A Parent's Nightmare: The Murder of Suzanne Jovin

It's a murder that haunts a city. 

A bright, beautiful young student is taken from the heart of Yale campus and 25 minutes later is found dead on the side of a darkened street. 

It happened  26 years ago yet the case is still unsolved despite massive resources being poured into it and a huge controversy around the police investigation.

In a special episode, CrimeWaves, investigates what happened that night...

#TrueCrimepodcast #ColdCase #TrueCrimemystery 

Please subscribe, rate, review or like this episode of CrimeWaves at YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.  
For more information on CrimeWaves please see - 
www.crimewavespodcast.com
www.declanhill.com
Twitter: declan_hill

Transcript

A Parent's Nightmare:  The Murder of Suzanne Jovin

Declan Hill:

It's a case that haunts a community here in the city of New Haven. 

When you start talking about cold cases, it doesn't take more than a few seconds before the story of Suzanne Joven is told. It's a parent's nightmare. Bright, beautiful young student is taken from the heart of Yale campus. And 25 minutes later is found dead on the side of a darkened street.

Two days later, the case is still unsolved despite massive resources being poured into it. And a huge controversy around the police investigation. Welcome to crime waves.[00:01:00] 

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, wherever you are in the world. We hope you are in the light and that we can move your mind with this episode of crime waves. This is a special episode. One of the joys of working as a professor on the podcast is getting to work with amazing students. So in this episode, we're going to show you one of those students hosting the show and others asking her questions as a sample of what many of our classes are like.

This specific episode is guest hosted by By my brilliant student, Emily Hinternader. She's a student of forensic psychology. She's just returned from a six month study abroad trip in Italy and threw herself. into the research on this particular case over the last few months. Her work has been very good, thorough and precise.

And I think you're going [00:02:00] to enjoy this. This is real independent research work, very rare in North American classrooms. So you're still going to hear me interviewing, but it's the students who've done the hard work here. They've researched this case. They've watched countless videos, they've read documents, and they've also staged a reconstruction of the scene at the same time and almost the same date of the murder.

Now, we broadcast this special edition partly to show you what it's like putting together a Crime Waves episode, but also because we were genuinely moved by this case of a young student here in our city and her unsolved murder. December the 4th, 1998.

[00:03:00] Yale University campus. On that night, a 21 year old college student, Suzanne Joven, was found dead on the streets of New Haven, over two miles away from where she was last seen. Earlier that night, she had hosted a pizza party for Best Buddies, because she was an avid volunteer for them. And then after the event, she drove a Yale University van around New Haven to drop off different volunteers.

And then she went and dropped off the van, which was about a block from her apartment, walked back to her apartment, and she sent an email to her friend to let her know that she was going to leave GRE books for her in the lobby of her apartment once they'd been returned. Let's talk our way through that because, because she was a, a super bright, beautiful, extraordinarily talented person.

So tell us a little bit about who Suzanne Joven was. Suzanne Joven was originally born in Germany to two doctors. [00:04:00] She was a double major at Yale in international studies and political science, and she was working on a thesis about Osama bin Laden and the terrorist threat to U. S. security. Her parents said that her goal was to fight global terrorism.

She also had a pretty rich extracurricular activity as well. She was, she was president of the German club. She volunteered for the best buddies program. It's an organization that brings together students and adults with mental disabilities. So she would host different events with them, trying to foster that friendship and sense of community.

She also volunteered as a tutor. for elementary schools. She sang with an orchestra and she worked part time in the dining hall at Yale. She was a very active person socially. Wow. Talk us through that last afternoon of her life because I think that's illustrative of what an extraordinary woman she was.

So she [00:05:00] started her day very early and she was working on her senior thesis and she spent several hours working on it and then stopped by her advisor's office to drop that off. After she dropped it off, she got ready for an event that she was hosting with Best Buddies, and then she borrowed a van and drove around the city to pick up different volunteers to bring them to the event.

The event was a pizza party, and from reports of the event, everyone seemed to have a great time. And after the event, she drove the volunteers back home and then returned the van to a parking lot near her apartment. This is a young woman who spent A good chunk of her day driving other volunteers around, meet, I think it was in a church basement, has a pizza party with challenged adults and young Yale students and volunteers.

So she's really quite an extra, you know, to do that at 21, to take a [00:06:00] leadership role like that, um, shows an exceptional person. Yeah, she really was such a sweet person. There was a couple of reports of some of her friends stopped by her house on their way to a party and they all asked her to come out with them and she told them that she wasn't interested.

She was, would rather go to bed for the night. Now that is around nine o'clock. So let's go through this last fateful half an hour of this brilliant person's life. What does she do between nine and nine thirty? Around nine, she sent an email to her friend telling her she was going to leave some GRE books for her in the lobby of her apartment, but she had to get them returned from some unnamed person.

