CT CT - Suzanne Jovin, 21, Yale student, New Haven, 4 Dec 1998

[JnRyan]

Based on some reports that there was an argument between a man and a woman followed by screams in the area where Suzanne Jovin was found and some news stories state that a witness heard a woman yell, "Why are you doing this to me?" I tend to believe it was someone she trusted.

ARE YOU WRONG ABOUT JAMES VAN DE VELDE?

I often wondered if it was someone from the Best Buddies program - a volunteer or one of the program members - who did this. Someone she would get a ride from. But I never thought about one of campus police members and that is a possibility. We all still wonder who borrowed the study materials she was going to pick up that night - another possible suspect. Then again if she was stopped by someone prior to getting the materials there is a chance she could have run into a stranger just before she could pick up the material.

What is strange:
Who gave her a ride to that location? If they had nothing to do with her murder why not come forward? They may have witnessed the murder if the driver was not the killer.
Who borrowed the study materials she was picking up that night? It is suspicious that they never came forward.

I sometimes wonder if the person who gave her a ride and the person who borrowed the materials were the same person. But then that would leave the question of who the man was running - not driving - away from the scene. The killer? A witness scared to come forward? If she was driven to that area and the driver was the killer why would he be running from the scene and not driving off.

 

[jaejae]

Based on some reports that there was an argument between a man and a woman followed by screams in the area where Suzanne Jovin was found and some news stories state that a witness heard a woman yell, "Why are you doing this to me?" I tend to believe it was someone she trusted.

ARE YOU WRONG ABOUT JAMES VAN DE VELDE?

I often wondered if it was someone from the Best Buddies program - a volunteer or one of the program members - who did this. Someone she would get a ride from. But I never thought about one of campus police members and that is a possibility. We all still wonder who borrowed the study materials she was going to pick up that night - another possible suspect. Then again if she was stopped by someone prior to getting the materials there is a chance she could have run into a stranger just before she could pick up the material.

What is strange:
Who gave her a ride to that location? If they had nothing to do with her murder why not come forward? They may have witnessed the murder if the driver was not the killer.
Who borrowed the study materials she was picking up that night? It is suspicious that they never came forward.

I sometimes wonder if the person who gave her a ride and the person who borrowed the materials were the same person. But then that would leave the question of who the man was running - not driving - away from the scene. The killer? A witness scared to come forward? If she was driven to that area and the driver was the killer why would he be running from the scene and not driving off.

Interesting stuff as usual. Wish I could access the article. As I say my theory is it was a madman and the man mentioned above was a victim of him too like many others are in similar way in other cases. Who knows as in other cases perhaps we will find out one day.

 

[dotr]

Very lengthy article.
Top 50: When crime hit campus, Yale responded
July 5 2018
"NEW HAVEN — Three slayings that took place over an 18½-year span beginning in the early 90s shattered the notion that an Ivy League university in the center of a city then known for crime was immune to violence that occasionally erupted outside its doorstep.

The media storm that resulted after the slayings of Yale University students Christian Prince in 1991, Suzanne Jovin in 1998 and Annie Le in 2009 brought issues of class and privilege front and center.

New Haven has had years with high levels of violence that terrorized neighborhoods and devastated families and communities. But the media covered the Yale incidents more intently, because, despite evidence to the contrary, people still interpret colleges as a place where nothing bad happens, said Richard Hanley, associate professor of Journalism at Quinnipiac University in Hamden."

“As we see with sexual assaults and hazing incidents, etc., colleges don’t deserve that part of mythology. They are just as susceptible to social ills as anywhere else,” Hanley said.
"The state’s Cold Case Unit Chief Inspector Michael Sullivan, who declined to talk specifically on the open investigation, appealed to the public for any leads.

“We are still looking for anybody who might tell us why Suzanne Jovin left Phelps Gate, the gate coming from the old campus on College Street, and was ultimately found in the area of East Rock and Whitney Avenue,” he said earlier this year.

“She was last seen coming out of that gate and turning left, and then, within 30 minutes, she was found dying up at the intersection of East Rock and Edgehill,” Sullivan said.

The cold case unit is responsible for between 1,200 and 1,300 unsolved murders, “a conservative estimate,” New Haven Chief State’s Attorney Kevin T. Kane said, also this year.

Kane said two detectives are now “putting in a substantial amount of work on the case.” Still, he admitted, a very small percentage of those murders are ever solved — for myriad reasons.

