Investigators on Long Island are making a renewed push to put a name to one of the unidentified victims tied to the Gilgo Beach murders. Prosecutors in Suffolk County are once again trying to identify a male victim known only as Asian Doe, reviving the effort to solve a case that has remained open for years along the New York shoreline.
Authorities have released a sketch of the man in hopes of jogging memories. His remains were discovered east of Gilgo Beach back in 2011, one of a series of grim finds along that stretch of Long Island shoreline that drew national attention to the area over the past decade and a half as the wider case unfolded.
While the remains surfaced in 2011, police believe the man was killed well before then. Investigators say his body was dumped at least five years earlier, meaning the trail in the case is especially cold and the window for identifying him stretches back even further into the past, complicating the search for answers.
Some details have shaped the direction of the investigation. The man was dressed in women's clothing when he was found, a detail that led investigators to believe he may have been a sex worker. That theory has influenced where authorities think they might find people who knew him or who can help establish his identity after all this time.
The new phase of the effort will take investigators out into the community. They will begin visiting Asian communities in the New York City area to try to collect DNA samples, hoping a genetic match can finally give the man back his name and connect him to relatives who may have lost track of him long ago.
The renewed attention comes on the heels of a major development in the broader Gilgo Beach saga. Last week, serial killer Rex Heuermann, who admitted to killing eight women in the case, was sentenced to life in prison, closing one chapter of an investigation that had stretched on for years and gripped the region.
Importantly, this latest unsolved case stands apart from that conviction. Heuermann has not been implicated in the murder of the man known as Asian Doe, leaving his death as a separate mystery that prosecutors are still working to unravel as they turn to the public and to DNA technology for answers.