'Dumped on the parkway': Retired detective thinks cold case could be linked to Gilgo suspect
SOUTH OZONE PARK, Queens (PIX11) – A retired detective haunted by the brutal murder of a young woman in 2013 thinks the unsolved case in South Queens deserves another look for potential links to the Gilgo Beach murders suspect.
"She was dumped on the parkway," the investigator, who didn't want to be identified, told PIX11 News at the site on South Conduit Avenue near the woods. "The South Conduit leads to Long Island, into Nassau County, so—you know—it's conceivable she could be a victim also."
Alicia Adams, a 22-year-old sex worker, was found naked and mummified in the brush about two months after she was last seen in April 2013 near the Imperial Hotel in East New York, Brooklyn. Sex workers are known to operate in this area. Adams was the mother of two little girls.
The retired cop has wondered if South Conduit turned into a dumping ground after the 2010 discovery of four women's bodies in the brush off Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach.
Architect Rex Heuermann, who has an office in Manhattan, has pleaded not guilty in three of the murders he was charged with.
The investigator remembered two cadaver dogs separately hitting another spot in the woods on South Conduit Avenue.
"I think this area could have been looked at with cadaver dogs further," the retired detective said. "I think that there's a strong possibility there could be more victims here."
The retired cop pointed out that Adams was missing the hyoid bone in her neck and 13 teeth.
"We didn't know if she was choked," the investigator said.
She had a green dragon tattoo on her upper left chest area and another tattoo on her right thigh, with the words "Daddy Rock."
A witness reported Adams got into a white Trans Am the last time she was seen.
Her body was found on June 21, 2013, off a trail in the woods near the South Conduit’s eastbound service road, not far from the sign for 150th Street and Kennedy Airport.
The South Conduit is parallel to the eastbound Belt Parkway, which leads to the Southern State Parkway. Several exits in Nassau County go toward Massapequa Park, where the accused serial killer lives.
PIX11 News recently reported on another cold case from 1989, where the young woman, also a sex worker, was missing part of her hyoid bone, which is used to assist with swallowing and speaking. The body of Carmen Vargas was found on Sept. 11, 1989, on the southbound side of the Meadowbrook Parkway in Nassau County, close to the Freeport exit. The accused Gilgo killer had an internship in Freeport about the same time Vargas was killed.
A niece who asked PIX11 News to look into the Vargas case said the Nassau County District Attorney's Office called her and said her aunt's file would be reviewed.
The retired NYPD investigator hopes the same will happen for Adams' cold case.
"I'm hoping with DNA in this day and age, that the case gets picked up again," the former cop said. "She was a young woman who didn't deserve to die this way. She was a mother, most importantly. That really stayed with me, because she left behind two, young girls."