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Club Med Turkoise being sued by murdered woman’s family
BY DELANA ISLES
THE MURDER of Marie Kuhnla, a Long Island woman found strangled in bushes near Club Med Turkoise in October 2018, is still under active investigation by the Royal TCI Police Force.
But, the family of the 61-yearold is not satisfied that enough is being done by the authorities to find her killer.
Two weeks ago, NBC News 4 reported that the family filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the resort.
In that lawsuit, they fingered a guest of the Club Med resort at which Kuhnla was staying during her vacation in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Kuhnla was travelling with two colleagues from the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, where she worked in the Family Court division.
Frank Yacullo, a former employee of Club Med, is accused in the suit of allegedly sexually assaulting one of Kuhnla’s friends who was vacationing with her.
Marie Kuhnla was found dead on October 18 in bushes near the Club Med resort in Providenciales
The court papers then accuse Yacullo of killing Kuhnla, as he was the last person to see her alive on October 15, and Club Med of covering up the crime.
The court filing reads: “After Marie’s death, Yacullo was arrested and detained by Turks and Caicos police for the sexual assault on Helma, but was released within 24 hours.
Kuhnla’s friends told NBC that they became increasingly concerned when Marie disappeared after a day of drinking at the pool, yet Club Med staff and local police seemed unconcerned when they tried to report her missing.
The son and husband of Kuhnla filed the lawsuit after hiring private investigator Eddie Dowd to look into the death.
He told NBC that it did not appear that Kuhnla had walked to the location where her body was found - it was either dumped there after she had been killed or she was killed among the bushes where her body was found.
Husband Rick Kuhnla told NBC that it does not appear that anyone is taking the investigation very seriously, or were doing much to find his wife’s killer.
The couple’s son, Rick Kuhnla Junior, said the family wants justice for his mum and to know what happened.
The family’s attorney Abe George told NBC: “Club Med failed to take the requisite action to keep Marie safe.”
He insists that the crime was an act of murder.
Yacullo reportedly also told NBC that he had nothing to do with the crime and had no interaction with the woman away from the pool.
A spokesperson for Club Med told the Weekly News that they could not comment on “ongoing litigation”, but added that “the safety and security of all of our guests and staff is our highest priority”.
In a December 2018 statement, the Royal TCI Police Force described the murder as “a complex case” and said officers were exploring a number of lines of enquiry.
The force has not release any information on the investigation since then.
