Former cop charged with killing Gilgo Beach victim ‘Peaches’ pleads not guilty — lawyer says he’ll challenge DNA evidence
Former Florida Police trooper Andrew Dykes—who faces a murder indictment that once was tied to the notorious Gilgo Beach killings—entered a not‑guilty plea in a Nassau County courtroom on Thursday.
Dykes, 66, kept his mouth shut while his attorney, Joseph Lo Piccolo, outlined plans to contest DNA evidence that prosecutors assert links the ex‑police officer to the 1997 death of U.S. Army veteran Tanya Jackson, 26.
In speaking to the judge, Lo Piccolo emphasized Dykes’s background, noting that he’s a father and had earned respect in both law enforcement and the military.
The defense argues that Dykes’s alleged involvement in Jackson’s disappearance is baseless. Prosecutors say that while on a military posting in Texas, Dykes had an affair with Jackson, even though he was still married and had another child. Jackson, an Alabama native, reportedly lived in Brooklyn and worked as a medical assistant at a doctor’s office at the time she vanished.
Dykes is also identified as the father of Tatiana Marie Dykes, a two‑year‑old girl whose body was discovered in 2011 far from her mother’s remains. The mom and daughter had long been thought to be linked to the same spree that produced the remains of at least ten people along a Long Island highway, many of whom were believed to be sex workers.
The alleged killer Rex Heuermann has meanwhile been charged with several of those slaughters, including six women found near Tatiana’s body. Nonetheless, investigators now believe that Jackson’s case is unrelated to the Gilgo murders.
Jackson’s torso appeared stuffed inside a container in a wooded area of Hempstead Lake State Park back in June of ’97. During the decades that followed, she became known only as “Peaches” after a fruit tattoo was found on her body.
Dykes was first taken into custody in Tampa on December 3rd and was held in a Florida jail before being extradited to New York. He has not yet faced charges in the toddler’s killing as of Thursday.
Stay informed on all the latest news, real-time breaking news updates, and follow all the important headlines in world News on Latest NewsX. Follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter(X), Gettr and subscribe our Youtube Channel.
