Occupy Wall Street Investigation Yields Clue in Unsolved NYC Murder of Sarah Fox

The Occupy Wall Street protests have been the seat of change and dissent as well as a slew of odd circumstances — but the strangest development we believe we have heard to date from the viral demonstrations came out of New York this week with the random discovery of DNA linked to an old murder at the New York City Occupy site.

Sarah Fox, a student at Julliard, was murdered back in 2004 while jogging at Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan. Fox had been strangled, and her body turned up nearly a week later in the park, surrounded by yellow tulip petals.

Little yield was made in the case, but the Occupy Wall Street development is noteworthy for a few reasons. DNA was found at the scene of Sarah Fox’s body, on a pink CD player located nearby. As is standard, the DNA was logged into a database, to be matched against future crimes in hopes of catching Fox’s killer.

And there it sat, for the better part of a decade — until cops ran DNA pulled from a less violent, more political crime. Occupy Wall Street protesters had illegally chained-off a subway station in New York, and surveillance video revealed hooded individuals engaging in the illegal blockade.

Police then ran the DNA from the Occupy Wall Street protesters (or anyone else who had handled the chain) and got a hit off it — back to the CD player found with Sarah Fox’s body. However, as the New York Times notes, it’s a longshot to link any of the specific OWS players with the murder:

“Investigators were seeking to determine the significance of the DNA match. One law enforcement official said it was unclear who might have touched both the CD player and the chain and why, noting that it was possible that the person who did so might not have been the killer.

“’Whether it’s a friend or the bad guy, we have to find out,’ the official said.”

If anything, the Occupy Wall Street link to the Fox slaying may just be one of those bizarre New York stories that remind you that a city of 13 million people really isn’t all that big.