Re: 12/8/99 - Police chief reports little progress in Jovin slaying
Police chief reports little progress in Jovin slaying
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BY MICHAEL KOLBER
YDN Staff Reporter
Published 12/8/99
Marking the one-year anniversary of Suzanne Jovin's '99 murder, New Haven Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing spoke to reporters Friday, but had little new information to disclose.
Initially, police suspected more than 15 people in the murder, Wearing said, but by last week they had narrowed that number to "more than five" or "more than 10." Wearing would not identify the suspects, other than former political science lecturer, James Van de Velde, who had been previously named.
The well-rehearsed press conference at the New Haven Police Academy attracted state and national reporters, but the gathering was significant more for the extent of time elapsed since the murder than for the content of Wearing's statements.
Wearing said police have not been able to eliminate Van de Velde, Jovin's senior thesis advisor, as a suspect and would like him to take a lie detector test.
When media reports first appeared naming Van de Velde as a suspect, the former lecturer offered to undertake a lie detector test and to provide blood samples. The police declined the invitation then, but now Van de Velde attorney David Grudberg said the offer is no longer on the table.
"Jim offered on day one to submit to a polygraph and blood tests and to help in any way he could," Grudberg said. "The police declined his offer and instead have dragged his name through the mud for a year. The police continue to single him out and refuse to identify any other suspect from what they admit is a large pool. It's a little late in the day for the police to expect Jim to trust them."
Being labeled as a suspect has ruined Van de Velde's life, the former lecturer said, despite the fact that police have not discussed publicly any evidence linking him to the murder. Van de Velde blamed police and the University for leaking the news that he was a suspect.
Both the University and police deny leaking the original information. Wearing said police were responding to media reports when they confirmed that Van de Velde was in a pool of suspects.
Van de Velde, in a written statement last week, called for the New Haven Police to turn over its investigation to state or federal authorities.
Wearing said Friday he welcomed the input of other police agencies -- state Public Safety Commissioner Henry Lee, a renowned forensic expert, recently joined the investigation -- but that New Haven Police would not relinquish control of the case.
"I'm optimistic that we're going to solve the case," Wearing said.
Of the 15 murders committed in New Haven in 1998, only two, including the Jovin case, have not been solved. Two police detectives are assigned full-time to the case, Wearing said.
Jovin, a political science major, was found dying from multiple stab wounds at the corner of Edgehill Avenue and East Rock Road around 10 p.m. on Dec. 4, 1998.
The University canceled Van de Velde's spring term classes after police told Yale officials that the lecturer was in the pool of suspects. His one-year teaching contract was not renewed.
Wearing said the department remains committed to solving the case, and has not become "tunnel-visioned" on Van de Velde.
"If we have to ruffle some feathers, disrupt some people's careers, we will," Wearing said.
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