,” Giacalone said, “in regards to maybe all of the victims were responsible by one killer.”

In other words, the cold case expert said, with Dykes’ name now added to the Gilgo cases, it could provide an opportunity for Rex Heuermann’s defense attorneys to cast doubt on their client’s arrest and prosecution".

Personally, I think the DNA on the other victims, witnesses, other things are pretty convincing Heuermann did the seven so far they have charged him with.

But I wonder about Asian Doe.

Imagine Rex thinking, 'That's not mine' but he couldn't admit it and wondering who did that, and at the same time Andrew Dykes thinking, 'They think Heuermann did it, good, they can spin their wheels over there'. Now Rex must be thinking, 'oh, good, maybe this will throw the jury'.

The weird thing is what if Asian Doe is NOT done by either one of those guys and their is a third killer, although in Heuermann's killing doc he did evidently search for a porn snuff film entitled something like 'Asian twinks' which makes me suspect him but could be someone elses job at that.

And I'm still not convinced Shannon Gilbert wasn't a murder.

Think the prosecution is attacking what might be something broader... in a piecemeal fashion because the "broader" is astounding and not yet shared with the public; OR is as of yet unknown; and/or is perhaps unprovable. But if you look at a map of these victims, Tatiana is so close to Valerie Mack that on the Lost Girls map, they're basically the same entry, Tatiana is a tiny extension from the same marker used for Valerie. Moreover, when you look at that map, you see east to west movement after placement of Tanya and Tatiana, with victims' remains placed between those two points over time in a sequence (with the exception of Karen Vergata, whose death preceded Tanya and Tatiana) from east to west. If that's a coincidence, it's a rather amazing one, jmo.

Dismemberment is unusual for murderers. Multiple locations for victims' remains, also unusual for a murderer. But provided they're both guilty, both of these killers elected to do both of these things, and (another amazing coincidence) for one of their multiple locations, both murderers chose pretty much the exact same location. And another amazing coincidence: in cases where victims were dismembered, the torso is elsewhere, it it not located at Gilgo.

There's perhaps more to this than meets the eye right now, jmo. But maybe these truly are coincidences. Also wondering about Asian Doe, and Karen Vergata.

Floored by the fact that Dykes was a state trooper. Tanya undoubtedly felt like she could trust him. Horror on top of horror, it's just unbelievably sad, all of it.

 

[Ruminations]

I think it had to do with financial support too. If the family knew about the affair and the baby, there was nothing to hide. So, it likely had to do with money, imo.

Or, revenge, if the affair caused him problems? idk

jmo

This whole case is troubling. Seeing the pic of Tatiana standing in her blue clothes- broke me a bit. It sounds like Tanya was trying to power forward and provide her a good life with out the support of her family or Tatiana's father's family. That is a tremendous burden on a young woman.

If Tatiana and Tanya were not secrets, there had to be some financial pressure on other family members of the suspect. The baby's disappearance had to be a financial convenience for more persons than the suspect. Thus, not pushing for answers when she disappeared is convenient. Unless the suspect is a scary, tyrannical figure such that other family members simply could not question him, their saying nothing doesn't pass the sniff test.

The other thing that still troubles me is the years it took to garbage pick some DNA from whenever it was that Peaches started seeming identfied. The suspect is the obvious suspect once Tanya was ID, and semen in a vagina in a fresh torso does not require new tech to match.

So much seems so wrong. I don't get all the namus drama.

MOO

 

[Ruminations]

Checking out the Davidson County civil Court look up page... It appears Mr. Dykes had a hard time holding up the financial care for at least one child. He spent a lot of time in court fighting the woman who was named as his wife at the time of the crime, requesting many motions to dismiss his financial obligation to his child, his own name sake. I'm not sure that he ever paid child support for any of his children, and if he did he ran or fought it. Hard to imagine a "great father" avoiding the financial responsibility to his children. CaseSearch

This means there are courts with some detailed information about the financial situation of both parents for each child whose support was disputed. With some variation, depending on the jurisdiction and court type (family court generally much more confidential-and every municipality has its own laws regarding privacy vs. transparency), we probably can not access too much of this information. But, we can see that there are issues! LE can see details and might bring any relevant, admissible details to this criminal case. If it goes to trial, some of those questions might be answered.

