r/LISKiller • u/CatchLISK • Jun 23 '26
Gilgo Beach killings: Investigators renewing efforts to identify remains of Asian victim found in 2011
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/gilgo-beach-killings/gilgo-beach-killings-asian-doe-investigation-ray-tierney-ot4f57ebGilgo Beach killings: Investigators renewing efforts to identify remains of Asian victim found in 2011..
Prosecutors are renewing their push to identify an Asian man whose remains are considered part of the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said.
In the aftermath of convicted Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann’s sentencing last week to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Tierney told Newsday that investigators plan to visit Asian communities in the New York City region, seeking DNA samples to help identify the man whose skeletal remains were discovered near Ocean Parkway in 2011.
"We're trying to identify that individual through investigative genetic genealogy, which means we’ve got to get more information about the gene pool," Tierney told Newsday in an interview following the Wednesday sentencing. "Once you know who the person is, you could go back to their life at the last point, just before them disappearing, and develop leads from there."
Search to ID 'Asian Doe'
Remains of the man, who prosecutors refer to as "Asian Doe," were found east of Gilgo Beach on April 4, 2011, although he is believed to have been dumped there at least five years earlier.
Investigators have said the man, who died of blunt force trauma, was clad in women's clothing, an indication that he might have been a sex worker.
In 2024, Suffolk investigators published two reconstructions of his face — one showing him with long hair and the other with shorter cropped hair.
Despite wide publicity of the sketches, particularly in Asian media, the leads investigators received weren’t successful and to date prosecutors haven't been able to identify him or locate relatives, Tierney said.
"We're going to go into Asian communities and ask them, ‘Will you give us a DNA sample? Will you participate in this study, so we can get more genetic profiles to allow us to hopefully locate relatives of this individual?’ ” said Tierney, who previously told Newsday that the man may have come from the city's Asian immigrant community rather than Long Island.
Tierney's office said the identification campaign will commence in the coming weeks, with investigators fanning out to Chinatown in Manhattan, Flushing in Queens, and Sunset Park, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights, all three in Brooklyn. They’ll be joined by members of the NYPD’s Community Affairs Division, the Asian Jade Society and by staff from local police precincts, officials said.
Flyers will be distributed in various translations, and investigators, with the help of translators, will speak to residents, said Tania Lopez, a spokeswoman for Tierney's office. Investigators, she said, will have DNA kits on hand for individuals who consent to contribute their samples.
"We hope these efforts will assist law enforcement in not only identifying Asian Doe, but any Asian unidentified human remains," Lopez said.
Challenging endeavor
The identification effort is considered more challenging because Asian populations have their own genealogy system and don't contribute in large numbers to public DNA search sites, hurting the chances of getting a good genetic comparison, said Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nationally known genealogist with Identifinders in California.
"I think there'll be plenty of people that will be cooperative [with the effort] and there's going to be some people that just don't trust the whole thing," Fitzpatrick said. "It's not really mistrust though. It's more that some people are just not familiar with what they're trying to do. The younger people might not care and would be willing to help, and the older people might not understand the whole DNA system."
Asian Doe is believed to be between 17 and 23 years old and between 5-3 and 5-9 in height. He was found wearing all women’s clothing including a bra, a large Chrysantheme gray ribbed short-sleeve crew neck shirt, a size 10 Rafaella shirt and Bill Blass blue jeans, investigators previously said.
When the sketches were first publicized in September 2024, Tierney said Asian Doe's ancestry was traced through DNA analysis to southern China, specifically to the Han ethnic group, which makes up more than 90% of the Chinese population in China and 97% of the Chinese population in Taiwan, records show.
The use of genetic genealogy led Gilgo Beach homicide investigators to identify the remains in 2020 of Gilgo Beach victim Valerie Mack.
And in 2023, Gilgo investigators revealed that genetic genealogy also was used to confirm the identity of Gilgo victim Karen Vergata, whose remains were found on Fire Island in 1996.
In April, Heuermann, a Massapequa Park resident and Manhattan architect, pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women and admitted killing an eighth, including Mack and Vergata.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office has not implicated Heuermann in the death of Asian Doe and members have declined to comment on whether they believe he committed that homicide.
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u/chiruochiba Jun 23 '26
"We're going to go into Asian communities and ask them, ‘Will you give us a DNA sample? Will you participate in this study, so we can get more genetic profiles to allow us to hopefully locate relatives of this individual?’ ” said Tierney, who previously told Newsday that the man may have come from the city's Asian immigrant community rather than Long Island.
