WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — The prime suspect in the 2004 murder of Juilliard student Sarah Fox said he talks spiritually with the victim from beyond the grave — and that she tells him he's doing the "right thing" by trying to help police track her killer.
Dimitry Sheinman, 47, who said he now goes by the name Victor, handed police an envelope he said contained details of his clairvoyant conversations with Fox Tuesday.
He said they outlined details about the murder he said he and a group of psychics had discussed with Fox over the past two years.
"Obviously she wants the killer to be caught," he said.
"Whenever I communicate with Sarah Fox she always said, 'You're doing the right thing. Let's go get 'em, let's get the killer, let's do it,'" he said Tuesday while standing across the street from the NYPD's 34th Precinct after meeting with police.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau described Sheinman as the "No. 1 suspect" in the case back in 2004. Current law enforcement officials told DNAinfo.com New York that they still viewed him as such.
Fox's body was found in Inwood Hill Park on May 25, 2004. The 21-year-old was naked in a remote thicket, and surrounded by yellow flower petals. She had been missing since going jogging six days ago.
Sheinman was never charged with Fox's murder, and moved to his wife's native South Africa. He recently returned to New York claiming he had new information, gained through psychic powers.
"Of course she spoke to me, of course she wants me to find the killer," he said, explaining that Fox had come to him in a vision after the murder.
"She's helping me right now," he added.
Sheinman, who was accompanied at the precinct by his wife Jane Sheinman, 44, gave few details about the contents of the envelope. He said only that it included the name of a person police should question in relation to the case.
He said he had vetted the information through a group of other clairvoyants who came up with the same identification and details he had ascertained clairvoyantly.
"What seperates clairvoyants from crazy people is that we like to substantiate what we see," he said. "If I see a vision it's one thing. If another person independent of me sees the same vision, that means a lot more.
"I am not accusing anybody. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong, but I have a moral obligation to come forward with this information."
"What, because of fear I have to limit my honesty?" he later added.
Sheinman said the hand off of the letter was unremarkable, with him just giving it to a detective inside the station house.
He hedged when asked if he would meet with police to further discuss its contents.
"This is not a joke, police messed with my family," he said. "I don't plan to go back in there."
He said it was difficult to return to the streets of Washington Heights, where he spent much time while his wife and two daughters in their home on West 218th Street and Seaman Avenue in Inwood.
"It was not an easy thing for me to come back to New York, to be on the streets that I visited so often when I lived here," he said. "All my life I thought I'd be staying in New York forever."
Although police sources said they were interested in Sheinman's information, they said they are limited legally in their ability to question him. Sheinman still has an attorney of record dating back to his initial brushes with the law nearly eight years ago, though no lawyer was present Tuesday.
Sheinman first told police he had psychic visions of the 21-year-old Fox’s murder when he was questioned in 2004.
He resurfaced in New York last week after living in his wife’s native Capetown, South Africa, for the past few years. He said he had returned with his wife and his two daughters because of a "moral duty" to share the information he said he's gathered in the cold case.
Since Sheinman left the country, he said he has written a 250,000-word book titled "Is He Friendly?" a reference to a common question he was asked about his Rhodesian Ridgeback dog in the park.
He also said he founded a new religion called “The Power.”
Sheinman did not specify his future plans, including when or if he plans to return to Capetown, other than saying he plans to sell his book for publication and that he hopes police make progress arresting a suspect.
"Killers should be caught," he said. "Innocent people should go free."
