Remains of woman found along Queens highway ID’d by family, but identity of killer still a mystery

A woman whose dismembered remains were found decomposing in a bag on the side of a Queens highway disappeared 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 in late May, more than two months before a city Department of Transportation employee found a bag containing her remains on the side of Jackie Robinson Parkway near Vermont Place on Aug. 6, her cousin said.

The city medical examiner ruled Christina’s cause of death as “homicidal violence,” a ruling that indicates investigators believe she was murdered but cannot determine how.

“Thank God a DOT worker found her on his route,” Geneva Purdie, 41, said. “If he hadn’t gone that way, she wouldn’t have been found and we’d still be wondering, ‘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 shown in news reports about the discovery of her remains, Geneva said.

“She had been missing for two months. We were looking, asking everyone,” the victim’s cousin told The News. “When the newspaper article came out, they posted her tattoo and her jewelry. We put the puzzle together.”

But learning Christina’s fate has brought little peace to her family, who still don’t know why the young woman was killed, how she died or who took her life.

“We don’t have closure,” Geneva said. “We don’t know if this is a serial killer or someone who was very close to her. Is (her killer) close to a family member? (Does her killer have) a target against the family?”

“We don’t have a fence and it’s scary. It’s scary, it’s heartbreaking.”

Geneva said her cousin’s life began to deteriorate 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 never agreed with that,” Geneva said. “We always told him, ‘You need to get out of this business.'”

The young woman lived in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn before disappearing.

Geneva said she had no idea her cousin was living in a shelter until she died.

“All she had to do was contact me,” Geneva said. “It’s like she slipped through the cracks and we’re trying to figure out how.”

Toward the end of her life, Christina seemed to be a game-changer, getting a job as a home health aide and applying for Section 8 housing, her cousin said.

“I think she was still selling her body, and then she started working in home care,” Geneva said. “It was her way of getting out of this previous life that she 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, tell her happy birthday.’

“She was so young. She was just starting her life. It’s completely unfair that someone did this and took her life away like it had no value.”

With Emma Seiwell and Thomas Tracy