MANHATTAN — The DNA match between the unsolved 2004 murder of Juilliard student Sarah Fox and a recent Occupy Wall Street protest appears to be a mistake, sources told DNAinfo.com New York.
A genetic sample was gleaned from a chain used by Occupy Wall Street protesters in March to hold open gates at Brooklyn's Beverly Road subway station to allow straphangers to ride for free. It was matched to a DNA sample discovered on the CD player Fox had when she went jogging in Inwood Hill Park and vanished on May 19, 2004.
Her naked body was found a week later in a heavily wooded section of the park.
Investigators Wednesday were trying to figure out how the snafu occurred, and sources said officials ultimately determined the DNA came from a lab technician who had worked on both cases.
The sample taken from the chain was turned over to the city's Medical Examiner's office to be run through the state's DNA databank, which returned the false hit, sources said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment on the investigation during an unrelated press conference Wednesday.
"The information has leaked out," Kelly said. "It’s not come officially from the police department. Somehow this information is out in the public domain. I’m neither going to confirm or deny it."
Additional reporting by Trevor Kapp.