“No witnesses, no physical evidence, witnesses die off after time, they relocate, and we’re unable to find them, they leave the state, witnesses won’t cooperate from day one — or there are no witnesses identified.”

A combined $150,000 reward is still being offered by Yale and the state for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Jovin’s murderer."

 

[secretslob]

Hi Secretslob, I was a faculty member at Yale starting a year or two after Jovin's murder, so I am also familiar with the locations around campus. My office was not very far from Phelps Gate, and I had many friends who lived in the area where she was murdered. Nice to see someone else who is familiar with the area here.

As someone who knows the area, what are your thoughts about why Suzanne went out onto College St. after returning the keys? If we assume the Fresca found near her body could only have been purchased from the Krausers near York and Elm, and that Peter Stein is correct that she did not have a Fresca with her on Old Campus, then she must have made it back in the direction of her apartment at least as far as Krausers after leaving Phelps Gate. But why take College? Why not just turn back around and go through Old Campus the way she came? The route to Krausers through Old Campus, across High, and then past JE and Branford onto York would have gotten her there just as quickly as taking College to Elm to York.

Of course, we don't really know if the Fresca facts are correct (Was there really no place other than Krausers to buy that soda? Is Stein's recollection that she didn't have it with her before returning the keys reliable?), so she may have been heading somewhere else entirely. Or she may have just wanted to take a different route back home, see the Christmas lights on the Green, or could even have felt it was a shorter route to Krausers to take College to Elm (which it might be - there's no huge difference in distance between the two routes).

It's impossible for us to know why she took the route she did, and her decision may not be of any real significance at all. However, I do think that if I had been planning to head to Krausers or back to 258 Park St. from Phelps Gate, I would have cut back through Old Campus. That does make me wonder why she was last seen on College.

 

[Noodle09]

Hello All

I’m an amateur podcaster from New Haven CT and have been thinking about doing an investigative podcast. I began searching cold cases in CT and as you can imagine this case has truly grabbed my attention, fascinating. I’d love any input, suggestions, interesting leads that you may have or people/places to start with. Feel free to reply to this or contact me directly.

Thank you.

 

[dotr]

Hello All

I’m an amateur podcaster from New Haven CT and have been thinking about doing an investigative podcast. I began searching cold cases in CT and as you can imagine this case has truly grabbed my attention, fascinating. I’d love any input, suggestions, interesting leads that you may have or people/places to start with. Feel free to reply to this or contact me directly.

Thank you.

Welcome to Ws Cnagle09,!

 

[hardeeboy]

Hello All

I’m an amateur podcaster from New Haven CT and have been thinking about doing an investigative podcast. I began searching cold cases in CT and as you can imagine this case has truly grabbed my attention, fascinating. I’d love any input, suggestions, interesting leads that you may have or people/places to start with. Feel free to reply to this or contact me directly.

Thank you.

I'm glad you are going to keep the pressure on to either solve this case or open up the investigation files for others benefit. Good luck?

 

[hardeeboy]

Hello All

I’m an amateur podcaster from New Haven CT and have been thinking about doing an investigative podcast. I began searching cold cases in CT and as you can imagine this case has truly grabbed my attention, fascinating. I’d love any input, suggestions, interesting leads that you may have or people/places to start with. Feel free to reply to this or contact me directly.

Thank you.

Just read about this. I'm glad you are going to keep the pressure on to either solve this case or open up the investigation files for others benefit. Good luck!

 

[hardeeboy]

I was googling a bit and came across an article explaining a hypothetical connection between Suzanne Jovin's murder and the murders of two Dartmouth Professors (Susanne & Half Zantrop) who were slain around the same time and also from Germany. It was very interesting and detailed - however, I don't think the source is established enough to meet credibility standards for this site. Has anyone else read about this theory?

 

[secretslob]

I was googling a bit and came across an article explaining a hypothetical connection between Suzanne Jovin's murder and the murders of two Dartmouth Professors (Susanne & Half Zantrop) who were slain around the same time and also from Germany. It was very interesting and detailed - however, I don't think the source is established enough to meet credibility standards for this site. Has anyone else read about this theory?

I have read about the theory (briefly), and highly doubt its accuracy. It seems highly likely that the two high school boys convicted of the Zantop murders were in fact the culprits of that crime. It is so improbable to me that these high-schoolers could somehow have been participants in the Jovin murder, or part of a vast conspiracy involving the Zantops, Van de Velde and child-rapist Lasaga (not to mention Al Qaeda and the CIA), that I don't think the theory deserves much credence.

