This Yale University Senior Was Fatally Stabbed 17 Times After Leaving A Pizza Party And Her Case Has Remained Cold For Nearly 25 Years Now, Although There Are A Few Leads

By Katharina Buczek Sep 02, 2022

In 1977, Suzanne Jovin was born in Germany, and by 1998, she was a senior attending the prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Her friends and family knew Suzanne as a kind-hearted, extremely intelligent, witty, and bold person.

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But everything changed on the chilly day of December 4, 1998. Suzanne had just attended a pizza party she organized for Best Buddies– a peer support program that fostered relationships between students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and students without IDD.

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And after the event, she was last seen at 9:10 p.m. near Yale's Phelps Gate before walking north on College Street.

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Then, about twenty-five minutes later, Suzanne was found in an upscale residential area of New Haven, about two miles away from campus, fighting for her life. She had suffered seventeen stab wounds to her back and head.

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Authorities immediately launched an extensive investigation, and Suzanne's case gained national news coverage.

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But, despite extensive crime scene analysis, person-of-interest questioning, and even rallying a retired detective task force to specifically handle her case, justice has never been served.

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It has now been nearly twenty-five years since Suzanne's brutal murder, and there are still numerous questions left unanswered.

20992673 514152882259860 6455164029587337322 n Facebook - pictured above is a photo of Suzanne at the pizza party the night she was murdered

However, authorities have issued pleas to the public for help with two such questions.

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The first concerns an e-mail message sent by Suzanne just fifty-four minutes before her murder. A friend had inquired about study materials for the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) and asked her to borrow them.

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Suzanne responded that she had lent the materials to another unnamed person. But, she pledged to retrieve the items and leave them in her apartment building's foyer.

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Detectives are now asking anyone with information regarding who that unnamed person was and if Suzanne ever met them that night to please come forward.

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The second plea involves a local woman who was driving north on Whitney Avenue just before 10:00 p.m on December 4, 1998.

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The woman had told police that a man bolted in front of her car, glanced at her quickly, and then fled.

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A police sketch of the man has since been drawn up, and investigators are asking anyone– especially alumni– with insight regarding either of these leads to contact them immediately.

Screen Shot 2022 09 02 at 2.56.38 PM Connecticut State's Attorney's Office - pictured above is the sketch of the man

"We are interested in all available information or leads, no matter how remote or trivial that information may seem," the Connecticut State Division of Criminal Justice said.

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"We want to hear from anyone who has heard something, seen something, or who may even have repressed the knowledge of something that could be related to the murder of Ms. Jovin."

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The State of Connecticut has offered a fifty thousand dollar reward for anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Suzanne's murderer. Yale University has also pledged an additional one hundred thousand dollar reward.

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To contact the Suzanne Jovin Homicide Investigation Team with any information, call the Connecticut State Division of Criminal Justice at (866) 623-8058. Or, to show your support to Suzanne's loved ones and remain updated on the case, you can visit the Suzanne Jovin Memorial on Facebook.

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By Katharina Buczek Sep 02, 2022

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