Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney set up a booth during the NYPD’s National Night Out event in Manhattan’s Chinatown on August 4, collecting DNA samples as part of a renewed push to identify an unidentified Gilgo Beach murder victim known as “Asian Doe.”
Tierney and his office sent Chinese-language flyers to community news outlets on Monday, August 3, including reconstruction photos depicting the victim.
The man’s body was found on Gilgo Beach on April 4, 2011, during the serial killer investigation, but his death was never connected to admitted murderer Rex Heuermann.
Investigators estimate he was 17 to 23 years old when he was killed around 2006.
The man may have been operating as a sex worker and was wearing women’s clothing at the time of his death, authorities revealed.
“We are always seeking to identify those names of victims of crime,” Tierney said in a statement.
“Here, we have been unable to identify this Gilgo homicide victim to date. We are hoping that emerging DNA technologies, such as microbial DNA, will help us bridge that gap and give a name to this victim.”
So far, investigators have been unable to identify the man through DNA, though they determined he is ethnically Han Chinese.
Authorities believe he may not have been from Suffolk or neighboring Nassau County and may have come from New York City’s larger Asian immigrant community.
“It is a hard nut to crack,” Tierney said, adding that investigators believe the man died around 2006 and that microbial DNA testing could help establish a more precise time of death.
“This person had a name. This person had family. This person had friends,” Tierney said. “We’re reaching out to anyone who might have known this individual to help us with that identification.”
Asian Doe was likely a descendant of Southern China, stood between 5’3″ to 5’9″ tall and was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of death, Tierney added.
“Because the victim was wearing exclusively women’s clothing at the time of death, it is possible that they identified as a woman or were known by others as being a woman.”
The informational flyer released indicates that “Asian Doe” was wearing a “Chrysantheme” blue ribbed short-sleeve shirt with crew neck, a “Rafaella” brand shirt, “Bill Blass” pants and a “Bill Blass” bra.
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.
In the viral moment that launched this renewed investigative push, Tierney’s office expanded its search strategy beyond traditional channels to reach the Asian community directly.
The DA set up his booth during the NYPD’s National Night Out event in Chinatown, sharing a picture of the setup on Instagram.
Flyers with reconstruction photos were distributed through Chinese-language community news outlets to maximize reach among potential witnesses.
“We’re going to utilize all the efforts for ‘Asian Doe’ that we’ve utilized for all the other cases,” Tierney said when launching the latest push.
Prosecutors said they have no indication that Heuermann is tied to the body — but are not ruling it out.