New York police investigators got a hold of the author of the terrible incident on Tuesday night, when therapist Kathryn Faughey, 56, was brutally stabbed to death in her office on East 79th Street, and another colleague was seriously injured after trying to intervene.

The attacker was identified as David M. Tarloff, 39, from Queens, with a history of mental problems. The man confessed he blamed Dr. Kent Shinbach (who tried to help Faughey when she got attacked) for having him institutionalized for 17 years, and initially went there to rob him, so as to later leave the country, accompanied by his mother.

It remains unclear if Tarloff had ever met Faughey before, or if she simply interfered in his plans when he decided to attack her. The victim was butchered with a meat cleaver and a knife, and according to police autopsy report, she had been stabbed 15 times.

Tarloff said in his 20 minutes talk with the police investigators that he did not go to the office building with the intention of killing Faughey. The questioning ended when the suspect requested the presence of a lawyer, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

The investigation led to Tarloff after police found two suitcases in the building’s basement, one of them with the suspect’s palm print. This indicates that the suspect had been there for some time, probably planning for his escape after what was supposed to be a robbery.

“Forensic evidence and Tarloff’s own words placed him at the scene of the crime,” Kelly said. These officers knocked on doors, they followed leads and they examined evidence around the clock to make this arrest possible,” he added during a news conference.

At the same time with the announcement, Kathryn Faughey’s family and friends were saying good-bye to her at St. Monica’s Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, together with other hundreds of mourners, including some of her former patients.