DNA test dashes hope that skeleton is long-lost Putnam girl's

There was a glimmer of hope that the discovery of skeletal remains on a Patterson home site on April 16 might have held the key to unlock Putnam County's biggest mystery: What happened to 17-year-old Robin Murphy, missing since 1995.

But by mid-afternoon Thursday, New York State Police issued a press release that first raised the possibility, then dashed any expectations that the cold case would shortly be solved.

"Investigators have confirmed that the unidentified remains are that of a white female approximately between 16 and 28 years of age with extensive dental work present. It is believed that the victim has been deceased for more than 10 years," the news release began.

But then, after noting that the investigation is ongoing, and urging anyone with information to contact state police at 845-677-7300, the conclusive line: "Investigators from the New York State Police and Carmel Police Department can confirm that the DNA sample collected does not match the profile of missing Robin Murphy."

The Murphy case has involved decades of legwork and interviews, a submersible craft and a psychic, and when news broke that an excavator had found skeletal remains, hopes rose that it might solve the 29-year-old case.

State police said they were working to identify skeletal remains and clothes found at the site of a future single-family home near Ice Pond Road and Tommy Thurber Lane, said Sgt. Aaron Hicks.

The location less than three miles from where the remains of another missing Putnam County girl, 12-year-old Josette Wright, were found in 1995.

The two cases are linked by the girls' connection to Howard Gombert Jr., a sex offender currently in prison in Connecticut who was with both girls shortly before they disappeared. Wright's murder was initially solved and led to the conviction of two older teenagers in 1997. But both were eventually acquitted after years in prison when their convictions were overturned and they had new trials in which they presented evidence of Gombert's involvement.

Hicks said Thursday morning that testing to see if the remains were Murphy's could bring results quickly, or not.

“We’re going to attempt DNA testing and that could either come back tomorrow or it could come back a year from now. It all depends," he said.

Turns out, it took little time.

Murphy's mother, Judi Allen, lives in upstate Otsego County, and was unavailable for comment. Allen's niece, Lisa Landiver, noted in a Facebook post that the family had not been contacted by authorities. She told the USA Today Network on Thursday that "the speculation has caused too much grief for my aunt."

A disappearance, a mystery

So the mystery of what happened to Murphy continues.

She was 17 when she disappeared on April 9, 1995, a damp Palm Sunday evening. The tall, trim teen who had dyed her hair black and liked to wear black clothes, was last seen at the ShopRite Plaza on Route 52, about a mile from her family’s Lake Carmel home.

Murphy had driven to the center to meet her boyfriend, Matt Esposito, who worked at a Burger King restaurant which was then in a separate building in the plaza parking lot, along Route 52. Esposito told police he never saw Murphy that night. He was eliminated as a suspect.

Police found Murphy's car parked near the Burger King. Four days later, they found her purse, wallet and keys in a grassy area behind the plaza.

In September 1999, state police divers searched the Tilly Foster Mine in Southeast after a psychic indicated the girl had been killed and her body dumped there. Nothing was found. Police returned to the mine in December 2002 with a remotely operated submersible craft to search the deep, water-filled mine but, again, found nothing.

Since then, Murphy's case has become one of the region's most maddening cold cases. Before the confirmation that the remains were not Murphy's, Hicks entertained that possibility.

“No matter what, this seems like it’s a sad story," Hicks said.  "I hope that it’s not. I mean, who knows? Maybe this was a person that was buried here legitimately a hundred years ago. But if it was a victim of a crime, we want to be very sensitive with it. We have to advocate for these victims and we need to make sure that if this is a criminal matter that we do everything we can to protect the investigation so that we find out who’s responsible.”

Staff writer Jonathan Bandler contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Putnam NY cold case: DNA test finds skeleton is not Robin Murphy's