CLUES: An NYPD detective in 2004 searches for evidence in the slaying of Juilliard student Sarah Fox. Now DNA from a March Occupy protest has been linked to the murder. (Jim Alcorn)
Sarah Fox
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The unsolved murder of a Juilliard student eight years ago took an incredible turn yesterday as investigators matched DNA from the crime scene to a sample collected from an Occupy Wall Street protest in Brooklyn, sources said.
Police matched genetic material lifted from a pink CD player found at the scene of the 2004 Inwood Hill Park murder of aspiring actress Sarah Fox to DNA on a heavy chain left behind by OWS vandals at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush in March, according to law-enforcement sources.
The match was made late Monday night, one source said.
Fox, a New Jersey native, was just 21 when she disappeared after going for a run on May 19, 2004.
Her naked, strangled and decomposed body was found six days later in a heavily wooded area of the park, which runs alongside the Hudson River.
The CD player — which Fox had attached at her hip when she went out for her jog — was found during a grid search for evidence after Fox’s body was discovered.
The DNA on the chain was found during a routine test of crime-scene evidence, according to a source.
“It’s an important piece of evidence, but it’s a long way from solving the case,” another source said.
News of the DNA find was met with guarded optimism by Fox’s family.
“We have always been confident the prosecutor’s office will investigate all new evidence and will inform us when there’s sufficient evidence to lead to an arrest,” Fox’s sister, Samantha Washlick, told The Post.
“It seems to me this could be so many people,” referring to the number of persons the OWS sample could have come from.
“Until we hear something from the prosecutor’s office, we don’t put much significance in something that hasn’t been substantiated by prosecutors.”
Washlick, who was 25 when her sister was murdered and now has a family of her own, was careful to say that relatives do not want to jeopardize the case by talking publicly.
“We’re not interested in media attention, we’re just interested in the case being solved,” Washlick said.
“It’s been eight years — I can’t say in our experience the attention has helped.”
Cops recovered the chain, which OWS activists used to keep gates open on March 28 so people could enter without paying.
Matching the DNA on the chain to a suspect won’t be easy, sources said, because the genetic sample could be from an OWS activist or anyone who passed through the gates for a free ride.
Days after the OWS protest, the NYPD posted videos and photos of the scene at the Beverly Road station and other locations, asking for help in identifying the vandals.
The OWS activists wore masks, hoods and gloves, and abandoned the chains at the subway stations.
Nobody was arrested in the incident.
Fox was just finishing her second year at Juilliard and living in an apartment on Isham street with her boyfriend and another male roommate when she vanished.
She routinely jogged in Inwood Hill Park, with her CD player.
Scores of Juilliard classmates distributed fliers with pictures of the spiky-haired, petite actress.
Friends and family came by the busloads from her hometown of Gibbstown, NJ, to search for her.
One of those groups found Fox’s body about 120 feet down a steep hillside in the park.
Local artist and self-proclaimed psychic Dimitry Sheinman had long been a top suspect in Fox’s murder.
Shortly after the body was found, Sheinman gave cops details about the crime that hadn’t been disclosed to the public.
He knew her rib had been broken, and that a stick had been placed between her legs.
Sheinman had a history of confrontations with runners and others in the park, and did jail time at Rikers for assault.
He recently claimed that he had spoken to Sarah from beyond the grave and that the name of her killer, a music teacher, had come to him “in a vision.”
Sheinman’s wild claims “saddened and hurt” Fox’s family, her sister said.
“Dimitry Sheinman’s statements that he has communicated with Sarah — well, he does not speak for Sarah,” Washlick said.
“The only person that spoke for Sarah was Sarah. But that liberty was stolen from her.”
News of the DNA discovery comes just weeks after Fox’s family marked what has become a bittersweet tradition.
Each year since the murder, Sarah’s family awards scholarships to students at the Southern New Jersey Academy of the Performing Arts at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology — where Sara was a member of the school’s first graduating class.
“There were donations made in the beginning, and since then my mom has kept up with the funds,” Washlick said.
“She awards the scholarships to one or two kids who share the same characteristics as Sarah.”