Aug 21, 2007 9:32 am US/Eastern
Report: FBI Loses Bones In L.I. Toddler Death Case
Remains Sent To Feds For DNA Tests Are Missing
MELVILLE, N.Y. (CBS/AP) ―
Federal investigators have lost remains believed to belong to a 4-year-old girl who prosecutors say was killed by her parents 17 years ago, according to published reports.
The bones and teeth were found in a shallow grave alongside the Long Island Expressway in 1996, where they were buried with a T-shirt that said "My heart belongs to Grandma," Newsday reported in Tuesday's editions.
After the discovery, Suffolk County medical examiners sent a set of two bones and two teeth to an FBI lab for DNA testing. But prosecutors recently said in court that the remains had been lost by the FBI.
Robert Clifford, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office, confirmed Monday that they were missing. But he said that DNA tests were being conducted on other bones "to render the FBI unnecessary to this prosecution."
The FBI has not commented on the accusations.
"I think it's carelessness," said Mary Elizabeth Abbate of Deer Park, a defense attorney in the case against the girl's parents.
Abbate represents Kharual Abdul, 42, who is charged with murder along with her estranged husband, Parmjit Singh, 50, in the 1990 slaying of their daughter, Jennifer Shafiq.
Abbate has filed a motion in Suffolk County Court to keep the DNA results out of the upcoming trial, because the defense attorneys will never be able to perform tests on the missing bones.
Suffolk officials still have some of the remains in custody. Abbate said she opposed additional DNA testing, in part because it would not give defense attorneys enough time to examine the results before the trial scheduled to begin next month.
She disputes that DNA test results ever linked Abdul to the remains. They only showed Abdul could not be ruled out as a maternal relative.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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