Who Killed College Student Suzanne Jovin? New Haven Connecticut, December 4, 1998
Who Killed College Student Suzanne Jovin? New Haven Connecticut, December 4, 1998
Suzanne Jovin was born January 26, 1977 in Germany. Both of Suzanne's parents were scientists and ran the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen, Germany, and the family resided in a 14th century Bavarian castle. The family traveled around to places in Europe together. Suzanne was a smart girl who "majored," in in both biology and chemistry at her German high school, while also being fluent in English and German. Suzanne would become fluent in two more languages while also playing instruments like the cello, and sang in some bands.
When it came time for college, Suzanne chose to study in the United States. Specifically, she chose Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut--which happened to be her mother's alma mater. Initially wanting to study something in the sciences, Suzanne changed course to have a double major of international relations and political science. During her time at Yale, Suzanne worked in one of the dining halls, tutored kids in elementary school, joined a choir group and joined a group called Best Buddies which provided friends for adults with intellectual challenges/disabilities.
After college, Suzanne "dreamed of changing global public policy and eradicating terrorist threats." For Suzanne's senior thesis, she chose to write it on Osama Bin Laden the terrorist leader (remember this is in 1998--three years before the September 11 attacks). On the afternoon of December 4, 1998, Suzanne dropped off the "penultimate draft," of her thesis to her advisor, James Van de Velde. Afterwards, Suzanne began prepping for a pizza making party she was hosting for the Best Buddies group that would be held at Trinity Lutheran Church, located at 292 Orange Street.
By 8:30pm, the pizza party was over and Suzanne had stayed to help clean up. Suzanne would drive another Best Buddies volunteer home in a borrowed Yale University station wagon. At around 8:45pm on December 4, Suzanne returned the car to the Yale owned lot at the corner of Edgewood Ave and Howe St. From there, it was about a two block walk to Suzanne's off campus apartment on Park Street, where she lived on the second floor of the building. The ground floor was occupied by a Yale Police Department substation.
Shortly after arriving home, some of Suzanne's friends stopped by to see if she wanted to go see a movie--Suzanne declined, stating that she wanted to get some schoolwork done. A little after 9pm, Suzanne logged into her school email account and wrote an email to a female friend in German about leaving some GRE books for her in the lobby of Suzanne's building. Suzanne provided the access code for the door, and said that she just needed to get the books back from an unnamed person. This person who had Suzanne's books remains unknown. Suzanne would log off her email at around 9:10pm.
Apparently calls made within Yale's telephone system were not traceable at the time, so it's unknown if Suzanne made any calls. She did leave her apartment though, this time to return the keys to the university station wagon. Suzanne was seen walking to the university lot by a classmate between 9:20-9:25, who spoke with Suzanne for a few moments. This classmate would later report that Suzanne said she was going to drop off the keys and then go straight home because she was tired. The classmate also stated that Suzanne didn't have anything with her expect a sheet of paper, and she seemed normal (no walking fast or looking behind her like she was scared or in a hurry). A few minutes (around 9:30) after Suzanne spoke with her classmate, she was seen again by another student who was walking home from a hockey game. This person also said Suzanne seemed okay, and even paused to look at some holiday lights. Suzanne never made it back to her apartment.
At 9:55, a passerby called 911 to report a woman was bleeding on Edgehill Road, 1.9 miles from the Yale campus. It was Suzanne Jovin, she was laying "on the grass between the sidewalk and the road." By the time emergency services arrived, she was dead, having been stabbed 17 times and her throat was slit. The coroner would later state that Suzanne had NOT been sexually assaulted and since she wasn't carrying a lot with her, but still had on her watch and earrings, so she wasn't robbed. The tip of the knife was lodged in Suzanne's skull. The first suspect was Suzanne's boyfriend Roman Caudillo, a fellow student at Yale. However, Roman was on a train coming back from New York City so he was ruled out quickly.
Now the New Haven police quickly zeroed in on a suspect after the boyfriend was eliminated: James Van de Velde, Suzanne's thesis advisor. Van de Velde had a Ph.D. from Tufts and did his undergraduate work from Yale in political science, he'd also done research in Asia, and he was considered to be "by the book," and "affable." When Yale hired him, he had good reviews from students about his advising skills. At the start of the fall term, Suzanne was excited to be in his seminar class. But as the fall term went on, she became less excited, she told her family and some friends that Van de Velde didn't seem to have time to discuss her thesis in depth and seemed to be "blowing her off."
Van de Velde was brought into questioning after Suzanne's murder, where he denied that he did anything to Suzanne. But because the police considered him to be such a strong suspect, Yale canceled his spring classes and would essentially let him go. However, although the police considered Van de Velde the strongest suspect, there was no motive as to why he'd kill Suzanne, there was no physical evidence linking Van de Velde to the case. It seemed like it was Suzanne who had the problem with Van de Velde...but not enough to drop his class or him as an advisor.
In 2001, Van de Velde sued the New Haven police department and Yale University for wrongful termination and violating his civil rights by publicly naming him as a suspect. This lawsuit wasn't settled until 2013 for an undisclosed monetary amount. In 2013, Van de Velde was officially cleared as a suspect in Suzanne's case but never got an official apology for making his life difficult for 15 years.
In the years that followed, Suzanne's case went to the cold case unit. In 2001, it was revealed that Suzanne had DNA under her fingernails. At the time of the murder, a Fresca soda can was found in bushes near the crime scene. This can had Suzanne's fingerprints on it, but only one store in the area sold Fresca--Krausser's Market on York Street, but the employees of this store weren't interviewed so it's unclear if the soda actually came from that store.
A new witness also came forward in the years after Suzanne's murder. A woman driving in her car on Whitney Ave (not far from Edgehill where Suzanne was found) said that a man whom she didn't know pressed his face against her passenger side window, said nothing to her and then ran away down the street. The woman "didn’t catch much of his facial features but noticed he was white, muscular, and wore a loose green jacket." It remains unclear who this man was, but this woman saw him around the time Suzanne was killed, so authorities would like to speak to him.
There are no clear answers in Suzanne Jovin's case, and with Van de Velde and her boyfriend cleared, there aren't any clear suspects either. Expect for the "running man," as the police have dubbed him, there is a sketch of this man and he's still wanted for questioning in the case.
https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-tragic-ivy-league-murder-of-suzanne-jovin-283811c93b6
https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1999/08/yale-murder199908
https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Jovin-murder-mystery-continues-20-years-later-13438017.php
https://portal.ct.gov/DCJ/Programs/Programs/Suzanne-Jovin-Homicide-Investigation-Team
https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/2184-new-leads-in-a-cold-case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Suzanne_Jovin
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/cold-case-of-the-week-the-1998-murder-of-yale-student-suzanne-jovin
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This is a brilliant write-up.