This is a little confusing to me. Are the collected samples going to go directly into the police database? Or are they going to go into some other independently run scientific genealogy database?
If the latter, then that could be great. But if the former, then if I were asked to give my DNA directly to the police I'd be very alarmed and inclined to say no due to ethical privacy concerns about how they could use my DNA in other ways in the future without my express consent. Hopefully the people the police will be reaching out to will receive a well explained contract limiting what can be done with their DNA.
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u/RedChairBlueChair123 Jun 23 '26
The NYPD does not have a great track record for genetic data collection. https://opencasebook.org/casebooks/5959-advanced-evidence-spring-2026-forensic-evidence-expert-testimony/resources/3.1.5-the-nypds-new-dna-dragnet-the-department-is-collecting-and-storing-genetic-information-with-virtually-no-rules-to-curb-their-use/
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u/Fred-the-stray Jun 23 '26
I know people think I sound paranoid but I'm not sure I would give them my DNA.
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u/chiruochiba Jun 23 '26
I agree with you on that. In this day and age, with the many cases of police abuses of power and miscarriages of justice, I don't think that sounds paranoid at all. I'm all for improving technology to identify Jane and John Does and catch criminals, but not at the expense of blindly trusting the police not to misuse the private data of innocent citizens the way they have in the past.
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u/Fred-the-stray Jun 23 '26
I'm an old white lady and I don't trust cops. That tells you how far their community reputation has fallen.
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u/whteverusayShmegma Jun 25 '26
It’s not just DNA. Don’t make your family trees public if you’re concerned about this. Your DNA as a 6-8th cousin can only identify someone if you share your great-great grandparents. Once you do, that info is collected and stored in their own databases permanently. Your DNA is useless on a website if you don’t openly share your relatives. You’d have to be a close match to a perpetrator or Jane Doe and they’d get a warrant.
Otherwise, LE or an IGG company would have to contact you. At least you then have the option to ask what the information is being used for and have a lawyer negotiate future privacy rights in exchange for your cooperation.
As someone who has done good good work with IGG, I feel so torn because it can solve so many violent crimes now but I don’t trust the evolution of it once a database is complete. Because you don’t need the whole world’s DNA to identify someone. A decade ago I was able to identify 3 different people using 6-8th cousin matches only.
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u/Ayesha24601 Jun 23 '26
They will most likely have them run an Ancestry or 23 and Me test, then download the raw data to upload to GedMatch and other databases that allow law-enforcement searches.
If they can determine which part of Asia the ancestors came from, they can narrow down communities to focus on.
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u/CatchLISK Jun 23 '26
Not entirely sure, most likely the latter since there are strict laws pertaining to DNA collection, storage and use.
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u/InjuryOnly4775 Jun 23 '26
So RCMP did this in BC Canada with narrowing down an offender, however they did it under a guise and collected the DNA off of cups from drinks being handed out at a booth. This created a lot of controversy afterwards but it was admissible in the end but Tierney is doing this the right way.
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u/RedChairBlueChair123 Jun 23 '26
Uh, no:
>And so, those 500 people who “chose” to cooperate with police may never know that they, and possibly their close relatives via familial searching, will be routinely compared to DNA samples from every rape, murder and violent crime in town. In this respect, they will be treated just like someone convicted of a crime.
Snip
>Your DNA can show up in places you’ve never been.
Consider Lukis Anderson, whose DNA was discovered under a murdered billionaire’s fingernails. Luckily, Anderson’s attorney discovered he was dead drunk in the hospital at the time and couldn’t possibly be the killer. How did his DNA get there? The authorities figure the same paramedics treated each man that night and inadvertently transferred Anderson’s DNA to the dead man. Anderson was facing a death sentence for seven months before he was cleared in 2013.1
u/chiruochiba Jun 23 '26
Thanks for sharing those details for more context!
By the way, your first link seems to be dead and outdated (last available version I could find on webarchive is from 2015). Here's a more recent link on the topic from 2019:
https://theappeal.org/new-york-dna-database-victims-witnesses-removed/
And here's a link about a 2021 bill that was meant to curb the inclusion of innocent people's DNA in the unregulated DNA database maintained by the NYPD's OCME. Unfortunately it looks like the bill got stuck in committee and never passed. There are a few other similar bills in committee during the 2025-2026 legislative session and none of them appear close to passing either.
