Law enforcement officials released enhanced images Monday as they seek to identify one of the as yet unknown victims whose remains were found along a coastal highway in New York’s Long Island more than a decade ago, a string of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach killings.
Suffolk County officials shared forensic reconstruction images as well as informational flyers regarding the so-called “Asian Doe,” a biological male who was wearing women’s clothing and possibly identified as female at the time of his death. He may have been a sex worker. The victim was between 18 and 23 years old and of Southern Chinese descent.
He died of blunt force trauma. His remains were found in 2011.
Investigators have said they believe the unidentified man died five to 10 years earlier.
Officials published renderings of what he may have looked like that were made through anthropological reconstruction in hopes of generating new leads.
Local officials released a more basic sketch of the victim back in 2011.
DNA records from Asian people are less common in U.S. genetic databases, making it difficult to compare and identify the remains through traditional methods, according to investigators. They hope someone will remember a person who looked like the person in the photos who disappeared around the same time.
No one has been charged in the death. A local architect is accused in the killings of six women, some of whose remains were found near the unidentified man’s.
Rex Heuermann, 61, was arraigned in June in connection with the deaths of two young women long believed to have been preyed upon as sex workers.
The charges came after recent police searches of Heuermann’s home and a wooded area on Long Island.
Jessica Taylor disappeared in 2003 and Sandra Costilla was killed 30 years ago, in 1993.
Costilla’s inclusion in the case indicates prosecutors now believe Heuermann was killing women far longer than previously thought.
Heuermann was previously charged with killing four others: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people — mostly female sex workers — whose remains were discovered along an isolated highway near Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann, who lived across the bay, was arrested last July.
He has pleaded not guilty and his attorney, Michael Brown, has denied any wrongdoing on his behalf.
