DNA Linking OWS Protest to 2004 Murder Possible Lab Error
The matching evidence may belong to NYPD lab technician who worked on both cases.
| Posted Thursday, July 12, 2012, at 9:47 AM
Occupy protesters march through a subway station at Wall Street on their way toward the New York Stock Exchange as they marked the two-month anniversary of the protest in November 2011
Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images.
UPDATE: Investigators are looking into whether the DNA linking a 2004 murder and a recent Occupy Wall Street protest may be the result of contamination at a police laboratory, two sources familiar with the investigation told the New York Times.
The DNA that connected a chain from a March OWS protest with the murder victim’s portable CD player likely belongs to an NYPD lab technician who worked with both pieces of evidence.
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said that the lab employees and crime-scene detectives had been screened and ruled out as possible sources of the contamination, NBC New York reports. The office will continue investigating the match.
Wednesday, July 11: DNA found on a chain used by Occupy Wall Street protesters to prop open a subway station exit door was matched to DNA associated with the 2004 killing of a Julliard student in the city, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.
The New York Times reports that the DNA from the chain was a match for that on Sarah Fox's portable CD player, which was found in the park where she disappeared in 2004. Her body had been discovered days before, nude and strangled in the park.
As NBC New York, who first reported the story, cautions, there's no immediate proof that the DNA comes from a protester. The chains were used in a protest to prop open a door allowing passengers to ride the transport system for free. Investigators collected DNA from the chains in order to try to identify the protesters involved, who were seen on security camera footage wearing hoods and masks.
The main suspect in Fox's death has long been 47-year-old Dimitry Sheinman. He recently returned to New York from South Africa, and now claims to have clarivoyant knowledge of the real killer.