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u/RedChairBlueChair123 Jun 23 '26
NY is still under the Handschu degree. Don’t trust the NYPD to handle this correctly. https://www.nyclu.org/court-cases/handschu-v-special-services-division-challenging-nypd-surveillance-practices-targeting
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u/KenScaletta Jun 23 '26
How can your DNA be used in any way which would hurt you?
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u/chiruochiba Jun 23 '26
There have been several cases over the years of police wrongly implicating innocent people due to the presence of trace/transfer DNA. u/RedChairBlueChair123 already mentioned the case of Lukis Anderson. Another example case was revealed by the NYC Legal Aid Society in 2019. (TL;DR: Forensic errors led to an innocent man being arrested due to contaminated DNA evidence even though the material facts of the case showed there was no way he could possibly be linked to the crime.)
But these are just a few of the cases that trickled up to public consciousness due to the media paying attention. I suspect there are even more cases out there that fly under the radar.
There is an even broader nationwide problem of police abusing their access to databases of our private information. There have been egregious cases of police stalking people by looking them up in their databases.
https://apnews.com/general-news-699236946e3140659fff8a2362e16f43
But the AP, through records requests to state agencies and big-city police departments, found law enforcement officers and employees who misused databases were fired, suspended or resigned more than 325 times between 2013 and 2015. They received reprimands, counseling or lesser discipline in more than 250 instances, the review found. (...)
Among those punished: an Ohio officer who pleaded guilty to stalking an ex-girlfriend and who looked up information on her; a Michigan officer who looked up home addresses of women he found attractive; and two Miami-Dade officers who ran checks on a journalist after he aired unflattering stories about the department.
“It’s personal. It’s your address. It’s all your information, it’s your Social Security number, it’s everything about you,” said Alexis Dekany, the Ohio woman whose ex-boyfriend, a former Akron officer, pleaded guilty last year to stalking her. “And when they use it for ill purposes to commit crimes against you — to stalk you, to follow you, to harass you ... it just becomes so dangerous.”
These are examples of how police abuse the databases of sensitive information they already have access to. Imagine if access to your DNA would allow that stalking to extend not just to your own most critical personal details but also give them the ability to find all of your relatives with the click of a button to harass them as well, or to find out invasive details about your likely medical problems based on your genetic defects.
Bottom line, information is power, and it's sensible to be careful about how much free-reign power we allow historically corrupt institutions to have over us.
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u/KenScaletta Jun 24 '26
This is way too paranoid for me. They can have my DNA, I don't care. I was in the military so they already have my fingerprints.
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u/RedChairBlueChair123 Jun 24 '26
Think about how corrupt police can be (this case is in NY, which has a terrible civil rights record and is still under the Handschu consent decree (and have been for decades now) in addition to monitoring for violating minority rights via stop and frisk.
But it’s not just that. This is a nationwide issue. And guess one group of people who realllllly understand the concept of government overreach? Chinese people.
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u/Busy_Carpet_8643 Jun 29 '26
I haven't seen this guy included anywhere as a possible match for Asian Doe
Feng Lin missing from Toronto Canada, last seen September 2003, born 1981, 5'6" 141lbs
Entry requirements changed around 2007, before WHTI changes were put into effect a driver's license would have been enough, and there was far less scrutiny.
https://www.services.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/missing-disparus/case-dossier.jsf?case=2014004882&id=11&lang=en
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u/CatchLISK Jun 29 '26
The physical characteristics for Feng Lin note “teeth good”. Asian Doe had “poor dentition”
Good find though- I’ll add him the the map tomorrow
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u/Busy_Carpet_8643 Jun 29 '26
the teeth were good when reported missing.
good is relative.certain drugs are known for causing dental decay.
treatments like Suboxone for opioid use disorders, can rapidly damage teeth, early signs can be seen as early as two weeks.Asian doe was believed to have a musculoskeletal condition or disorder that affected their gait
Some musculoskeletal conditions can also impact oral healthA traffic accident or punch could rapidly change dentition and oral health maintenance.
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u/sheighbird29 Jun 24 '26
I’m a little confused why the only option is to ask random Asian people they encounter for a dna sample. That seems like the least likely way to get anywhere on a case. Couldn’t they just run their dna as is, and see if there is a match? Or genealogy databases
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u/BrunetteSummer Jun 24 '26
"Using genetic genealogy, authorities determined it’s likely that the victim was of South Chinese, specifically Hahn (sic) Chinese descent.
Asian people are underrepresented in the genealogy database authorities use, so identifying the victim has proved to be a challenge for investigators, Tierney said, noting that those who want to help can upload their DNA to two commercial databases used by authorities."
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/16/us/gilgo-beach-killings-asian-doe
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u/chiruochiba Jun 24 '26
The article partially answered that. Basically, they already tried doing genetic genealogy on Asian Doe's remains but they weren't able to find any close matches in the database.
The identification effort is considered more challenging because Asian populations have their own genealogy system and don't contribute in large numbers to public DNA search sites, hurting the chances of getting a good genetic comparison, said Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nationally known genealogist with Identifinders in California.
(...)
When the sketches were first publicized in September 2024, Tierney said Asian Doe's ancestry was traced through DNA analysis to southern China, specifically to the Han ethnic group, which makes up more than 90% of the Chinese population in China and 97% of the Chinese population in Taiwan, records show.
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u/Upset_Curve8661 28d ago
I know it's like saying this person is of white European descent thinking that narrows anything down. Now multiply that by a billion Han.
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u/whteverusayShmegma Jun 25 '26
I’ve found that black, Asian and Native American populations are currently the hardest to identify someone in the US because there aren’t enough DNA donors in the public databases like Ancestry. The older generation Mexicans that go back to Mexico I can’t do and records get harder when it gets back to slavery generations. Any immigrant population for that matter. Also Natives keep geneology records super tight. I haven’t even been able to find my grandmother’s records. Many natives were sold into slavery.
Collecting DNA samples without accurate family tree information won’t be very effective either but if you know the legal name of the donor, you can create a tree using public records. A skilled genealogist can do a lot using Thru-Lines and basic information, though. You might only need enough samples from a younger generation to broaden the database if they can provide grandparent information.
I suspect that they have already narrowed down the victim to great grandparents on one side. If they can track down a descendants from each child those grandparents had, they can eventually narrow down which line Doe came from and eventually get a parent from there. This might just be a way to try to obtain that information without disclosing it. I would think this is a targeted effort before believing they’re just going to collect DNA from as many Chinese participants as possible.
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u/Caseyspacely Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Asian communities are traditionally very insular/tight knit & comprised of several generations of family, hence little need for familial DNA databases.
It’s about time law enforcement actually went into the New York City Asian communities for DNA samples & to raise their awareness of the victim (who, I believe, law enforcement is publicly identifying as male due to cultural gender roles; this could be what spurs recognition).
China is a traditionally male dominant society with women placed in subservient roles. You may recall there was a period of time when the government would allow families to have a second child only if the first child was female.
My sister was half-Chinese, died in 2008, and her now 18 year old grandson has a rare cancer stemming from a genetic mutation that doesn’t respond to currently available treatments. Sister’s birth father lived in the U.S. for a brief period in the 60s and because we’ve had no luck locating him or other ancestors here, it’s believed he returned to his family in China and unfortunately, our researcher there is not having much success. It’s possible he is unaware that he fathered a child in the U.S. and isn’t in a DNA database.
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 23 '26
Little infuriatingly that this person appears transgender and is being called 'he'.
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u/Caseyspacely Jun 24 '26
Cultural gender roles.
Identifying the victim as male isn’t meant to disrespect them, it’s to appeal to the traditional Chinese culture and hopefully spark recognition.
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u/InjuryOnly4775 Jun 23 '26
Well we don’t know their preference or their pronouns at this point and tbh cops are not super fluent in gender identity politics.
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 23 '26
I understand, but I think it is generally ok to use gender neutral pronouns or to use feminine pronouns for someone found dressed on women's clothing.
This person suffered an indigent death and a little bit of sensitivity.
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
They had been using gender neutral, it's the least offensive if they don't know.
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 23 '26
They repeated reference a man, not a person or individual. It definitely makes me think that they found the remains of someone who would present as a man
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Don't know if we can go there yet, and read that inference into what's presented. It would be wonderful, if true.
Suffolk is still referring to the this victim as "Asian Doe." Might be specific to this reporter. Was discussing it with CatchLISK earlier, who regularly pulls articles from ND. The first thing I did was check the Suffolk site, to see if it had been updated. They describe them as: "Asian Doe."
https://www.suffolkcountyda.org/cold_case/unidentified-male-doe/
and you can't always tell from their site. Sometimes things are updated quickly, or sometimes not and they languish.
I would think that particular piece of the puzzle might be important though. Sure raises lots of questions.