If the suspect is a very controlling man, it is possible that making one family disappear could stop others from asking questions. Or, maybe the suspect just had a lot of selfishly uncurious dependents. Convicted murders don't have the means to pay any support.

MOO


Edited to add: Nassau County DA is clearly framing this as a DV crime, by emphasizing that Tanya trusted the suspect- that he may have been the only person he trusted. That suggests the classic MO of the abuser, isolating the victim.

 

[Ruminations]

I can't imagine at all, that (allegedly) Tanya and (probably) Tatiana were his only victims. Too ruthless, too many skills, too many opportunities, MOO.

IDK, of course, but if killing off one of your families makes the remaining ones comply with all your wishes, there is no need to continue murdering. Murder is often a means to an end, not the end in itself, as it is for serial killers. Maybe Tatiana's siblings' parents were selfishly silent and satisfied. Maybe they were afraid they could be next. But either way, the suspect's "problem" may have been solved. No need to keep killing.

MOO

 

[DS2021]

Tanya

https://twitter.com/x/status/2002023496210063841

 

[CuriousCricket]

Tanya

https://twitter.com/x/status/2002023496210063841

View attachment 632181

Doesn't that look like and engagement ring?

 

[Ruminations]

Doesn't that look like and engagement ring?

Yup. It makes the NCDA's theory ring true- classic DV. He brought her all the way to Brooklyn.

I still think we may find out that the delay in her ID/the suspects arrest plus the proximity of Tatiana to Valerie Mack has another story. Who knows?

I also am inclined to suspect that, as testy as that man whose name and title I forgot was, the fact that the suspect was in LE chilled the investigation. The testy man telegraphed that to me with his all-or-nothing stance. "He doesn't deserve to be called Sargent Dykes!" As if a person can't be both in LE and an abuser. Furthermore, that testy man couldn't stop himself from taunting the suspect by questioning his manhood. When male domestic abusers are often motivated by feeling they need to abuse to fulfill their role as a man, I found that a little tone-deaf. Tone deaf in a way that made me think he would have trouble holding LE responsible for DV, especially where the abuser is the man of the house.

I felt like the DA and that man didn't get one-another.

MOO

 

[Barbb]

So it wasn’t Rex after all. I guess it was just a weird coincidence her body was found so close to the others.

Well actually the distance from Peaches to the closest victim, Jessica Taylor, is 1.43 miles. Other victims are closer to each other.

 

[Barbb]

New photo released of #TatianaDykes, closer to age she was when she was killed in 1997, along with her mother. Tatiana was found on Ocean Parkway in 2011, wrapped in a blanket. Her mother’s extremities were discovered more than a dozen miles away.

Aww. The kids adorable. Heartbreaking. How could someone do that, to their own kid even. Poor little kid.

 

[snarast]

Well actually the distance from Peaches to the closest victim, Jessica Taylor, is 1.43 miles. Other victims are closer to each other.

It’s her daughter Tatiana’s body that is close - about 200 feet - from parts of Valerie.

 

[Betty P]

Well actually the distance from Peaches to the closest victim, Jessica Taylor, is 1.43 miles. Other victims are closer to each other.

That distance probably distinguishes the victims from each other in some way. Some of the locations may be due to chance, but Rex’s seemed more planned. I wonder if he will eventually talk? Probably only if there’s something in it for himself.

It’s incredibly helpful to have such amazing DNA tools available for cases like these. It’s now possible to learn which killers are responsible for victims when common areas are used to dispose of the poor victims, whether it be a roadside, a waterway, etc. Hopefully what LE and prosecutors learn from these cases can help solve others and better profile perps, crime scenes and their methods.
RIP to all of these poor victims and the child.

JMO