Um, then she logs out of her emails and around nine, 10, she left her apartment and walked to Phelps gate. Which is where she was supposed to drop off the car key. She [00:07:00] was seen there at 30 by a couple of classmates, one of whom interacted with her, and she told that classmate that she was going to go back home after and was excited to get some sleep.

Um, and then she was seen at 9 30 for the last time headed north on college street.

Give us a sense of what that section of New Haven looks like. So this section of New Haven is a very populated area. The majority of it is covered with the Yale campus, so there's a lot of very pretty old buildings. And right in the center is this big green, which is where she was last seen. She was seen across from this green, headed north.

So it's a very beautiful area, but there are a lot of dangerous Aspects of the city. There is a lot of crime, especially in the center of the city, which is where Yale [00:08:00] is located. And once you're within the walls of Yale, it tends to be a bit more safe because there's a lot more Yale police activity. But the moment you step outside of those gates.

It's just like any other city, and there is a lot of crime. There's a lot of dangerous areas, and there are dark alleys here and there. Yeah, one of the interesting things is when we were at what's called Phelps Gate, which is a classic Yale looking building, uh, with stucco towers and turrets, and I think the Classics Department is there, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

That's one side of the street. The other side of the street is the town green. Where when I first came to New Haven a couple of years ago, there was a shipment of bad drugs, street drugs that were sold to people on the streets. And I think more than 75 people collapsed on that New Haven green. A couple of them died with some kind of fentanyl poisoning, because that particular load of fentanyl being [00:09:00] sold by the street drug pushers was just awful.

And so literally, the green is covered with either corpses or people passing in Tacoma. And 15 yards away, 12 meters, is this beautiful Yale campus. So she is right there. That's, that's where she is sometime between 925 and 930. Then, where is she next seen? She's seen about 20 minutes later, two miles away, in an East Rock community.

Which was this family neighborhood where there's a lot of big homes, a lot of beautiful gardens, just a very nice area. She was found on the side of the road, right next to someone's home, and she was found by a couple who were just out for an evening stroll. What did her body look like? She had been stabbed 17 times in the back of her head, her neck and her back, and [00:10:00] then her throat had been slit.

She was found face down on the side of the road and she had been stabbed hard enough in the head that the tip of the knife had broken off and was lodged into her skull. To recap, she's alive, beautifully full of life. She's spent. The last few hours of her life, giving them in service to mentally and physically challenge people as well as to other Yale students, driving around hosting a pizza party.

She's last seen by her friend saying, I'm going to go home and sleep. And 20 to 25 minutes later, she's found at the side of the road. Talk us through the neighborhood. I mean, is it a dodgy neighborhood? Is it, you know, that's where the drug dealers go? From our personal time walking around there, it was a really beautiful neighborhood.

There were a lot of mansions. There were a lot of very pretty landscaping. It wasn't a place you'd expect to [00:11:00] see any sort of violence like that. It took us having to go a block or two down to even find anywhere that was dark enough. Or sketchy enough where you'd assume crime would happen. It was just such a beautiful area compared to the tragedy that was there.

Yeah, I mean, tragedy. It was a violent, bloody death and her body is dumped literally on the pavement of a mansion.

What, in that neighborhood, it's, it's, it's incredibly well canvassed afterwards by law enforcement. What are some of the suspicious sightings that people see? A couple of people reported hearing an argument between a man and a woman about a block away at an apartment complex. So there's an argument that happens at 945 that somebody hears.

Okay, tell us about another something else that was in that neighborhood at that time. Right around the time she was [00:12:00] found, A woman who was driving her car told the police that she had seen a man running away from that area and then duck into a church parking lot and disappeared into that parking lot.

He was described as A white man in his 20s or 30s with an athletic build, well groomed hair, and he was wearing a green jacket. And so for a while, the police were putting this information out there, and a sketch was done of this person running. Let's make sure that it's clear in our readers minds.

There's some kind of argument. That people hear between a man and a woman at 945, just after 950, somebody sees a young man running hard into a church parking lot, and then he disappears. Is there something else that goes on? A [00:13:00] man reported getting cut off on the road by another man who he described as having an extreme mask of rage.

And he was driving a small, dull red sedan, and he was going south on Prospect Street, which was away from where the crime scene was, driving very frantically. Okay. Now, just a note to all our listeners who, I presume a few of you who have actually driven in New Haven, that's actually not all that rare to see somebody driving with a mask of rage who cuts you off in a dangerous fashion.

New Haven drivers are appalling. It is significant in that it's the timing and it's relatively close to the crime scene of somebody disappearing. However, we're not sure whether Any of these things are linked to the disappearance of Susan, the murder of Susan Joven, or they're linked together. So is the man running into the church parking lot where he gets his red [00:14:00] sedan and drives off after having murdered somebody?

