The Sarah Fox murder: A troubling cold case that still haunts New York

New York, New York - She was described as "one of those magical people that everybody loved and everybody had a story about." Yet, no one knows what exactly happened to Sarah Fox - even 17 years after her tragic murder.

Even 17 years after the tragic murder of Sarah Fox, her case remains cold.
Even 17 years after the tragic murder of Sarah Fox, her case remains cold.  © 123RF/Olga Yastremska

May 19, 2004, was a day like any other, and 21-year-old Julliard student Sarah Fox left her apartment to go jogging in the nearby Inwood Hill Park – for the last time.

When she didn't return, fellow students immediately organized a large search operation with the police, manning telephone lines, and searching the park and surrounding areas.

Six days after Fox disappeared, on May 25, 2004, one of the searchers made a horrific discovery: As the New York Post reported at the time, the young woman's naked, decomposed body was found in a secluded wooded area of the park.

Sarah Fox was murdered less than a mile from home

Police believe she had been strangled before being placed in a "ritual" position with yellow tulip petals scattered around her. It's hard to imagine, but all the days she was missing, she was less than a mile from her home.

A botanist examined one of the petals and said that it must have been picked between 24 and 48 hours before Fox's body was found. Since the advanced state of decomposition meant that the student had likely been murdered within hours of leaving her apartment, the killer must have returned to the scene.

According to news.com.au, people from the neighborhood soon named a 39-year-old suspect who had a troubled history with other park visitors.

Dimitry Sheinman becomes first suspect in Sarah Fox murder

His name was Dimitry Sheinman, and his police interview was full of shocking statements and details. He claimed to have had psychic visions of the murder and told them elements of the crime that had not yet been made public – a stick placed between the victim's legs and a broken rib, for example.

However, there was no physical evidence to link Sheinman to Fox, and he was later released.

Years later, DNA found in 2012 heightens hope of a resolution to the Sarah Fox murder

Eight years after Sarah Fox's death, police followed up on a new lead as they found a chain at the scene of an Occupy Wall Street protest on March 28, 2012. While it's not clear why police tested the necklace for DNA, the results matched the DNA left at the scene.

Only two months later, on July 13, however, the New York Daily News reported that the match was false. A NYPD lab technician had made a mistake.

That summer was also when Dimitry Sheinman, who had since moved to South Africa, returned to New York City and immediately made headlines as he started to promote a book he was writing about the case.

He also had an important message he wanted police to know. According to the Observer, he told them that he had used his powers of clairvoyance to find out more about the crime in 2004.

"I had a vision of the killer grabbing her and punching her and, as a result, smashing her ribs. So I said maybe she has a broken rib," he said. He went on to give some more details, some of which were correct, some not.

Dimitry Sheinman gives NYPD more useless evidence

As dnainfo reported, he also proudly presented police with a sealed envelope, which he claimed contained the name of Fox's murderer.

However, this lead nowhere. The podcast True Crime: All The Time Unsolved insists that the man whose name was written down wasn't even in town at the time of the murder.

Ever since 2004, the no. 1 suspect in the case has been Sheinman, but he was never charged with a crime, as no physical evidence linked him to the killing.

Dimitry Sheinman claims that Sarah Fox is still talking to him

In December 2016, the case made it's latest headlines as Lt. David Nilsen, who leads the NYPD cold case squad, told Daily News that they have a person of interest who wasn't Dimitry Sheinman.

"It may not be a total stranger attack ... For all we know, it's someone she had a past relationship with many, many years before. Some people never forget."

Today, it's been more than 17 years since Sarah Fox was brutally killed in the New York City park, and still no arrests have been made. Everyone seems to be at a loss, hoping that one day someone will finally come to justice.

Cover photo: 123RF/Olga Yastremska

More on Crime: