Re: 4/28/00 - Internet Sleuths Tackle Unsolved Killer
Internet Sleuths Tackle Unsolved Killer
By GARY LIBOW
The Hartford Courant
April 28, 2000
NEW HAVEN - Intrigued by a stalled high-profile murder investigation, a group of amateur but highly analytical detectives are brainstorming.
Jeffrey S. Mitchell has initiated an on-line discussion on the SiliconInvestor.com site dealing with the Suzanne Jovin murder case.
Their mission: Identify the person who killed Yale University senior Suzanne Jovin on the unseasonably warm night of Dec. 4, 1998.
A software engineer from Seattle, a housewife from Florida, a surveyor from California and an art historian from Italy are among those sleuthing in a most unlikely place: a popular Web site where investors talk stocks. The intense discussion was initiated at 2:04 a.m. last Dec. 4 in Westport by a computer entrepreneur who enjoys tackling cyberchallenges.
Meet Jeff Mitchell - 39-year-old childhood pal of murder suspect James Van de Velde. Mitchell started the Jovin murder mystery discussion thread in SiliconInvestor.com.
As of Thursday, 756 postings had been logged by more than 30 contributors.
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Read The Messages
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Impressed with the many ``brilliant minds'' he'd encountered on the Internet, Mitchell decided it was logical to tap that energy in the hope of solving the killing and exonerating his friend.
``Essentially, there are just a bunch of people, sitting out there in their underwear in the middle of the night writing messages on the Internet,'' Mitchell said. ``The focus was on looking at the evidence we had and figuring out the most probable scenarios.''
The contributors have scrutinized each and every scarce informational morsel. They seek to resolve a case New Haven police haven't been able to unravel for 16 months, primarily because of a dearth of eyewitnesses and physical evidence.
Jovin's body was found about 10 p.m. at Edgehill and East Rock roads, more than a mile from the Yale campus. Jovin, who grew up in Germany, the daughter of scientists, was stabbed 17 times in the back and neck. The tip of a knife was found lodged in her skull.
New Haven police have named only Van de Velde, Jovin's lecturer and thesis adviser, as a suspect. The police department has never backed off that statement, and Yale declined to extend Van de Velde's teaching contract.
Since then, Van de Velde says, he's had trouble finding work and has had to live with friends and family members. He calls the New Haven police investigation a fiasco and vocally asks that state police or the FBI take over the case.
Mitchell said he's talked extensively to Van de Velde about the case.
``We both agree that even though not a shred of evidence has ever been found that should even make him a suspect - no blood, fiber, fingerprint, motive, etc. - the only way to clear his name is to find the person who actually did it.''
Over in Europe, the case has attracted e-sleuth Janice Shell, 52,who has a track record of exposing bogus businesses. She's earned both her master's degree and doctorate from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York. A 1998 Fortune magazine article knighted her ``queen'' of the cybervigilantes, investors who police online territory to expose and close cyberfrauds.
Since she was burned in an Internet investor scheme a few years ago, Shell has spent considerable time scouring for cyberscams and posting on the SiliconInvestor thread, ``Stocks That Should Be Investigated by the SEC.'' Now, she's also devoting her energies to solving the Jovin killing.
Shell e-mails from Milan that she arrived at the Jovin murder discussion thread a bit late, after 50 or so postings had already been made. Her interest was whetted because of Mitchell, her friend who thinks Van de Velde's life has wrongly been turned upside down.
``I'm Jeff's friend and feel he has good judgment,'' Shell says. ``I also love mysteries.''
Despite her respect for Mitchell, Shell currently discounts his random- violence hypothesis. She thinks it's likely Jovin encountered someone she knew while walking back across campus and ``agreed to go somewhere'' with the person or persons.
Logging in from Seattle, 29-year- old Steven Miale became ``intrigued'' with the Jovin murder thread in early March while searching SiliconInvestor for another thread focusing on the murder of two penny stock brokers.
Like Shell and Mitchell, Miale thinks Van de Velde has been scapegoated. There are no reports of any physical or circumstancial evidence that pinpoints the former Yale lecturer as a suspect, he said.
``The body was likely dumped from a car,'' Miale e-mails. ``This would have been in an area Jim was familiar with, and where the residents were familiar with him. It would have been dumb to dump the body where he could have been seen. Smarter would have been to drive to the woods and bury it, which would have destroyed evidence and delayed an investigation.''
New Haven police Capt. Brian Sullivan, who heads the investigative services division, is familiar with the cyberspace detective work.
``We've been aware of this since the beginning of it. We've been well aware of it, and we do monitor it.'' He declined to comment further on the case.
It's wise for New Haven police to actively look at the e-investigation, says Robert J. Louden, director of the criminal justice center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A retired detective, he knows of no murder case solved in this manner.
``An old phrase is `it might not help, but it doesn't neccessarily hurt,' '' Louden said. ``It's very appropriate the agency is monitoring it. Basically all possible information should be looked at, considered and pursued, as appropriate.''
Thomas Jovin, the victim's father, said in an e-mail that he has looked at some of the 700-plus entries.
``Mitchell is frank about expressing his bias but at the same time careful to post most of what appears in the media of relevance to the case,'' Jovin wrote. ``The replies vary a great deal in form and relevance but some are of interest. Whether Mitchell's goal can be met, namely of identifying the murderer by applying a sort of global intellectual effort appears doubtful. But the forum may well help the investigation in unexpected and important ways.''
Van de Velde could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, David Grudberg, said he thinks the e-discussion format might help police realize his client is innocent.
``We welcome any fresh look at the case and hope that a fresh look will lead people to realize that Jim Van de Velde should never have been named as a suspect, and should be cleared.''
Mitchell thinks the e-discussion will someday pay off.
``I say what's on my mind if I believe it and let the chips fall where they may,'' Mitchell says. ``It all points to random killing.''
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