BOSTON -- New York police are questioning a "potential suspect" in connection with the rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen, a Boston graduate student who was found slain there last weekend.

St. Guillen's funeral took place in Boston on Saturday.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that the man being questioned is a bouncer at the bar where St. Guillen, 24, was last seen. He is a convict with a long criminal record, and sources said he was the last person seen with her.

Witnesses said St. Guillen was seen talking to the 41-year-old bouncer at The Falls bar in lower Manhattan 17 hours before her body was found in Brooklyn.

The bouncer has an extensive criminal record and goes by five aliases, including John Hansom, Jonathan Blaise, Damon Wells and Darryl Banks. He is being held on a parole violation not related to any charges in the murder case.

He is on parole until November on charges of armed robbery. Sunday night, the bouncer was reportedly being questioned by homicide detectives from the New York City Police Department. A search warrant was being sought so investigators could go through his home in Jamaica, Queens. Jamaica is only a couple of miles from where St. Guillen's body was found.

Calls on the bouncer's cell phone were being tracked. WABC in New York reported that the bouncer's cell phone puts him at the same bar as St. Guillen when she was last seen when the two were seen talking.

Meanwhile, in Boston tearful friends and family bid farewell to the former Boston Latin student at her funeral in West Roxbury. Saturday.

"I just want to hold you one last time. Actually, I just want to hold you forever," her sister Alejandra St. Guillen said during the service.