By Alexander Dworkowitz
After an exhaustive 2-1/2-year investigation, two brothers have been arrested in connection with the murder of a Flushing law student who vanished on her way back from school in Connecticut, authorities announced last week.
Farhid “John” Popal, 32, and Farhad “Frank” Popal, 27, both formerly of Flushing, were apprehended by authorities in Fremont, Calif. Friday, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Farhid Popal was charged with murdering his then girlfriend, Samiya Haqiqi, a 24-year-old resident of Flushing when she disappeared on Nov. 12, 1999, according to the district attorney. His younger brother was charged with assisting in the disposal and concealment of Haqiqi’s body, which has not yet been found, the district attorney said.
If convicted, Farhid Popal faces a sentence of up to 25 years to life, while Farhad Popal faces up to seven years in prison.
The two brothers were extradited to New York Tuesday and arraigned in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens. Judge Robert Hanophy ordered Farid held without bail and set bail of $75,000 for his brother.
A law enforcement source said a clump of hair provided a break in the case that led to the brothers’ arrests.
The hair, which was found at a Long Island car shop at which Farhad Popal worked a month after Haqiqi disappeared, matched the missing woman’s DNA, the source said.
Brown described the investigation into Haqiqi’s disappearance as “painstaking and extraordinarily difficult.”
On Nov. 12, 1999, Haqiqi, a first-semester student at Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Conn. left the school to travel home to Flushing, according to the district attorney.
But the Afghan immigrant never made it to her 159th Street home.
Three days later Haqiqi’s Volkswagen Jetta was found in the Grand Union Supermarket parking lot on Northern Boulevard in Little Neck.
At the time, friends said Haqiqi often hung out with them in the parking lot.
Shortly after her disappearance, investigators said Haqiqi had willingly gone away with someone she knew.
Now prosecutors allege that that person was Farhid Popal. Haqiqi had traveled down from Connecticut to meet with her boyfriend to end their relationship, according to Brown.
Haqiqi’s body was put in the front passenger seat of Farhid Popal’s 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix, the district attorney said.
Three days after her disappearance, Farhad Popal sought the assistance of an unidentified individual and told that person Farhid Popal had beaten up his girlfriend and buried her body upstate, the district attorney said.
Haqiqi graduated from St. John’s University in 1995. Afterward she worked full time as a paralegal in a Manhattan law firm while taking classes at Queens College before heading to Quinnipiac in 1999.
Her family could not be reached for comment.
Farhid Popal, also of Afghan descent, got to know Haqiqi when he lived in Flushing.
New York Police Department Detectives Steve Brown, Thomas Luberto, John Malone, Richard Mecabe and Vincent Romano worked on the case under the supervision of Lt. Kevin Keenan, commander of the 109th Precinct Detective Squad.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
