James,
First of all, again, thanks for taking an interest to help try to solve this case. I'll do my best to try and address your possible scenario involving Professor James Van de Velde. However, as I detailed in my prior post to you, it's impossible to disprove an innocent person with no alibi did something, but at least one can try to show the likelihood of something to be quite small.
Your premise is:
Unknown to anyone Jim was madly in love with Suzanne. He fantasized about her day and night. He asked her repeatedly to go out with him but was rejected every time.
First, Suzanne kept a diary. Suzanne had a close relationship with her family. She had a boyfriend. Her own family describes her as someone unafraid to speak her mind. Surely if any professor were hitting on her she'd have told someone, right? She didn't. Not even her diary. Second, recall that Jim had spent many years as a College Master where he actually lived with the students. No problems, no complaints. And third, recall that the reason Suzanne was purported to be mad at Jim was because he was not able to discuss Suzanne's thesis on the day they had planned. Wouldn't someone who fantasized about someone day and night want to see them every chance possible, i.e. find excuses to get together more often?
Next you write:
Finally in a stupid act of desperation, on 12/4/98, he told SJ that she would receive a much better grade on her thesis if she agreed to go out with him. Suzanne lost her temper and told Jim he was creep and wouldn't go out with him even if he was the last man on earth. Then she told Jim that she was going to see the dean on Monday and report what he said about giving her a better grade (sex for an "A").
First, in order for your story to hold up until this point, Suzanne would have had to have a) not told anyone anything about her situation, and probably b) been threatened not to tell anyone. I can't fathom a student keeping such a situation totally top secret unless they felt their life were in jeopardy. If so, the last thing they would do is tell the person who threatened them they planned to report them! Second, did all this transpire before or after she handed in her thesis? If before, why not confront her when she stopped by that day? If after, why tell her after she's left?
Your conclusion is:
Now Jim started to worry. What if his career was ruined permanently? He decided he must see SJ right away and try to reason with her. If she wouldn't listen to reason then he would have to kill her.
After all that's transpired, we'd still have to be talking about something kept top-secret here. Even if she swore on a bible to Jim she hadn't told a soul, how could Jim be absolutely sure she were telling the truth? If she indeed had told someone, what would be worse for his career: his word against hers on an internal complaint, or he being the #1 suspect in her murder based on whoever she told telling that to the police?
So, in conclusion, yes, your scenario is possible, but very very unlikely, IMO. Along the same lines, I'd also venture to say we could substitute any other professor, student, or townie and reach the same low probability explanation for the murder. This is one major reason I don't feel this was a crime of passion.
- Jeff |
