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Woman Murdered and Dumped in Kissena Park Met Killer in Hospital: Sources

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | December 30, 2015 5:41pm
 Qing Qing Kiemde's body was found with multiple stab wounds in Kissena Park in Flushing
Qing Qing Kiemde's body was found with multiple stab wounds in Kissena Park in Flushing
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DNAinfo/Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn

QUEENS — The man charged in the brutal stabbing death of a Chinese bakery worker in Kissena Park in October met her when they were both outpatients at Elmhurst Hospital Center, sources said.

Christopher Sobers, 25, allegedly attacked Qing Qing Kiemde, 28, of Elmhurst, with a sharp cutting tool and disemboweled her body, prosecutors said. He also took her cellphone and removed its unique serial number. 

Kiemde — 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 — had slash wounds to her neck, multiple puncture wounds to her chest and a massive slash to her stomach, police said.

Sobers, who was arraigned Tuesday on an indictment charging him with second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, will soon undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is fit to stand trial, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.

He faces up to 25 years in prison, if convicted.

It is believed that Sobers and Kiemde met while they were both receiving mental health care at Elmhurst Hospital Center as first reported by the New York Times and later confirmed by DNAinfo sources.

The hospital did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Kiemde, who moved to New York from China and lived with her father in a basement apartment, divorced her husband within the last year, police said.

Her neighbors and family said that the victim, who worked at a nearby bakery, started having some "mental issues" after her divorce.

According to published reports, Sobers, who was born in Barbados, also struggled with mental problems.

Over the years, he also has had a number of run-ins with the law, including 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.

Sobers was initially questioned several days after the murder in October when he admitted that he knew Kiemde, sources said. 

Investigators eventually arrested him on Monday evening when he was sitting at a Queens Library branch in Flushing, after linking Sobers to the fatal stabbing through Kiemde’s cellphone, authorities said.

But the motive for the killing remains unclear, police said Wednesday.

Sobers was remanded and is due back in court on Jan. 29, according to the Queens DA's office.

His attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.