MANHATTAN — A DNA sample found at the 2004 murder scene of Juilliard student Sarah Fox has been matched to a separate sample taken at a recent Occupy Wall Street protest in Brooklyn, DNAinfo.com New York has learned.
The eight-year-old sample was lifted from a CD player the 21-year-old Fox had when she went jogging in Inwood Hill Park, where she disappeared on May 19, 2004. Her naked body was found a week later in a heavily wooded section of the park, surrounded by tulip petals.
The CD player was discovered by investigators conducting a grid search for evidence nearby, sources said.
The new DNA sample was found on a chain used to prop open the gates at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush during an Occupy Wall Street protest designed to let straphangers ride for free back in March, sources said.
The match was made Monday, sources said. The discovery was first reported by NBC New York.
The new discovery does not shake investigators' belief that Dimitry Sheinman is the No. 1 suspect in the case, sources said. Sheinman returned to Manhattan last month with evidence he said he obtained psychically that he hoped would clear his name.
Sheinman did not immediately return a call for comment.
Investigators have not yet been able to identify whose DNA was on the CD player and the chain, but they determined it doesn't belong to Sheinman, sources said.
The sample does not belong to any of Fox's immediate friends or roommates, sources said.
Investigators were also working with several theories that could account for the match. For example, since Fox was a college student, the DNA could have gotten onto her device at school, and that person could later have become involved with Occupy Wall Street, sources said.
The CD player and the chain could also have been touched by the same cop, who had some connection to the murder scene and the chain, sources said. The origin of the chain has not yet been determined.
Whoever the person is, he has not been arrested previously, and has not shown up in any criminal DNA database.
Should the person be ID'd, investigators do want to talk to him, sources said.
