A woman whose dismembered remains were found decomposing in a bag by the side of a Queens highway went missing months before a city worker discovered her body, her cousin said in an exclusive interview with the Daily News.
Christina Purdie, 27, was last seen alive at the end of May, more than two months before a city Department of Transportation worker found a bag containing her remains on the side of the Jackie Robinson Parkway near Vermont Place on Aug. 6, her cousin said.
The city’s medical examiner stated Christina’s cause of death as “homicidal violence,” a ruling that indicates investigators believe she was murdered, but cannot determine how.
“Thank God that DOT worker found her on his route,” said Geneva Purdie, 41. “If he hadn’t gone that way, she wouldn’t have been found and we’d still be asking, ‘Where is she? What’s going on?’”
The mystery of Christina’s disappearance ended in late August, when her family recognized the victim’s distinctive rose tattoo and jewelry from photos featured in news reports about the discovery of her remains, Geneva said.
“She was missing for two months. We were searching, asking everyone,” the victim’s cousin told The News. “When the newspaper article came out, they had posted her tattoo and her jewelry. We put the puzzle together.”
But knowing Christina’s fate has brought little peace to her family, who still lack any insight into why the young woman was killed, how she died, or who took her life.
“We have no closure,” Geneva said. “We don’t know if this is a serial killer or someone that was very close to her. (Is her killer) close to a family member? (Does her killer have) a target against the family?
“We have no closure and it’s frightening. It’s scary, it’s heartbreaking.”
Geneva said her cousin’s life began to unravel after the death of her father, who succumbed to COVID in 2022, and she began working either as an escort or an exotic dancer.
“We were never OK with that,” Geneva said. “We were always telling her, ‘You need get out of that business.’”
The young woman was living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter before she disappeared.
Geneva said she had no idea her cousin was living in a shelter until after she died.
“All she had to do was reach out to me,” Geneva said. “It’s like she slipped through the cracks and we’re trying to understand how.”
Toward the end of her life, Christina appeared to be turning things around, obtaining work as a home health attendant and applying for Section 8 housing, her cousin said.
“I think she was still doing that whole selling of her body and then she started working in home care,” said Geneva. “It was her way of getting out of that previous life she had had.”
Then Christina disappeared just days before her 27th birthday, Geneva said.
“Her birthday was around that time. Her mom posted on the computer, ‘Hey if anyone knows where my daughter is, let her know happy birthday.’
“She was so young. She was just starting her life. It’s completely unfair that someone did this and took her life from her like it had no value.”
With Emma Seiwell and Thomas Tracy
