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Man questioned in therapist’s killing, released

New York police investigators on Thursday questioned a man in Pennsylvania in the slaying of a psychologist hacked to death in her office with a meat cleaver, law enforcement officials said.
This artist's sketch provided by the New York Police Department shows a man suspected of murdering psychologist Kathryn Faughey and seriously injuring another therapist, Dr. Kent Shinbach.
This artist's sketch provided by the New York Police Department shows a man suspected of murdering psychologist Kathryn Faughey and seriously injuring another therapist, Dr. Kent Shinbach.AP
/ Source: NBC News and news services

Detectives looking for a man who butchered a Manhattan psychologist expanded their investigation to Pennsylvania on Thursday, interviewing a man who spoke to the victim in the days before the killing about his personal problems.

The man was not considered a suspect and was released after several hours. Authorities also were analyzing surveillance videotape, studying DNA from the crime scene and checking bloody prints left on the basement door of the building where the killer escaped into the night.

The man interviewed in Pennsylvania met therapist Kathryn Faughey, 56, at a guitar camp several years ago with her husband, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Questioning stopped after he asked for a lawyer, the official said. He did not appear to be injured; police initially indicated that the killer might have suffered wounds in the struggle.

He was found through Faughey's recent e-mail records, which contained messages about personal problems, the law enforcement official said.

‘Extremely saddened’ by her death
William Kunsman said he was picked up by Pennsylvania state troopers at his home around 4:30 a.m.

"The reasons they had for questioning me were valid," said Kunsman, of Coplay, Pa., adding that he was "extremely saddened" to hear of Faughey's death. "I've been in more contact with Kathryn lately. I've been speaking to her a lot lately on the phone and by e-mail. I guess that's what led them here."

Kunsman, who is married with six children, last spoke to Faughey on Tuesday afternoon but declined to detail the conversation. "That's personal. She was just being a friend," he said.

The killer slashed Faughey 15 times with a meat cleaver and a 9-inch knife at her office on Tuesday evening. A psychiatrist who worked in the building, Kent Shinbach, came to Faughey's rescue and was badly injured by the attacker, who stabbed him and pinned him to the wall before stealing $90. Police said he was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

During their questioning, Kunsman said the detectives never referred to him as a suspect. "The reason it took so long is so they could ... verify what I was telling them was the truth," he said.

Many clues left behind
The suspect left behind several clues, dropping two bags near the basement door where he escaped. The bags were filled with adult diapers and women's clothing, eight knives, rope and duct tape that were not apparently used in the attack, police said.

The type of diapers found are not widely distributed but were available near Bethlehem, Pa., officials said, but that was not what led authorities to Pennsylvania.

Police also recovered three knives at the scene, including a 9-inch knife and a meat cleaver that were apparently bent from the force of the attack. Faughey's office was in tatters, with furniture overturned, shades torn and blood sprayed on the walls and pooled on the floor.

Investigators initially believed the killer may be a patient of Faughey, but were also questioning other acquaintances.

Faughey, a licensed psychologist and graduate of Yeshiva University in the Bronx, described herself as a specialist in cognitive behavioral therapy. On her Web site, Faughey said she treated patients for relationship issues, coping with breakups, anxiety, panic attacks, stress over job changes and online intimacy, such as relationship issues arising from computer and text messaging.

Her husband, Walter Adam, said Faughey was one of seven children of Irish immigrant parents and the first in her family to go to college.

"She helped so many people, rich and poor," Adam told reporters. "She was a very good and decent person."