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Update: Authorities Uncover Bones In Queens Basement
By
Ben Muessig
Published Mar 8, 2010
Modified Mar 8, 2010
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By
Ben Muessig
Published Mar 8, 2010
Modified Mar 8, 2010
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[UPDATE BELOW]: Investigators searching for the remains of a Baruch College student who disappeared 12 years ago uncovered bones in the basement of a Queens store. Law enforcement officials haven't yet linked the bones to 28-year-old undergraduate student Kristina Kupka, who vanished after her married chemistry professor got her pregnant. According to the Post, an anthropologist and the Medical Examiner's Office are studying the bones to see if they are human. If the remains are human, authorities will conduct further tests to determine if they can be linked to Kupka.
Authorities received a tip in 2000 telling them to look in the basement of the Jamaica shop. But the owner of the property—a cousin of Kupka's lover and chemistry professor Darshanand Persaud (spelled Darshanad by the tabloid)—wouldn't let them in. But after "years of legal wrangling," when a new tenant took over the store and opened a plumbing supply shop, investigators got permission and arrived with shovels, a backhoe, and a cadaver-sniffing dog.
Update (5:27 pm): According to the Daily News, the bone fragments recovered by investigators are "definitely not human." A cadaver-sniffing dog indicated remains might be buried beneath the concrete floor last Wednesday, however that finding could have been a "false positive," the tabloid notes. Authorities reportedly believe that Kupka was either buried in the basement at one time, or killed there and moved to another site.
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Darshanand Persaud
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