A Florida man has been indicted in connection with the 1997 murder of Tanya Denise Jackson, a woman long known to investigators as “Peaches,” whose dismembered remains were discovered in Nassau County and later along Ocean Parkway.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that Andrew Dykes, 66, of Ruskin, Florida, was arraigned on a grand jury indictment charging him with Murder in the Second Degree in the killing of Jackson. Dykes, a 20-year U.S. Army veteran, pleaded not guilty before Judge Tammy Robbins and was remanded. He is scheduled to return to court on January 16, 2026. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Jackson’s remains were first discovered on June 28, 1997, when a resident attending a fishing clinic found a container in a wooded area of Hempstead Lake State Park containing a dismembered torso. The victim became known as “Peaches” due to a distinctive peach tattoo on her chest. Nearly 14 years later, between April 4 and April 11, 2011, additional remains were recovered along Ocean Parkway in the Zacks Bay area, along with the remains of a toddler later determined to be her biological daughter.
In April 2025, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, Nassau County Police Department, and the FBI announced that advances in genetic genealogy had identified “Peaches” as Tanya Denise Jackson and the toddler as her two-year-old daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes. Investigators determined that Andrew Dykes is Tatiana’s biological father.
According to prosecutors, Dykes was married and had two children when he began a relationship with Jackson during their military service at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Tatiana was born in San Antonio on March 17, 1995. Dykes later transferred to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, where Jackson and Tatiana joined him. Dykes was listed as the leaseholder of Jackson’s Brooklyn apartment.
Dykes served in the U.S. Army from October 1980 to February 2001 and worked as a military instructor specializing in anatomy and physiology. Military records describe his proficiency in skeletal, muscular, digestive, and circulatory systems.
Following the identification of Jackson and her daughter through genetic genealogy, investigators developed leads pointing to Dykes as a person of interest. In October 2024, law enforcement conducted surveillance near Dykes’ Florida home and recovered a discarded drink cup and straw he had used at a restaurant. DNA extracted from the straw was later matched to DNA recovered from Jackson’s remains.
Dykes was arrested in Ruskin, Florida, on December 3, 2025, by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and extradited to Nassau County, where he was formally arraigned on December 18, 2025.
District Attorney Donnelly credited advancements in DNA technology and years of investigative work for bringing the case forward, stating that the indictment offers long-awaited answers in a case that had remained unresolved for nearly three decades.
The case is being prosecuted by Bureau Chief Daryl Levy and Deputy Bureau Chief Ania Pulaski of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau. Dykes was represented at arraignment by attorney Joseph Lo Piccolo, Esq.
The charges are accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Photos: NCPD, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
