N.Y. Girl’s Death Likened to Brawley Case

The body of a black teen-age girl with the initials “KKK” carved in her torso was found in Kingston, N.Y., and authorities said Thursday that they are investigating whether the case is linked to that of Tawana Brawley, who claimed after a four-day disappearance that she was kidnaped and raped by six white men, including one with a police badge.

When Brawley was found last November near the apartment her family previously had occupied in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., racial epithets, including KKK were written on her body. Alleging racism, Brawley and her family have refused to cooperate with a special state prosecutor looking into the case.

Police said that the partly clothed body of Anna Kithcart, 19, was found early Wednesday behind the hospital in Kingston, about 60 miles north of New York City. Investigators said that she had been strangled and struck on the head. Laboratory tests were being conducted to determine whether she had been raped.

FBI Notified

Michael Kavanaugh, the Ulster County district attorney, said that racial epithets had been cut into Kithcart’s body in “various places.” He said that both the FBI and the New York state task force examining evidence in the Brawley case had been notified and would assist in the Kithcart investigation.

“There are obvious similarities between the condition in which Tawana Brawley was found and the condition of this girl, Anna Kithcart, was found in,” Kavanaugh said. “It would be irresponsible not to pursue this.”

Kingston and Wappingers Falls, where Brawley was found last Nov. 28, are about 30 miles apart. Police said that Kithcart’s body was discovered behind Kingston Hospital by a homeless man, who was charged with sexual misconduct for allegedly tampering with the corpse. Joseph Kiernan, 41, who pleaded not guilty, was held after failing to post $10,000 bail.

Kavanaugh had no comment when he was asked if Kiernan was a suspect. But police in Kingston said that they still are investigating the story he told detectives.

Police said that Kithcart had not been reported missing before her body was discovered. Investigators tentatively placed the time of her death as Tuesday. Detectives said that items of her clothing were found in an alley several hundred feet from her body and that they were trying to determine whether the murder may have been drug related.

Last Seen in Bar

Investigators also were trying to determine whether the initials may have been carved into the body as a ruse to draw attention away from her killer. Police said that Kithcart was a high school student in Kingston and had been seen last in a bar near the hospital.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a Brooklyn pastor without a congregation, who is one of Brawley’s advisers said Thursday that he had received a phone call from Kithcart’s family and would meet with family members to discuss her murder.

“This merely adds credence to what I have been saying all along . . . in that general area there is a racist cult group still operating,” Sharpton charged. Sharpton spoke from the Brooklyn church where Glenda Brawley, Tawana’s mother, has taken refuge in defiance of a court order that she testify before the special grand jury looking into her daughter’s case. Last month, a judge held Mrs. Brawley in contempt and sentenced her to 30 days in jail but officers have chosen not to go into the church to arrest her.

Perry J. McKinnon, a former top aide to Sharpton charged in June that Brawley’s story “is a pack of lies” and that he was told by other teen-agers that she attended two parties during the four days she was missing. Sharpton and other advisers to the Brawley family have heatedly denied McKinnon’s allegations.