At about 9:45 p.m. on Dec. 4, 1998, a still-unidentified assailant stabbed Yale University Senior Suzanne Jovin 17 times in the head, neck and back. Less than 15 minutes later, police found her near death at the intersection of East Rock and Edgehill roads, a mile from central campus. The senior was a well liked and respected member of her class. She was active in volunteering and charitable work. The State of Connecticut and Yale University have offered rewards that together are worth a total of $150,000. Originally, Yale Officials publically identified Suzanne’s thesis advisor and at the time Yale Political Science Lecturer, James Van de Velde as a suspect. After years of suspicion, DNA taken from under Suzanne’s fingernails failed to match a sample from Van de Velde’s, thereby lessening the chance that Van de Velde may have been the murderer. The case has embarassed Yale and the New Haven Police department. Did they focus on the wrong person?
July 2008, Police released a sketch of a person seen running from the area near where Jovin had been found murdered within the time frame of her murder. The person of interest was described as blonde haired white male with chiseled features. He was reportedly wearing dark clothes and had on a loose-fitting green-colored jacket. It is over twelve years later and Suzanne’s killer still has not been caught. There are no witnesses and little physical evidence. The last time she was sighted was around 9:20 pm that night, what happened the next 25 minutes remains a mystery.
Witnesses described a brown or tan colored van was sighted near where Suzanne Jovin was last seen alive. If you have any information on this case please contact the New Haven Police Department at 1-866-888-TIPS.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 11th, 2010 at 1:00 pm and is filed under $100,000+, Cold Case, Connecticut, Unsolved Murder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.