The ex-Tennessee state trooper charged with murdering Gilgo Beach victim “Peaches” — whose slaying was thought to be the work of a serial killer — pleaded not guilty Thursday in Long Island court.
Andrew Dykes, 66, stayed silent as his lawyer, Joseph Lo Piccolo, said he plans to challenge DNA evidence allegedly linking the former cop to the 1997 killing of US Army veteran Tanya Jackson, 26.
“He’s a father. He led a life that many would respect in law enforcement, in the military,” Lo Piccolo said during the brief hearing at Nassau County Court, according to ABC 7.
Dykes met Jackson while the two had been stationed at a military base in Texas and had a relationship while Dykes was still married and had another child, according to prosecutors.
The Alabama native had been living in Brooklyn and working as a medical assistant at a doctor’s office around the time she vanished, police said.
Dykes is also the father of Jackson’s 2-year-old daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes, whose body was found in 2011 — miles away from where her mother’s remains were discovered, law enforcement sources have said.
The mom and daughter were long-thought to be linked to the notorious Gilgo murders, in which the remains of at least 10 people — largely female sex workers — were found along a highway not far from the Long Island beach.
Accused killer Rex Heuermann has been charged with seven of the grisly murders, including six women whose bodies were found near Tatianna Marie Dykes.
Law enforcement, however, now believe the case is unrelated.
Jackson’s torso was found stuffed into a container in a wooded section of Hempstead Lake State Park in June 1997.
She was known for decades only as “Peaches” due to a tattoo of the fruit found on her body.
Dykes was arrested in Tampa on Dec. 3 and was held in a Florida jail until his extradition to New York.
He had not been charged in the toddler’s killing as of Thursday