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A jury in the Turks and Caicos Islands strangled a New York lawyer staying with a friend at Club Med Turquoise Resort in 2018 and refused to reclassify the causes and methods of death.
The cause of death hearing was a court that went on to reconsider the coroner’s first finding that Kuunra was suffocated by hand. George Abe, a New York lawyer for her family, warned that the government and the resort were colluding to consider her death an accident in order to avoid her liability.
“This is a small step, but a victory for us,” Kuhnla’s son Rick Kuhnla Jr. told Fox News Digital after the jury made the decision. “I hope this puts pressure on police to arrest them, as their own court system rejected their claim that her death was a coincidence.”
SLAIN NEW YORK WOMAN’S HUSBAND, SON FEAR COVER-UP IN CLUB MED DEATH
Kuhnla Jr., his father and his supporters, warned that Turks and Caicos Islands police and Club Med attempts to conceal were suspected.
Coroner Dr. Michael Stickbauer classified her death as a murder by manual strangulation shortly after her body was found in a remote bush at the resort on October 16, 2018. Both government and resort lawyers.
According to lawyer George, Turks and Caicos Islands investigators visited Khunla’s widow Rick Khunla Sr. in 2019, highlighting the possibility that his wife’s death was an accident. The family rejected the theory – citing Steckbauer’s discovery and other evidence revealed by private detective Ed Dowd.
Trevor Botting, the island’s police chief, accused the media of treating the case sensationally in a statement Tuesday evening, arguing that such investigations were routine. He said it was inaccurate to describe the inquest as a “review” of previous findings.
“In the Turks and Caikos Islands, as in the United Kingdom, it is customary and best to conduct an inquest when an investigation into a murder case is complete, or when the investigation runs out of all investigative means and related criminals. It’s a practice. The lawsuit is over. ” “Otherwise, police investigations and fair criminal trials are at risk of being jeopardized by premature inquests, which can deny the justice of the deceased and her loved ones.”
However, George disputed its characterization.
He argued that such investigations were in fact rare, and told Fox News Digital last week that the next latest incident happened after the family died in a mysterious yacht fire a few years ago.
“Crazy,” he said. “There is no routine for this procedure.”
The minutes also reveal undisclosed evidence in this case, including the results of a DNA test in which semen was found in Kuunra’s underwear and the results of a DNA test explaining the blood found in her clothes and body. I made it.
According to George, who represents the family in a wrongful death litigation in the United States, the DNA test results dated December 7, 2018 were not released until Friday. They were based on samples collected during the discovery of her body in October. .. On the 16th and 20th of October of that year, police took evidence from a man’s room at the resort.
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Its guest, Frank Yaculo Jr., was with Kuunla the last time she was seen and was nominated with Club Med in a wrongful death litigation in Nassau County, New York. However, the discovery of DNA did not link him to her death, and police did not name him a suspect.
DNA analysis found semen in Kuunra’s underwear and male DNA in the door of the room, but court documents show that it wasn’t enough to match.
“No one has been charged in connection with Mrs. Kuunla’s death, but the investigation will not end and will be vigorously followed up if further investigations are identified,” Botting said Tuesday evening. rice field. “Of course, we will consider whether the research has yielded new information.”