Or was it simply a guy who was jogging and happens to do a shortcut home? So there's a real mystery to this. And not only is there a mystery to this, it's happened at a relatively rich, prosperous area. You've gone from the Yale campus. Which we drove around a couple of nights ago, and it was, it was absolutely packed with people at 9.

30 and quarter to 10. We went at the same time. You pass through another university campus, Albert Magnus. Lots of people, soccer practice just ending. And in front of a mansion, this beautiful person's body is mutilated and dumped there. And the only sightings that we have are these three things. So, in comes the New Haven police, Tell us a little bit, Emily, about their investigation.

So, when they first found her body, they located a Fresca soda bottle near her body that had her fingerprints on it. [00:15:00] Previous witnesses said they hadn't seen her with the bottle, so they're not quite sure where it came from. Her fingerprints are on this soft drink bottle. But nobody at 925 to 930, those key last sightings of Suzanne Joven have seen her indicated that she was drinking a drink.

So not only has she moved physically almost two miles away from her site, not only, and I hate to repeat this, but not only has she been stabbed 17 times and then had her throat cut, But at some point in that 20 minutes, she's also had a drink. So we presume that she got in a car with somebody that she knows.

Is that what the police were thinking? Yeah, so police's initial thought was it had to be someone she knew, because with such a tight time frame, getting her into a car would be a bit [00:16:00] difficult if it was by force. Or if she hadn't known who the person was. Even by force, I mean, as we saw, the streets are quite crowded.

You know, it's not bustling, it's not noon, but there's certainly people, one or two people every minute walking along the streets, if not more, you know, graggles of people. It's not really an area where you would think that a kidnapping could happen. Was there anything about the drive, again, between 925, 930, and 950, 955, that indicates some of the background of the murderer?

It seems as though the murder likely was from or knew the New Haven area because it had been a straight shot and then he took a deliberate turn it appeared because at the end of this road that he turned onto was one of the first dark locations. It was the edge of a big park and this park had a [00:17:00] lot of dark areas where someone could go.

If they were going to have sex in a car, going to do anything violent in that car, it appeared that he was driving the straight shot and then took that turn deliberately. We've

got two clues as to the potential murderer. One is it must have been someone who she feels, Suzanne Joven, feels relatively comfortable to get in the car with and have a soda with, and this person must know New Haven well enough That they knew the one location in downtown New Haven that was relatively isolated, where you could do something in a car.

I hate to be stereotypical, but did Suzanne Jovan have a boyfriend? She did. She had a boyfriend at the time, but he was very quickly ruled out because he had been on a train home from New York City at the same time. [00:18:00] So, The boyfriend's being ruled out, then the police turn their focus to her thesis supervisor.

Talk about that, please. New Haven PD originally suspected her thesis advisor and brought him in for questioning the day after her murder. And the day after that, they brought him in again and interrogated him and showed him photos of her mutilated corpse and were making statements about how she knew what happened or help making statements about how he knew what happened.

Right. Right. Right. Trying to break him down in these things, and then mysteriously, there's a leak to the local paper, the New Haven Register, which must have come from the police department, putting him clearly in the frame, and I'm a former journalist, and it's extraordinary, because it utterly throws the investigation off at that moment.

They all start focusing on the supervisor. Talk a little bit about that, please. Yeah, so when [00:19:00] news came out about him, a lot of news outlets hopped onto it and started to release a bunch of information about how he was linked to the case, how he was not a great man in his previous relationships, and was releasing a lot of negative information about the thief's advisor without police confirmation that he was a suspect.

Somebody clearly in the police department had leaked his name. It's not like the New Haven Register came up with this name by itself. And I want to emphasize this because it shows how premature leaks can really screw up an investigation. And talk us through the lack of physical evidence that ever indicated that it was the thesis supervisor, please.

On her body, they found DNA under her fingernails, which at first didn't match the thesis visor and was later realized that It was contaminated by one of [00:20:00] the state lab workers. So they can never actually identify whose DNA was under her nails. They also got access to his car immediately and gave up his keys.

He said, here's the keys of my car. You can, you can check and they find nothing was found in his car. His car wasn't identified by any of the witnesses. He also offered to give a polygraph. However, he never seemed to have given one. And he offered his blood to be tested against the DNA, which is how they ruled him out, DNA wise.

However, it took them a long time, because from 1998 to 2000, the investigation focused on the thesis supervisor, and it was only after 12, 14 months go past, do they finally have to admit that there's no connection, there's no physical connection between the thesis supervisor and the researcher. [00:21:00] Let's walk our way through what happens to the supervisor and by the way, I'm not going to mention his name because at the end of the day, it seems that there was absolutely no physical evidence linking this particular person with the murder, but talk us through what happens to that supervisor.

Yeah. So a month after he was named a suspect in January of 1999, Yale announced publicly that he was a suspect and he, all of his spring classes were canceled and he was fired from the school. It took him several years to build back up his credibility and be able to work at more universities again. And it was very detrimental to his career.

