A woman’s torso with a faded tattoo of two cherries that washed up in a suitcase on a New York beach 13 years ago may be linked to the notorious cold case investigation involving 11 Gilgo Beach victims.
Police released a photo of the woman’s cherry tattoo last week as they continue to investigate her grisly murder and desperately try to solve the cold case.
The woman – who became known as ‘Cherries Doe’ – still hasn’t been identified since her torso and several severed limbs were discovered in various parts of New York in March 2007.
Her stabbed torso, which was stuffed inside a suitcase with a bra and a nightgown, was found by a mother and child when it washed up onto a beach in Mamaroneck – north of Manhattan – on March 3, 2007.
Police have released a photo of a cherry tattoo found on a woman’s torso that washed up in a suitcase on a New York beach 13 years ago as they continue to investigate her grisly murder and desperately try to solve the cold case
Authorities at the time said the victim was a Hispanic or black woman who was no taller than 5-foot-6 and that she had a tattoo of two red cherries on a green stem above her right breast.
Three weeks later, two severed legs washed up in nearby Long Island.
The left leg was found by a landscaper near the shoreline of a waterfront property at Cove Neck that was owned by billionaire Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan.
The right left was discovered at the same time by a fisherman in the nearby Cold Spring Harbor.
Police were able to identify that the torso and two legs belonged to the same woman.
By releasing the photo of the victim’s faded cherry tattoo last week, investigators are hopeful that family members may recognize it and will be able to help them finally identify the woman.
Investigators say they have enough DNA evidence to potentially identify the victim but need a family member to compare the genetic information with.
Her stabbed torso, which was stuffed inside a suitcase with a bra and a nightgown, was found by a mother and child when it washed up onto a beach in Mamaroneck – north of Manhattan
The woman – who became known as ‘Cherries Doe’ – still hasn’t been identified since her torso washed up in a suitcase on a New York beach in March 2007
The woman – who became known as ‘Cherries Doe’ – still hasn’t been identified since her torso and several severed limbs were discovered in various parts of New York in March 2007
Mamaroneck Police Detective Sergeant Mark Gatta told NBC4 that the killer eliminated chances of the victim being identified by dismembering her.
‘She’s been victimized twice. Somebody… murdered her and then they stole her identity, which is almost worse,’ Gatta said.
Detectives believe the Cherries Doe case may be linked to the infamous Gilgo Beach murders that occurred around the same time.
In the Gilgo Beach case, 11 sets of human remains were found strewn along a highway in Long Island on the opposite side to where the legs of Cherries Doe washed up.
One of the Gilgo Beach victims – who police have not identified but refer to as ‘Peaches’ – was killed in a similar manner.
That woman’s torso, which had a peach tattoo on it, was found in a container in 1997.
‘The violence that was done to these women was very similar,’ Gatta said.
‘Are they related? It’s possible. It’s possible because this sort of thing is not an every day occurrence.’
Detectives believe the Cherries Doe case may be linked to the infamous Gilgo Beach murders in which 11 sets of human remains were found strewn along a highway in Long Island. One of the Gilgo Beach victims was killed in a similar manner and dumped in a container (above)
That woman’s torso, which had a peach tattoo on it, was found in a container in 1997. She has never been identified and was dubbed ‘Peaches’ by investigators
Her torso was found dumped in this container along a highway in Long Island on the opposite side to where the legs of Cherries Doe washed up
Police in Suffolk County, which is investigating the Gilgo Beach murders, said they were aware of the Cherries Doe case but would not say if there were any links between the two.
It comes just weeks after the Gilgo Beach detectives provided an update in their investigation by releasing photos of evidence found at one of the crime scenes that they said was handled by an unknown suspect.
The photograph showed the initials on a black leather belt, showing either an HM or WH, depending on the angle.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart declined at the time to say exactly where the belt was found and which one of the victims it was linked to.
She said investigators determined that the belt was not owned by any of the victims.
‘We do believe that this item was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims,’ Hart said.
She would not comment on whether there were one or more suspects in the unsolved killings.
The case that has attracted national headlines for many years is about to be shown in a new spotlight when Netflix releases a film about the unsolved killings on March 13.
The Gilgo Beach detectives provided an update in their investigation last month by releasing photos of evidence found at one of the crime scenes that they said was handled by an unknown suspect. The photograph showed the initials on a black leather belt, showing either an HM or WH, depending on the angle
In the Gilgo Beach case, 11 sets of human remains were found strewn along a highway in Long Island on the opposite side to where the legs of Cherries Doe washed up. The locations of where eight victims were found are shown above
For nearly a decade, a thicket along a highway not far from the popular Jones Beach on Long Island has held the horrible secret.
Hidden from passing drivers and strewn along several miles were the skeletal remains of mostly young women who had worked as prostitutes.
Determining who killed them, and why, has vexed a slew of seasoned homicide detectives through several changes in leadership in the police department.
‘The amount of work that’s gone into this case is perhaps unprecedented,’ said District Attorney Timothy Sini, who formerly served as police commissioner.
The investigation got a boost in September when state officials determined investigators could ask the FBI to deploy genetic genealogy, a technique in which genetic profiles are run though databases to find potential relatives of a homicide victim or suspect.
Hart said that it wasn’t known how long that process might take.
The disappearance of Shannan Gilbert in 2010 triggered the hunt that exposed the larger mystery.
Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot in the seafront community of Oak Beach and disappeared into the marsh.
Months later, a police officer and his cadaver dog were looking for her body in the thicket along nearby Ocean Parkway when they happened upon the remains of a different woman.
Within days, three other bodies were found, all within a short walk of one another.
The first four bodies found were those of women in their 20s who worked as prostitutes, according to police (all pictured)
Some remains were later linked to dismembered body parts found elsewhere on Long Island, making for a puzzling crime scene that stretched from a park near the New York City limits to a resort community on Fire Island and out to far eastern Long Island.
Police found the skull of a prostitute named Jessica Taylor, who was 20 when most of the rest of her body was found in a wooded area of Manorville shortly after she disappeared in 2003.
Body parts found near Gilgo Beach were also linked to another corpse found in Manorville in 2000. That female victim has never been identified.
Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011, about 3 miles east of where the other 10 sets were discovered.
In talking about the bodies near Gilgo Beach, investigators have said several times over the years it is unlikely one person killed all the victims.
Detectives had long maintained that Gilbert’s death was accidental, but Hart was less committal. Investigators said soon after her remains were found that she drowned in a drug-induced haze after wandering into the wetland; her relatives have long disputed that determination.
However, Hart – a former FBI agent who became commissioner in 2018 – said Gilbert’s cause of death was ‘inconclusive’.