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Meat Cleaver Murder Hunt Hits Roadblocks

Cops can't check patient files; top suspect has alibi

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 15, 2008 12:03 PM CST

(Newser) – Yesterday police thought they had found the man who viciously stabbed a Manhattan psychologist to death. But after 9 hours of questioning, the prime suspect in the murder of Kathryn Faughey was released after his alibi checked out. Frustrated investigators turned to Faughey’s patient records, only to learn that privacy laws forbid checking them, the New York Post reports.

Police suspect the killer was Faughey’s patient, but they’d need a subpoena to look at her records, and even then patients could sue to block them. Police found William Kunsman through e-mails and thought they had something when another doctor who survived Tuesday’s attack positively identified him. But the curly-haired Kunsman looks nothing like the balding man on the security tape.

This still image from a surveillance video provided by the New York Police Department, shows a man police believe to be a suspect, center, carrying two bags as he enters the lobby of a New York building before allegedly attacking  56-year-old therapist Kathryn Faughey, Tuesday evening Feb. 12, 2008. Investigators...
This still image from a surveillance video provided by the New York Police Department, shows a man police believe to be a suspect, center, carrying two bags as he enters the lobby of a New York building...   (Associated Press)
This undated photo provided by a friend of the subject shows Kathryn Faughey in Aug. 2005. Faughey was stabbed 15 times in her New York City office Tuesday evening Feb. 12, 2008, after a suspect carrying a roller suitcase and a smaller bag filled with knives entered the building. (AP...
This undated photo provided by a friend of the subject shows Kathryn Faughey in Aug. 2005. Faughey was stabbed 15 times in her New York City office Tuesday evening Feb. 12, 2008, after a suspect carrying...   (Associated Press)
William Kunsman stands on his front porch of his Coplay, Pa., home Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, and talks about being rousted out of bed early in the day to be questioned about the death of New York psychologist Kathryn Faughey.  Detectives from the NYPD talked to Kunsman about Faughey, who...
William Kunsman stands on his front porch of his Coplay, Pa., home Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, and talks about being rousted out of bed early in the day to be questioned about the death of New York psychologist...   (Associated Press)
William Kunsman talks about his friend and murder victim, psychologist Kathryn Faughey, while standing on his front porch in Coplay, Pa., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008.  Pennsylvania State Troopers picked up Kunsman early Thursday morning and interviewed him at the State Police barracks in Bethlehem, Pa., before releasing him. Faughey was...
William Kunsman talks about his friend and murder victim, psychologist Kathryn Faughey, while standing on his front porch in Coplay, Pa., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008. Pennsylvania State Troopers picked up...   (Associated Press)
This artist's sketch provided by the New York Police Department shows a man suspected of hacking psychologist Kathryn Faughey to death with a meat cleaver at her Upper East Side office and seriously injuring another therapist, Dr. Kent Shinbach, who tried to help her Tuesday night, Feb. 12, 2008. Police...
This artist's sketch provided by the New York Police Department shows a man suspected of hacking psychologist Kathryn Faughey to death with a meat cleaver at her Upper East Side office and seriously injuring...   (Associated Press)
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