Alabama man may be link to serial killer victim’s ID, FBI says
Published 7:01 am Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Alabama and federal investigators are seeking relatives of an Alabama man who died in 1963 in hopes they may help identify a woman who was found mutilated, a presumed victim of an unidentified serial killer.
This week Mobile Police issued a statement that said the FBI was seeking relatives and friends of a Prichard, Alabama, man named Elijah “Lige” Howell/Howard who lived from 1927 to 1963.
If you are related to Howard or knew someone who was, you’re urged to contact the FBI by calling 1-800-call-FBI or visit www.tips.fbi.gov.
Howard died in Mobile along with Lillie Mae Wiggins Packer. Investigators believe any of his relatives may be able to help assist in the case of a female victim known simply as “Peaches,’ named so because her body had a tattoo of a heart-shaped, bitten peach.
The bodies of Peaches and her young child were found miles apart on a stretch of New York beach where investigators believe because the dumping ground for a serial killed dubbed the Long Island Serial Killer, who is believed to have killed perhaps as many as a dozen or more people over the span of approximately two decades.
The killer’s identity has never been determined.
Peaches’ body was found in June 1997 by a man walking with his daughter in Hempstead Lake State Park. They found a Rubbermaid container on the beach. They opened it and found Peaches’ mutilated body stuffed inside.
She was the fourth known victim of the killer or killers. Some believe more than one killer has used the beaches in that area of New York as a dumping ground.
Investigators eventually were able to link Peaches’ DNA to the skeletal remains of a toddler found on the on the same beach. The baby was initially dubbed Baby Jane Doe and was estimated to be approximately 16 and 32 months old.