DNA links Occupy protest scene, killing

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NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- DNA taken from the site of an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York has been matched to DNA linked to an unsolved killing of a student in 2004, officials said.

The DNA from the protest site was taken from a chain Occupy Wall Street protesters had used in March to keep open an emergency exit door at a subway station to allow passengers to ride free, The New York Times reported.

The Juilliard School student, 21-year-old Sarah Fox, had disappeared while on a jog in Inwood Park in upper Manhattan in May 2004 and her naked body was found in the park nearly a week later surrounded by yellow tulip petals.

The DNA on the chain, which MSNBC reported was found at a Brooklyn subway station, matched DNA found on Fox's portable CD player, which had been recovered from Inwood Park several days after the discovery of her body, law enforcement officials said.

A law enforcement official told the Times it remained unclear who might have touched both the CD player and the chain or why. The official said it was possible that person was not the killer.

"Whether it's a friend or the bad guy, we have to find out," the official said.

Police had released Occupy Wall Street protest surveillance video showing people in dark hoods wrapping a long silver chain around the emergency exit door at the subway station.

Officials hoping to determine who chained open the emergency exit entered DNA from the chain into a database.

Ed Needham, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman, said, "We have no information about any alleged connection or those making such allegations."

Seven months after Fox's death, the Manhattan district attorney at the time named Dimitry Sheinman, an artist and construction worker, as the "No. 1 suspect," but the Times said there was not enough evidence to charge him. Sheinman has denied any role in Fox's killing through his lawyer.