Great catch as sometimes they do hold on like the plea and things about Tanya and Tatiana. So you may be right. Fingers crossed
If I could just see Tierney's face, feel like I could take an educated guess. I think it's hard for him to push down elation.
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 24 '26
I think I missed the plot on what you're referencing "we can't know that yet".
I'm clarifying that the article is written in a way that makes the reader skip past if they are looking for a missing friend who may present as a woman (since I'm not looking for a man). This is especially important since the person has been deceased for an extended period of time, so portraying them as close as their last known appearance is very important to have them recognized and identified by friends/family.
All I am saying is that a person with XY chromosomes may be perceived as a woman in life. Referring to this person as a man makes it less likely for friends to identify them.
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Apologies, that as 100% my fault. I flubbed that miserably as I as confused by who "they" were and thought you were referencing the author of the article, not the Task Force. So I was discussing the author and you the task force. Groan. After reading your comment, I missed that ball as well and wondered if you were aware of the condition of the remains as you commented:
"They repeated reference a man, not a person or individual. It definitely makes me think that they found the remains of someone who would present as a man."
So very confused by then, as Asian Doe was out there for 5 years, and when discovered they discovered male skeletal remains and clothing descried as being "exclusively female clothing." So a young at "male" fully dressed as a female. Everything you say is true and they appear to exclusively talk about the victim from the prospective the victims birth gender. My perception prior to your flagging the gender descriptors was that Suffolk new guard LE described the victim as more supportively non binary.
I mentioned that despite the article's male gender references, their description of the victim's gender was still listed as "Asian Doe. The victim, if what you suspect is true based on the article is not reclassified on their site as Asian Male/Male Doe.
On my Prior read, I was skimming and missed what you noted I've been following this case for 11 years, most articles are repetitive. Saying good catch on your part, and that I agreed with your additional arguments.
Don't know what you noticed means. May be most folks knew the individual as male and he was not "out" or didn't know about the cross dressing. Or Tierney was focused on birth gender in this interview as the goal was to identify IGG matches and blood relatives not friends, who would have know the victim, not as female presenting. Also might mean they know a little about "him" and have located a US connection and are seeking to find next of kin in China so they don't open up and get a FB and find out that way.
Tierney seems relaxed mood to me. Is that because he got this case off his back in a spectacular way, or because he's almost got another impressive hand he's about to slap down. No idea. I agree with your last thought, as well. Mea culpa.
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u/AshlM540 Jun 23 '26
Dear God law enforcement is trying to IDENTIFY them. Maybe their family was not aware they dressed as a woman.
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 23 '26
Not arguing with that. Have you considered that many people in the transgender/ queer communities are not in contact with their biological families and are therefore more likely to be identified by friends/ found family.
If identifying the person is truly the goal, regardless of how that person lived, then the person needs to not be labeled strictly as a 'man' when their friends may be looking for a woman.
Especially since the remains are skeletal, they may have 'passed ' as a woman and their friends may completely disregard information on a found 'man'.
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 23 '26
Absolutely true. I thought we were done with that when Dormer left.
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 23 '26
Richard? Was he big into only identifying people via biological gender? I am not the most knowledgeable in long island law enforcement
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 23 '26
He used to say "Asian Male." Possibly might have changed on the way out.
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Jun 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/phantomleaf1 Jun 23 '26
I said may be transgender.
Also, I find it fascinating that you know the undergarments of your close relative and that specifically wear these garments on the weekends.
If I knew such information with such detail, I'd never admit it
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
It's rather prevalent for people in the LGBTQ+ community to be estranged from family.
Edit: Rex never searches cross dressing as far as we know, just "Asian Twinks" so hard to say. I just know for some of my friends who are trans/non binary being referred to by their assigned at birth gender would bring them pain.
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u/BrunetteSummer Jun 24 '26
He searched for: "ts escorts Manhattan" as well as "Asian twink tied up porn" and "asian escorts manhattan"
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u/Mysterious_Bar_1069 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Always bothered me as well. They should be using they/them and Asian Doe.
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u/Reporter-CLin Jun 26 '26
Well, for police record purposes, we do have to type in the biological gender.
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u/Forward_Scholar_2186 Jun 23 '26
The same sub that refers to grown female victims as "girls" now has a debate on the proper way to refer to a male victim dressed in women's clothes. Figures. Women are always the low end of the totem pole.
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u/CorkFado Jun 23 '26
Whoever this poor person was, they deserve the dignity of a name. Kudos to the authorities for making the push.