GILGO BEACH — The Suffolk County District Attorney has launched a new effort to identify an Asian male whose skeletal remains were discovered in the Gilgo Beach area in 2011. Investigators refer to the victim as 'Asian Doe,' and his identity and that of the perpetrator remain unknown.

Authorities located the man's body during the search for victims connected to serial killer Rex Heuermann. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney stated that the man's skeletal remains were found on Gilgo Beach along Ocean Parkway in 2011. The Gilgo Beach Task Force released a flyer with a forensic sketch of the victim last year to help identify him.

The current effort involves a partnership with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the use of investigative genetic genealogy. Tierney stated, "We're going to utilize all the efforts for 'Asian Doe' that we've utilized for all the other cases." He explained the process, stating, "The way it works is we have an investigative genetic genealogist, and they look through, publicly available databases to try to look at, publicly available genetic profiles of individuals, to see if they could find a relation to the victim, a, a relative to the victim."

As part of this initiative, the NYPD will request DNA swabs on a voluntary basis from individuals in New York City's Asian communities. These samples will be added to the database used for the investigation.

Tierney stated that identifying the victim would be a huge break because it can lead investigators to a suspect and an arrest. He added, "You could look to, that person and their last, moments, before they disappeared, to try to gain insight on the investigation and, further evidence that you could, you could look at."