New disturbing details have emerged after the family of an American woman who was murdered at the Club Med Resort in Turks and Caicos in 2018 hired a private investigator to look into the unsolved murder.
Marie Kuhnla, 61, a mother and longtime New York public defender, was strangled to death while vacationing at the the Club Med Resort in Turks and Caicos with her friends in October 2018.
As the case of the Long Island native's murder had remained unsolved by local police, her family hired a New York based private investigator to dig into the cold case.
The family hired Eddie Dowd in 2020 to delve into the case. No arrest has been made in connection to the murder.
An autopsy obtained by NBC's 4 I-Team recently revealed new details surrounding Kuhnla's cause of death.
'This wasn't manual strangulation from behind, come up from behind. She was beat up,' Dowd told NBC 4.
'The first sign of assault was bruising on her rib. She's scratching, bruising on knees to her feet. Her underwear is inside out and pulled away from her private parts.'
'It's very clear to us the only ones investigating my mom's murder are us - not the police,' Rick Kuhnla Jr. said of his mother's death.
Marie Kuhnla was found strangled to death in October 2018 in the bushes near the Club Med Resort in Turks and Caicos where she was staying. The case remains unsolved
Kuhnla's family hired a private investigator in 2020 who recently found that her body was discovered with 'bruising on her rib,' 'bruising on knees to her feet,' and her underwear 'inside out and pulled away from her private parts' (Pictured: Marie Kuhnla, left, with her son Rick Kuhnla Jr., center, and her husband Rick Kuhnla, right)
Her family has filed a wrongful death suit against Club Med for covering up the murder who they claim was conducted by fellow employee and resort guest, Frank Yacullo
'This was a vicious-intentional murder,' the grieving son said.
Rick Kuhnla, Marie's husband echoed his son's sentiments and suspicions of local police and Club Med.
'They just wanted to sweep it under the rug. It's the easiest way to answer that,' Kuhnla said.
Dowd had previously told NBC 4 that the evidence did not appear to show that Kuhnla had walked to the location where her body was found.
'She was not walking to that location. What happened is that she was either murdered there and dumped there, or she was murdered somewhere else and dumped there,' Dowd said.
RELATED ARTICLES
Pro-cop reform Dem Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon calls for... 
'It started with a traffic stop and ended with an officer...
Share this article
ShareHe is investigating whether or not the body as deliberately allowed to decompose at the island morgue before it was sent home weeks after the murder as part of a cover up.
'We want to know what happened, and we want justice for my mom,' Kuhnla Jr. said when the family first hired Dowd. 'We couldn't get her body back for two months and by then, it was so decomposed, we couldn't view it.'
The family also points to the resort's initial public statement that claimed Kuhnla's had been found near the property, not on it.
Kuhnla's bruised body was found hidden in the bushes near the resort and a popular beach area in Leeward a day after she was reported missing by her friends who became concerned after she disappeared after a day of drinking at the resort pool.
Her friends claim the resort and local police appeared unconcerned when they first reported Kuhnla's disappearance.
'I didn't see any police, I didn't see any resort staff looking for anyone,' Kuhlna's friend, Helma Hermans said.
Kuhnla's friends reported missing after a drinking of at the resort pool but claimed that the local police and resort workers seemed unbothered (Pictured: Club Med Resort at Turks and Caicos)
No arrest have been made and the murder case remains open more than three years later (Pictured: The scene where Marie Kuhnla's body was found in October 2018)
Kuhnla's family believe that they are only ones seriously investigating the 2018 murder case (Pictured: The scene where Marie Kuhnla's body was found in October 2018)
The women who were traveling with Kuhnla have previously expressed their suspicions of fellow Club Med guest and former employee Frank Yacullo, who they claim was last seen with the American woman.
Hermans claimed that Yacullo attached himself to the group and sexually assaulted her before Kuhnla's disappearance.
Kuhnla's family filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit in 2020 against Club Med. The lawsuit also names Yacullo, a fellow Long Islander.
The court papers accuse Yacullo of killing Kuhnla and Club Med of covering up the horrific crime.
Yacullo has maintained his innocence and pleaded the fifth when he was deposed in August, the Kuhnla family attorney Abe George said.
When questioned by NBC 4 in 2019, Yacullo said he 'had nothing to do with that. I had no interaction with her besides going to the pool.'
George said that after three years, the family is still fighting to get evidence with the Turks and Caicos coroner.
'We're not just taking about crime scene photos. We're talking about the photos they are holding back inexplicably,' George said.
He claims that Club Med 'failed to take the requisite action to keep Marie safe,' and insist that Kuhnla's death was 'absolutely' a murder.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2BcX%2BTbGxta1%2BDsrh5w56rmqGcqHqmucSrnp5lpaPAsLjVnptmpaWnsaa%2BjHqknqqZmK6veaKlrJtlfZqxbp7ErKarrF2JwrO30mZ6mqGTpMBvtNOmow%3D%3D