FBI Could Be Near to Identifying Long Island Serial Killer Victim 'Peaches'
Investigators Seek Friends and Family of Alabama Man Who May Have Connection to Unidentified LISK Victim "Peaches"
By Shawn R. Dagle
The FBI appears to be close to making a major breakthrough in identifying another victim of the Long Island Serial Killer.
In a somewhat cryptic Tweet released by the FBI’s field office in Mobile, Alabama October 7 the bureau announced that it is seeking relatives and friends of a man named Elijah Howell or Howard who lived in Prichard, Alabama in the early ‘60s.
Included with the Tweet was an image of the peach tattoo of a woman whose partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park in June of 1997 who is commonly referred to as “Peaches.” The rest of the unidentified woman’s remains were discovered in the area of Jones Beach in April of 2011.
Peaches is believed to have been a victim of the Long Island Serial Killer. Investigators also determined through DNA that she is the mother of a female toddler found days earlier alongside the other Long Island Serial Killer victims.
Without directly referencing the Long Island Serial Killer case the FBI in its Tweet indicated that Elijah’s family or friends “may be able to assist in the case of a woman and child found in another state.”
Reading between the lines of the FBI’s Tweet it seems investigators could be very close to determining the identity of Peaches potentially through genetic genealogy though they did not specify that directly. Another possibility could be they are close to identifying her killer through DNA and genetic genealogy though that seems the more remote of the two possibilities.
We do know that the FBI and investigators on Long Island were able to use genetic genealogy to identify another of the Long Island Serial Killer’s victims Valerie Mack.
The FBI – using DNA from Valerie’s remains – were able to find a match to DNA entered into a genealogy database by one of Valerie’s relatives. Investigators were then able to track down family members and eventually make a positive identification.
The FBI now may be very close to doing the same in the case of “Peaches.”
Tracking down relatives of Elijah however could prove difficult. Elijah died in a freak accident on Halloween in 1963 – when he and another woman were found in an automobile discovered parked in ditch in Prichard.
According to newspaper accounts at the time the vehicle was first spotted by people living in the area of Atmore Street at approximately 5 a.m. that morning.
Only when they saw the vehicle in a ditch near a field did they become suspicious and call police.
When officers arrived on the scene they found the vehicle, its windows rolled up, its battery drained. Inside were Elijah and a female passenger – 38-year-old Lillie Mae Packer who lived just down the street from Elijah on Garrison Avenue in Prichard. Both were later pronounced dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Investigators theorized that the vehicle had been left running with the heater on during the nighttime or early morning hours when the temperatures had cooled and were poisoned by carbon monoxide gas from the heater. Their deaths were ruled an accident.
After hearing about the FBI’s Tweet I reached out to Genealogist Denisha Logan from the Mobile Local History and Genealogy Library to see what I could find out about Elijah. Denisha had previously posted Elijah’s death certificate on Findagrave and I was curious if she might have any other information regarding Elijah or his family’s history. Denisha has her own genealogy Facebook page Your Fav Researcher (@YourFavGenealogist) where she helps the public with their genealogy related inquiries. Denisha was able to track down a newspaper account of Elijah’s death as well as a death certificate and obituary for Lillie Mae. Together we have been able to sketch together a rough outline of Elijah’s family that may help in locating a family member or friend.
According to his death certificate Elijah was born on June 13, 1927 in Mobile to Sidney and Luanna (or Louanna) Carter Howell.
It appears Elijah had at least two brothers – Robert Lee Howell and Sid, Syd or Sidney Howell depending in the spelling. He also may have had a sister Leona Howell who was born in 1928 and died in 2003 according to information Denisha was able to discover.
Elijah’s brother Robert may have been married at least twice – first to a woman named Carrie Lee Napier in July of 1942 and later Ruby Bell Shephard in October of 1948. His brother Sid appears to also have been married to a woman named Mollie Raine or Raines.
At the time of his death Elijah was working in construction with the Sullivan Construction Company (presumably in the Mobile area) and was living at 616 Garrison Avenue. He was married to a woman named Carrie.
According to her death certificate Lillie Mae was born in Wilcox, Alabama on December 14 of 1923 and was a self-employed beautician. Her father was Orange Wiggins and her mother was named Leola.
Lillie Mae was married to Alexander Packer. She had two daughters named Leola and Catherine.
Lilli Mae also had a sister named Floria Mae Grisby or Grigsby and four brothers James, Bobro and David Grigsby and Roy Mack all of Ohio.
Perhaps someone out there may recognize these names and details and be able to provide the FBI the information it needs to at last give Peaches her name back.
In November I got an opportunity to speak with Shel Basch – the man who discovered Peaches’ remains at Hempstead Lake State Park more than two decades ago.
On June 28 of 1997 Basch (who was living in Lynbrook at the time) was attending a fishing clinic at the park with his family when he made the grisly discovery.
Stretching hundreds of acres just off the Southern State Parkway in western Long Island, Hempstead Lake State Park – with its playgrounds, snack bar, bike paths, picnic area, carousel and clay tennis courts – wasn’t the type of place one would expect to find a body.
Every year Basch and his family attended the fishing clinic. Local conservation officers set up tables with bait and tackle while the children learned to fish. This year – by early afternoon – Basch’s kid’s had started to get antsy.
