Family of public defender strangled to death on Turks and Caicos files wrongful death suit

The family of the Long Island public defender found strangled to death at Club Med on Turks and Caicos two years ago has filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit, according to a new report.

The son and husband of Marie Kuhnla, 61, of Wantagh, filed the lawsuit after hiring private investigator Eddie Dowd — who said it did not appear that the woman had walked away from the resort to the location where her bruised body was discovered in the bushes, WNBC reported.

The medical examiner later determined that Kuhnla had been strangled.

“She was not walking to that location,” Dowd told the station. “What happened is that she was either murdered there and dumped there, or she was murdered somewhere else and dumped there.”

The family brought on the private investigator because of a lack of cooperation from both Club Med, and Turks and Caicos Island Police, they told the station.

“They just wanted to sweep it under the rug,” Marie’s husband Rick Kuhnla told the station. “It’s the easiest way to answer that.”

The family’s attorney, Abe George, told WNBC that Club Med “failed to take the requisite action to keep Marie safe,” and called Marie Kuhnla’s death “absolutely” a murder.

The suit also accuses Frank Yacullo — a former Club Med employee who Kuhnla’s friends say was last seen with her — of killing her, and the resort of covering up the crime.

“I had nothing to do with this,” Yacullo, who lives on Long Island, told the station. “I had no interaction with her besides going to the pool.”

A Club Med spokesperson declined to comment to the outlet on pending legal matters, adding that “the safety and security of all of our guests and staff is our highest priority.”

Rick Kuhnla said it appears that someone has “so far” gotten away with murder, and “we’re not totally convinced” that will ever change.

Kuhnla, an attorney with the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, had been staying at the Club Med, on vacation with two co-workers, in the fall of 2018.

Her fellow vacationers previously told WNBC they were suspicious of a fellow guest who had latched onto the group. One of the women, Helma Herman, said that the guest sexually groped her in the pool — a claim that is also included in the wrongful death suit.