Decades-Old Murder Charge Reveals Flaws in Long Island’s Cold Case Investigations

In a grim reminder of how justice can be delayed by bureaucratic inertia and investigative oversight, authorities have charged Andrew Dykes, 66, with the 1997 murder of Tanya Denise Jackson—known for years only as “Peaches”—whose dismembered body was discovered in a Long Island state park.This arrest represents both progress and a sobering indictment of the systemic failures that plagued this case. Nearly a quarter-century elapsed before advanced DNA and genealogy technologies finally identified Jackson and her 2-year-old daughter, Tatiana Marie Jackson, whose remains were hidden alongside her mother’s near Gilgo Beach. The area had long been under suspicion as the...