 

[hardeeboy]

I have read about the theory (briefly), and highly doubt its accuracy. It seems highly likely that the two high school boys convicted of the Zantop murders were in fact the culprits of that crime. It is so improbable to me that these high-schoolers could somehow have been participants in the Jovin murder, or part of a vast conspiracy involving the Zantops, Van de Velde and child-rapist Lasaga (not to mention Al Qaeda and the CIA), that I don't think the theory deserves much credence.

Yes, agree. I became dizzy just reading the version I found. It is made even more improbable by the fact that the high school boys tried another home before going to the Zantrops so it would seem their murders were a random, opportunistic choice.

 

[hardeeboy]

Did they release the case file yet per foia request by chance?
My thought with regard to a place to start is determining how firm the current timeline assumptions are...especially between the last sighting and the 911 call. What other organizations and activities was she involved with. I saw that she won a post humous service award for a tutoring project and worked in the dining room as well. Who did that bring in to her life? Any projects involving local high school or other university's college students? My understanding is that East Rock is largely young professionals, families and graduate students and most undergrads lived closer to campus. Can you obtain a Yale directory from that year?

 

[secretslob]

Did they release the case file yet per foia request by chance?
My thought with regard to a place to start is determining how firm the current timeline assumptions are...especially between the last sighting and the 911 call. What other organizations and activities was she involved with. I saw that she won a post humous service award for a tutoring project and worked in the dining room as well. Who did that bring in to her life? Any projects involving local high school or other university's college students? My understanding is that East Rock is largely young professionals, families and graduate students and most undergrads lived closer to campus. Can you obtain a Yale directory from that year?

The case file has not been released, and I'm starting to think it never will be. The State has thus far resisted release on the basis that investigation remains ongoing, and I'm thinking they will keep using that argument for as long as they can get away with it. IMO they simply do not want the evidence of the NHPD's shoddy work on public display.

The conspiracy theorist in me does wonder if there might be something specific the State/City/University wants to conceal (e.g., a known connection between Suzanne and/or the crime and a Yale police or security officer?), but I try to tamp down the wilder stuff my imagination cooks up as much as possible. Still, I can't ignore that a new chief of Yale University Police was named just a few weeks prior to Suzanne's murder, which is definitely interesting timing. It has crossed my mind that someone who felt their toes had been stepped on in connection with that process might have decided to make the new Chief's life a little more difficult. In addition, the Yale police union was embroiled in a protracted labor dispute with the University during this time period, and what better way to demonstrate to management how essential the services of the police are than a little violent crime against a student? Suzanne did live above a Yale police substation, and her last contact before the crime was likely an officer at Phelps Gate, so she may have been an easy target for a disgruntled and/or deranged officer. But, again, these thoughts are no more than wild speculation, and I can't help but feel that even airing them is somewhat irresponsible. The Jovins deserve to know what happened to their daughter, but wild goose chases based on flights of fancy do not solve cases.

As a volunteer with organizations involved in the New Haven community, Suzanne undoubtedly would have had a decent amount of contact with residents not associated with Yale. Additionally, students that worked part-time in Yale dining halls as she did worked their shifts alongside non-students employed by the university, so she wold have had contact with non-Yalies that way too. Given the quick focus on Van de Velde as a suspect (and the alleged inattention by the police to other potential suspects), it's difficult to feel confident that all of those community contacts were thouroughly checked out.

You are correct that the East Rock neighborhood in which Suzanne's body was found did not have that many undergrad residents. At that time, undergrads living off-campus were generally clustered in other areas, including the Park St. area where Suzanne lived. There were exceptions, however, and some undergrads did live in the East Rock area. I can think of one friend of mine who lived in that area (on Edgehill Road, actually), but I'm sure there were plenty more undergrads around.

As far as directories go, I don't recall there being a comprehensive printed directory of students. I do remember having a printed directory of my entire residential college with pictures, addresses, and phone numbers, but nothing that contained such information for all undergrad students. I'm sure those residential college directories probably exist somewhere within the Yale library system, but I have confidence (maybe unwarranted?) that students living in the East Rock/Prospect Hill area would have been investigated by police. Although my class was the first class to have internet access from our rooms for all four years we were at Yale, we did have a comprehensive on-line directory that we used to contact TAs, professors, University services, etc. Printed directories may not even have been published by that point in time. That would also be something the library might have if it did in fact exist.

Sorry this got so long. I hope I answered at least some of your questions.