At around 1 p.m. Basch along with a friend and their kids decided to take a walk in the woods near McDonald Pond. That is when he noticed something unusual. “All of a sudden I smelled death,” he would later recall.
Basch – who worked in construction - said he oftentimes came across dead animals while on the job including rats and an occasional stray pet. He knew the smell of death well. “There is a very distinctive odor,” he said.
Approximately 25 yards from where he was walking - off a ways in the woods - Basch spotted a garbage pail with a black plastic bag sticking out of the top resembling the top of an ice cream cone.
Basch walked over and placed his foot on the container to give it a shove. “Wow. This is heavy I should go back,” he thought.
Thinking better of peering inside Basch decided instead to return to the fishing clinic where he tracked down a conservation officer. There he told the officer he thought he may have discovered a body.
The conservation officer followed Basch to the container. There she took out her baton and touched the top to make sure it wasn’t a dead animal or pet. The bag split open from gas that had built up from decomposition. It immediately became clear this was no cat or pet.
Looking inside the bag Basch said he could see part of a naked body. The conservation officer turned around and threw up.
Police soon flooded the park. “The troops came in. Every cop in the world,” Basch recalled. He compared the subsequent chaos to a scene out of the Keystone Cops.
In the confusion officers began yelling at one another. “‘Hey you’re driving through the crime scene,’” he recalled them shouting.
Muscular - with a fishing knife strapped to his belt at the time - Basch joked that police must have suspected he was somehow involved. He was taken to a nearby police car and interviewed.
Basch believes that whoever had disposed of the remains most likely threw the container out of a car. It was downhill from Lake Drive not far from McDonald Pond. “It must have rolled down into the woods and ended standing up,” he explained.
Inside the bag were the remains an unidentified black female somewhere between the ages of 16 and 30 years old. She was naked and her body had been dismembered. Both of her arms, head and legs (below her knees) had been severed. The woman had brown hair and a peach tattoo in the shape of a heart with a bite taken out of it and two drops falling from the peach on her left breast.
Only part of her remains were found that day. The rest would not be discovered until 2011 in nearby Jones Beach State Park when police realized she was a victim of the Long Island Serial Killer.
Images of the container she was found in that were subsequently released by police show a green plastic Rubbermaid bin. Inside the bin police say they also discovered a red towel and floral pillowcase.
The body was estimated to have been dead for three days before it was discovered. Initially police were not sure if the remains belonged to a female or male according to press reports.
In December of 2016 DNA determined that the remains discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park were a familial relation (the mother) of a toddler whose remains were discovered along Gilgo Beach.
Police have remained tight lipped regarding their investigation but important new leads have been developed by the public regarding the unidentified Jane Doe Basch discovered that afternoon.
The sheets discovered along with her body (images of which have been released by police) appear to belong to a set of Wamsutta Valencia ‘80s pattern sheets – a lead tracked down by amateur sleuths on the web.
These sheets were sold – among other places – at Abraham and Strauss which in the early ‘80s had locations in Brooklyn, Queens, Babylon and Hempstead. The victim’s tattoo also appears to have initials on one of its leaves.
More than a decade after Basch discovered the young woman in Hempstead Lake State Park another set of remains were discovered there.
In February of 2009 at 3:14 p.m. an individual walking on a wooded path in the area of Peninsula Boulevard discovered a set of human remains in a plastic bag. According to Newsday the remains were incomplete.
A command center was set up in the park and dogs were deployed to search for evidence. Police did not indicate where the remains came from nor did they identify the victim.
With the exception of two stories right after the remains were discovered I could find no other press reports regarding the investigation into who they may have belonged to and if they were ever identified or what the manner of death was.
In December I submitted a Freedom of Information request with the Nassau County Medical Examiner’s Office seeking any records or reports regarding the cause of death for the remains discovered in 2009. In January I received my reply. My request had been denied.
“Under County Law 677, the Medical Examiner is authorized to release the requested records only to the next of kin, the District Attorney’s office or upon court order. None of those parameters have been met here,” an email explained.
After being initially interviewed by police Basch said he was never contacted again by investigators.
We encourage anyone with information about Peaches, Elijah or Lille Mae to contact the FBI (for contact information see picture above).
Hopefully Peaches will soon be identified and the Long Island Serial Killer case will come one step closer to being solved.
-October 10, 2022
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Sources
FBI Document VICAP Alert (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) Released on January 12, 2021
Newsday July 1, 1997 “Identification Clue”
Newsday “Human Remains Found in Park” June 29, 1997 Katie Thomas and Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Newsday “Cops Remain in Park Belong to Woman” June 30, 1997 Jessica Goins
Newsday “Seasonal Activities” June 22, 1997
Newsday “LI’s State Parks: A Necklace of Nature” May 18, 1997
Facebook Searching for the Long Island Serial Killer
picclick.com
Daily News August 10, 1980 AD
Long Island News 12 “Human Remains Found At Park” February 25, 2009
Newsday “West Hempstead: Human Remains Found in State Park” Febraury 26, 2009
The Mobile Beacon and Alabama Citizen “Rites Held Auto Victims” November 9, 1963
Census Records