Back in 2014 — nine years before police arrested Rex Heuermann as the prime suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders — the Long Island Press ran a story about Long Island police seeking tips in the murder of a woman: Tanya Rush. Rush wasn’t found on Gilgo Beach, or any beach for that matter. She was, however, found very close by on South State Highway right over the Great South Bay Bridge connecting Long Island proper to its satellite beaches. Rush was a sex worker, which is consistent with the victims discovered on Gilgo Beach. She was also a mother of three. Her body was found dismembered and stuffed into a suitcase “on the edge of a grassy line” rather than wrapped in burlap.
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The Long Island Press reported that investigator Michael O’Sullivan described the dearth of evidence related to Rush’s case, despite that the killer “didn’t make a great effort to hide her.” There was some video footage of Rush leaving her apartment building in Brooklyn with a man and woman, and the three separating. Besides that, there was only the evidence presented at the crime scene itself. Police hotlines proved useless, as no one called in a single tip despite a $2,500 reward. “She pretty much disappeared,” O’Sullivan said, commenting on how Rush’s “high-risk lifestyle” exacerbates the problem of tracking down a potential killer. No one — no one at all — showed any interest in her or her death.
