Suffolk DA gathers DNA from Chinatown volunteers to name unknown Gilgo Beach victim

During a National Night Out gathering in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney and his staff solicited DNA donations from community members, ultimately receiving 23 samples. The outreach aims to resolve the case of an unidentified male, dubbed “Asian Doe,” whose remains were uncovered on Gilgo Beach in April 2011, clothed in women’s attire and thought to be a transgender sex worker of southern Han descent.

Prior attempts using conventional DNA databases failed due to a shortage of Asian volunteers. The newly gathered DNA will be forwarded to a private laboratory for exclusive use in matching the victim, with assurances it will not be stored by police or entered into criminal databases. Authorities suspect the victim was killed by blunt-force trauma and buried years before his 2011 discovery, near the dump sites of serial killer Rex Heuermann, who was convicted of murdering eight women.

Heuermann’s online searches once included “Asian twinks,” but he has not been charged in connection with this case. The DA’s proactive community engagement reflects a broader push to apply advancing genetic technology to cold-case investigations.