A Thorough Investigation
Investigators found no evidence of a break-in, suggesting that Lee possibly knew her assailant. Lee’s roommate, Krantzler — also an N.Y.P.D. criminalist — told detectives she was away visiting her father for the weekend, and that when she returned Sunday evening, she found Lee’s bedroom door closed and assumed she was asleep.
Due to the sexual nature of the crime, detectives inquired about a romantic partner, but the roommate was unaware of any such person.
Investigators did learn, however, that Lee was a recent graduate of Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as recounted by Professor Angelique Carthals.
“Michelle made an impression on a lot of professors because she was such a forthcoming student,” Carthals told New York Homicide. “She was a force to reckon with; she definitely had that mission of justice ingrained in her.”
Upon earning her degree, Lee entered the N.Y.P.D.’s crime lab, inspecting items of evidentiary value for the same authorities now investigating her death.
“This case happened in our home,” said Tatum. “You don’t want to mess up. You want to find the bad guy.”
Back at the crime scene, police found it unusual that, despite the horrific injuries, there was little blood spatter near Lee’s body. They were also surprised that no one living locally heard screams coming from Lee’s apartment.
Additionally, police found evidence at the top of Lee’s trash pail, including a tissue containing semen. The evidence was discarded alongside a receipt timestamped to the night of Lee’s murder, leading detectives to believe the semen sample was recent and that whoever left it did so around the time Lee was killed.
Sgt. Robert “Bobby” Knights, commander of the 108th Precinct’s detective squad, wondered if Lee’s homicide was a “sadistic sex act gone bad.”
A photo of Michelle Lee, featured on New York Homicide 214 Photo: Oxygen
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A thorough investigation and a low-key boyfriend
Detectives processing the crime scene found Lee’s personal diary and hoped to glean information about the people in Lee’s life. According to investigative journalist Gabrielle Fonrouge, the pages revealed Lee was secretly dating a man named Gary.
“She’s writing about how much she loves him, how much she enjoys being with him, how much she wants to be his girlfriend,” Fonrouge told New York Homicide. “She’s just gushing about this guy in her life.”
Detectives canvassed John Jay, learning that the man whom Lee wrote about was a college senior named Gary McGurk, a “charming,” Irish-born man pursuing his forensic sciences degree in America, according to Det. Wilkowski. Both Lee and McGurk had met through their studies, drawn together by their common interests.
McGurk voluntarily spoke with investigators, explaining that he and Lee were on-again, off-again partners and that he had another girlfriend separate from Lee. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with the victim, one that included bondage, asphyxiation, and other sexual fetishes.
McGurk also hailed Lee as a giving person who’d paid upward of $5,000 to help McGurk receive cancer treatments.
When asked about the time surrounding Lee’s murder, McGurk happily showed detectives that Lee called him, indicating that he was nowhere near the crime scene. His other girlfriend also supported his alibi that he was in Manhattan when Lee was killed, putting McGurk at the bottom of their suspect list.
McGurk also volunteered his D.N.A. for detectives.
Back at square one of the investigation, police took a deep dive into Lee’s job with the force. Since Lee testified in several drug cases as part of her work, they wondered if someone was out for revenge.
“When members of organized crime groups decide to kill somebody as a form of revenge, it’s not just enough to kill them,” said Fonrouge. “There’s usually some gruesome level of torture that’s involved with it; something really depraved.”
But no one from Lee’s cases stuck out to investigators. However, the investigation shifted when detectives received Lee’s postmortem examination results.