 

[iulia]

Jovin murder mystery continues 20 years later

NEW HAVEN — Twenty years after Yale senior Suzanne Jovin, 21, was found bleeding to death from 17 stab wounds at the corner of East Rock and Edgehill roads in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood, two past investigators of the crime say Connecticut authorities have severely hampered the case from the very beginning by focusing on a man the two investigators insist is innocent: James Van de Velde.

 

[jaejae]

It is my theory that the man in the CCTV from this 2000 Montana murder may also be the killer of Suzanne Jovin. There is not a great deal of time between the crimes and the man in the CCTV image and in the composite sketch appear to have similar what I call Max Headroom style military hairstyles:

Unknown Jeanette Atwater Killer- Montana- 2000 | America's Most Wanted Fans (an unofficial fan page for America's Most Wanted & In Pursuit with John Walsh)

Murder of Suzanne Jovin - Wikipedia

 

[jaejae]

It is my theory that the man in the CCTV from this 2000 Montana murder may also be the killer of Suzanne Jovin. There is not a great deal of time between the crimes and the man in the CCTV image and in the composite sketch appear to have similar what I call Max Headroom style military hairstyles:

Unknown Jeanette Atwater Killer- Montana- 2000 | America's Most Wanted Fans (an unofficial fan page for America's Most Wanted & In Pursuit with John Walsh)

Murder of Suzanne Jovin - Wikipedia

Also the man in the CCTV image from Montana was described as being pock marked and wearing too much aftershave. Also if you look at the way he picks his trainers up he appears to have a 'funny' walking style which might also lead to a funny running style. It might have looked 'funny' but I feel it served his purposes pretty well.

 

[jaejae]

Also the man in the CCTV image from Montana was described as being pock marked and wearing too much aftershave. Also if you look at the way he picks his trainers up he appears to have a 'funny' walking style which might also lead to a funny running style. It might have looked 'funny' but I feel it served his purposes pretty well.

Here is another CCTV image from the 2000 Montana crime and this one shows the unusual way he picks his feet up when walking:

Dark Sleuth: Jeannette "Charlie" Atwater - 2000 Unsolved Murder in Billings, Montana

 

[secretslob]

Jovin murder mystery continues 20 years later

I am happy to see that the case investigation is continuing and that Suzanne's family keeps pushing for answers. Hopefully better communication and coordination between all the investigative agencies that have been involved over the years will reveal something that was missed before.

 

[dotr]

Cold Cases, Open Wounds
January 21, 2019
Story By Kyung Mi Lee
"In 1998, Yale senior Suzanne Jovin was found fatally stabbed in the back near the corner of Edgehill and East Rock roads. Dec. 4, 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of her murder.

“From our perspective, this year is no different than any before,” the victim’s parents, Donna Arndt-Jovin GRD ’68 and Thomas Jovin, shared in an email with the News. “Suzanne was a good citizen (and a good student) of Yale, was happy there and derived great benefits from an outstanding institution of higher learning.”

On the night of her murder, she was walking back to campus from a pizza party for the New Haven chapter of Best Buddies, an international organization dedicated to serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A celebrated member of the Yale community, she posthumously received the Special Elm and Ivy Award from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in 1999. There are numerous dedications honoring her contributions to the Yale community, including a memorial plaque in the Davenport College courtyard. The Suzanne N. Jovin Memorial Fund continues to support promising undergraduate students who “reflect Suzanne’s aspirations and commitments.”

Over the intervening 20 years, the Jovins have maintained close contact with public investigators in New Haven. They are still searching for conclusions to be made about the circumstances of her death. In an email to the News, her parents credited the University as an “outstanding institution of higher learning.” But they urged the University to finally share the information gained by its private investigators with the New Haven and Connecticut authorities.

“For whatever reason, the University has opted, at least up to now, not to release the material,” the Jovins wrote. “We by no means condemn the University, merely urge it to join us in facing the challenges generated by the violence that is so prevalent in our society.”

University spokesperson Karen Peart stated that Yale “has cooperated fully with the investigation and has provided all available information that the law enforcement authorities have requested.”

 

[jaejae]

I would like to give this case another bump with a You Tube video about the case. Look at the amount of views and this must be good publicity for the case keeping it alive and there are many more views for this type of You Tube video than those in the style of Minivan Traveller etc. My hunch is this crime might be the work of the Connecticut River Valley Killer who also stabbed his victims and I think the composite sketches in this case is similar to some of those in the Connecticut River Valley Killer case: