QUEENS — A Brooklyn man was arraigned Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of a Chinese bakery worker in October and the dumping of her body in Flushing's Kissena Park, authorities said.
Christopher Sobers, 25, allegedly robbed and killed Qing Qing Kiemde, 28, of Elmhurst, whose body was found on Oct. 11 by a homeless man in a heavily wooded section of the park near Colden Street and Laburnum Avenue, police said.
On Tuesday, Sobers was arraigned on an indictment charging him with second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.
Prosecutors believe Sobers attacked Kiemde with a sharp cutting tool on or about Oct. 10. She had slash wounds to her neck, multiple puncture wounds to her chest and a massive slash to her stomach, according to the NYPD.
“The crime scene in this case was horrific," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. "The victim was brutally killed and her bloody body mutilated and disemboweled."
Sobers, who faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, also took the victim’s cellphone and removed its unique serial number, prosecutors said.
Authorities believe that Sobers, who lived near Kissena Park at the time of the murder, was an acquaintance of Kiemde, but the nature of their relationship remains unclear.
He was initially questioned several days after the murder in October when he admitted that he knew Kiemde, sources said. It was not immediately clear why he was not arrested then.
The motive for the killing also remains unclear, police said Tuesday.
Kiemde, who moved to New York from China, lived with her father in a basement apartment on 45th Avenue, between 78th and 79th streets, and worked at a nearby bakery.
Sobers had more than a dozen prior arrests, most of them sealed. In 2011, he was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon and in 2013 for forgery and grand larceny as well as for burglary, police said.
In January 2014, he was also convicted on criminal possession of stolen property charges and sentenced to three years of probation, prosecutors said.
Sobers was remanded and is due back in court on Jan. 29, according to the Queens DA's office. His attorney was not immediately available for comment.
