Re: 4/20/00 - Tests on hair linked to Jovin murder inconclusive
Tests on hair linked to Jovin murder inconclusive
(New Haven-AP, Apr. 20, 2000) Cat hairs found on the jacket of a slain Yale University student could not be analyzed for clues into her killing, the scientist who studied the hairs said Thursday.
Meanwhile, city police who are trying to find the killer of Suzanne Jovin say there is no need for renowned forensics expert Henry Lee to do a reconstruction of the scene.
The only named suspect in the case, former Yale lecturer James Van de Velde, again in writing Thursday maintained his innocence and criticized the way the New Haven Police, Yale and news media have handled the case.
New Haven Police Capt. Brian Sullivan would not comment on Van de Velde's statements, or on a report on the cat hair analysis done by the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Institutes of Health.
Stephen O'Brien, the director of the of the laboratory, said the wispy hairs they tested did not yield any information.
"We extracted the DNA and spent a lot of time on it, but unfortunately, we weren't able to get any DNA out of the hairs," O'Brien said. "We worked very hard to, and if there were any DNA there we would have gotten it."
The hairs were returned to investigators in December.
Jovin had a cat, Lee said, but the tests were being done to see if these hairs matched the hair from her cat or some other cat. Lee said he did not know if any suspects in the case had cats.
"It's a very important part of the case," Lee said, adding that the hairs are important because there is little physical evidence to go on to solve Jovin's killing.
He said more tests could be done if technology improves.
Cat DNA data generated by O'Brien was first entered into evidence in a 1995 New Brunswick, Canada, murder case.
Lee said in December he planned to reconstruct the scene where Jovin was killed _ a well-to-do residential neighborhood a few blocks from the Yale campus.
He said, however, he could not do a reconstruction unless police were able to put together more facts about the killing.
"You cannot reconstruct the abstract. You have to have physical evidence," Lee said.
Sullivan said Thursday that the case remains active, but there is no need to do a reconstruction. Lee has canvassed the area with police before.
"We've pretty much gone over that scene," Sullivan said.
Jovin, 21, was a senior political science major whose parents live in Germany. She died Dec. 4, 1998 from 17 stab wounds in the back and neck.
Neighbors reported hearing shouting, as though a couple were arguing, minutes before the body was discovered, but police said there were no witnesses to the stabbing.
Van de Velde has asked the New Haven Police to clear his name, and for the state police or the FBI to take up the case. In responding by e-mail to questions from the Yale Daily News, Van de Velde said the case is a "fiasco."
"The case may be officially `open' but the police are not `investigating' anything and have been misleading the community about this case from the very beginning," Van de Velde wrote in an article published Thursday.
"It has been 16 months now and, of course, nothing was uncovered to link me to his horrific crime, not even logical speculation," he wrote. "The police know well that I had nothing to do with this heinous crime but hide behind me to protect themselves from exposing the fact that they botched the investigation."
wtnh.com
Also: msnbc.com |