His reputation and just kind of no kidding. Yeah. One of the students is murdered and he's put in the frame by these people, but it also screws up the investigation because they spend a year focused on [00:22:00] this chap. So that's the early two thousands where you have two private detectives hired by Yale university.

You have the Connecticut State Police doing a major investigation. Finally, in 2006, it becomes a cold case, and it really is a kind of legend here in New Haven. Almost any one of the old timers in New Haven will talk very quickly about the Suzanne Joven case. Her ghost hangs around, because nobody understands what happened in those minutes of terror to this beautiful, bright, brilliant student.

To go from the height of energy and life and to end up dead in front of a mansion two miles away. Emily, talk us through now some of that legend, some of the stuff that you found when you were looking through the case. Yeah, so after the thesis advisory was cleared, [00:23:00] a lot of speculation has been occurring over the last 20 years in the wake of the murder.

A couple of folks came forward and Suggested a potential suspect who they nicknamed Billy to not give away his identity, who had confessed to one of his friends that he was obsessed with the Joven case. And he had a lot of mental health issues. Following his death, his acquaintances at the time went forward to the police with an 11 page summation of what they believe could have happened.

And his possible involvement. However, New Haven police has never officially gone on the record about any. So it likely is. either still being investigated or has been put on the back burner because it's not a viable lead. They may have put that particular one on the lead, but as you found out when we were doing another interview, there's still an [00:24:00] active cold case.

There's still a police officer was signed to this case, digging away at it. We've reached out to him. He's unfortunately not able to speak on this moment on this issue because there is an active investigation. And frankly, having had the investigation jeopardized by a media leak, It's not likely for them to talk at the moment.

So this is the state of this case. 26 years later, the anniversary comes up very soon in a couple of weeks.

This is the point where in our classes, other students contribute their perspective or ask questions or give suggestions. And the first person was a student who's a former star ballerina, now turned forensic psychology student, Chloe Randoso. And her question turned around a reconstruction of the crime and the possible drive that we as a small group exercise had mounted a few days before.[00:25:00] 

How do you believe that going on that drive really influenced the lens that you looked at your research through? really put into perspective how short of a drive it is, how quickly this murder occurred, and just how, how strange the case really is because it's such a populated area. It was such an easy drive.

And yet, no one saw anything, no one reported anything, and she was found murdered in a very violent act. It was, it was a very sad trip to take, but it really put into perspective just how many mysteries this case really held. I think it's made me a lot more cautious of what I'm doing. It makes me realize that, [00:26:00] Even if I think I'm in a safe area, as a young woman who is vulnerable, it can be scary to be alone in a city, and I have realized that there are a lot of precautions that women need to take in these situations.

And it's just being more attentive, being more aware of what's going on. Mikhail, do you have any questions that you'd like to ask Emily as well? Hi, Emily. Yes, I do have one question. It's about like media coverage. When you're actually doing the investigation, Did you have any problems picking out the real information from what was like being said by people?

Because I have a feeling this was heavily covered by the media and people will have a lot of perspectives on it. So did that affect your investigation or did you have problems picking out what was in your timeline versus what people were saying? Yeah. So a lot of the early reportings of the case were all very heavily pointing fingers at the thesis advisor.

[00:27:00] Which made it very difficult to get any information about her specific actions her night and how it unfolded because it was so focused on It's this person. He definitely did it not much else. It barely touched on a motive more than anything It was just like he did it We think he did it. That's all.

Also there were a lot of very strange ideas of what could have happened. For instance, her thesis was on Osama Bin Laden. So a lot of people were convinced for a period of time that it was somehow linked to Osama. Osama bin Laden and his followers, because it was a couple of years before the acts of nine 11.

However, there's been absolutely nothing to compound this and to support that. So there's just been a lot of very. out [00:28:00] there ideas of what might've happened with very little proof. Thank you so much, Emily.

Hey, it's Declan here. Thank you so much for listening to this special edition of Crime Waves about the Suzanne Jovan case. This is the one where the student producers and class presented the show. And those students on this episode did a fantastic job. The senior producer in this case was Emily Hinternader.

Other producers and researchers who helped out were Akeen Akeenwunami, Brian Emerson, Chloe Randozzo, Justyna Skaljardic, Angie Paulus, and Mikhail Tsiprasot. We did this because we wanted to give you, our listeners and viewers, a sense of what it's like to put together an episode of Crime Waves, conversation, questions, and interaction between the students.

It [00:29:00] was our intention to choose the Suzanne Joven case to show that her spirit and her still moves and inspires students two decades after her death. If you liked the program, please subscribe, rate, review, or like us on whatever platform you use for podcasts. It is massively important. And as always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas for new episodes, please let us know.

Thank you today for your time on crime waves.