Man Quizzed In Therapist Murder Released

Detectives from the NYPD have finished questioning a man in Pennsylvania about the slaying of a psychologist who was hacked to death in her office with a meat cleaver. Officials say the man was released and is still not a suspect.

The man being questioned, 43-year-old William Kunsman, met victim Kathryn Faughey at a guitar camp six years ago with her husband and were friends but not romantically linked. That's according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Kunsman, who appeared tired and teary-eyed after his release, told CBS News affiliate WCBS reporter Christine Sloan that he did not kill 56-year-old psychologist Kathryn Faughey, who he befriended at a guitar camp six years ago.

"I was brought into the station for questioning. I don't want to talk about the ongoing investigation. ... Kathryn was just a wonderful lady and a fine, fine person," he said. "We just seemed to connect on a very deep, spiritual level."

WCBS reports that Kunsman said he was not questioned as a suspect and did not know of the grisly murder until police told him.

"They said they'd contact me if they needed me for anything, but I think my involvement in this is pretty over," he said.

WCBS spoke exclusively with Kunsman's wife earlier in the afternoon, who said her husband had been in contact with Faughey recently. Her name is currently being withheld.

"I know they met at the Martin Guitar forum. He has spoken to her on the phone a few times, actually I think a few days ago, but other than just being friends and talking on the phone that's about it," she said.

"He's actually a good man, right now is just a bad time for us. He lost a job recently and we've just been going through a lot of, one thing after the other. It seems like everything that could go wrong is going wrong right now."

Police linked Kunsman to Faughey through recent e-mail conversations and brought him in for questioning by Pennsylvania state troopers around 4:30 a.m. Thursday from his home.

Faughey was stabbed 15 times in her office Tuesday evening. A psychiatrist who works in the building was badly injured by the attacker.

The questioning was part of a massive police effort to find the killer. Police combed through surveillance video, tested blood for DNA, took fingerprints and went door-to-door Thursday as they tried to find the man who hacked the 56-year-old therapist to death.

Faughey's office was in shambles, with furniture overturned, shades torn and blood sprayed on the walls and pooled on the floor. The suspect left behind a roller suitcase filled with adult diapers and women's clothing - including blouses and slippers - and a smaller second bag containing knives, rope and duct tape that were not apparently used in the attack, police said.

The killing shocked the mental health care community and raised questions about safety protections at therapists' offices. It also rattled residents of the affluent Manhattan neighborhood around Faughey's office.

"Everyone in the building is very nervous, because we know that this person is loose. It's very frightening," said Linda Elliott, who lives in the East 79th Street building where the attack occurred. It is in a bustling neighborhood just blocks from a major hospital complex.

Carrying the two bags and dressed in a three-quarter-length green coat, knit cap and gloves, the attacker breezed past the building's doorman, saying he had an appointment with Dr. Kent Shinbach, a 70-year-old geriatric psychiatrist who worked in the same office suite as Faughey, according to police. Shinbach had office hours into the evening, police said, but it wasn't clear whether Shinbach or Faughey was the intended target.

The man walked into the suite's waiting room, where a female patient was waiting to see Shinbach, and at some point went into Faughey's office and attacked her, police said. Shinbach heard Faughey's screams and ran to help.

The attacker apparently didn't recognize Shinbach when he opened the door and said "she's dead," referring to Faughey, police said. He then attacked the psychiatrist, stabbing at Shinbach and pinning him to the wall with a chair before stealing $90 and escaping through a basement door, according to police.

Shinbach screamed out to the street from Faughey's office for help, and the building doorman called 911 around 9 p.m. By then, the attacker had escaped.

Shinbach had slash wounds on his head, face and hands. Police, believing the killer may have been injured in the attack, issued alerts to area hospitals.

Police have said the suspect may have been familiar with the building because his exit route through the basement wasn't very obvious. Surveillance tapes show him deliberately leaving the luggage by the basement door before walking out.