Re: 12/1/07 - New Haven Register: Investigators renew search for killer of Yale student
Investigators renew search for killer of Yale student
By Randall Beach, Register Staff
Posted on Sat, Dec 1, 2007
NEW HAVEN — The head of a four-man investigative team said Friday they are making a fresh start in the effort to find the killer of Yale student Suzanne Jovin, and he appealed to the public for help.
The crowded news conference on the sidewalk outside superior court on Church Street also featured an emotional appeal from Jovin’s sister, Ellen Jovin, who said, “Not knowing what happened that night is devastating, and compounds the loss.”
“We grieve for her every day,” Jovin said of her family as she struggled to compose herself. “If anyone out there knows what happened, please do not let one more day go by. Please call.”
Her sister was just 21 when she was stabbed 17 times and left mortally wounded near the corner of East Rock and Edgehill roads on Dec. 4, 1998.
John Mannion, a former head of the state police Central Major Crime Unit, was introduced Friday as the leader of the four-person team.
“This murder case is revigored and renewed,” he told reporters. “We ask input from anybody who has information. Those who might have a repressed memory or something deep in their soul, please reach out to us.”
Assistant State’s Attorney James Clark read a statement on the letterhead of State’s Attorney Michael Dearington, promising the four retired officers will be given full independence from all authorities.
“They will re-evaluate existing information from all prior inquiries into the slaying and also seek out new information,” Clark said. “This effort can be effective only if no assumptions are made about the crime or the identity of those responsible.”
Clark added, “The idea is to approach the case as if it were brand new. Therefore, no person is a suspect in the crime, and everyone is a suspect in the crime.”
When Clark was asked whether James Van de Velde, the only named suspect in the case is still a suspect, he repeated his “no person is” and “everyone is” statement.
Van de Velde, now a security affairs consultant near Washington, D.C., has not responded to requests for comment. But his attorney, David Grudberg said after the news conference, “If in fact this is to be a fresh start by an independent team, we welcome it.”
Grudberg added, however, “To say now, after all that has happened in this case, that ‘no person is a suspect and everyone is a suspect’ is a classic case of locking the barn door tight after all the cows have come out. My client can’t get a fresh start to his life. He can’t hit a magic rewind button and find himself teaching at Yale again. Irreparable damage has been done to him.”
Grudberg, who said neither he nor Van de Velde has been contacted by the team, stated, “They have to go farther than they went today. They have to clear him. If in fact this new team is taking a fresh look and starting from scratch, it should take a very short time for them to reach the conclusion that this was badly botched by the New Haven Police Department, who focused wrongly on James Van de Velde and ignored critical hard evidence that might have solved the case.”
During the news conference, Clark issued a reminder that there remains a $150,000 reward for anybody who provides information leading to the conviction of Jovin’s killer. Yale University has committed $100,000 of that total and the state has offered $50,000.
The telephone number for the Jovin investigation team is (203) 676-1575. The team’s e-mail address is jovincase@gmail.com and its mailing address is: Jovin Investigation Team, 234 Church St., Room 402, New Haven, 06510.
The team was formed last June at Dearington’s and Clark’s request and began its work in July. In addition to Mannion, team members are Patrick Gaffney, a former detective and sergeant in the Central Major Crime Unit; Richard Wardell, a former detective on the Eastern Major Crime Squad; and Joseph Sudol, who was a detective in the Central Major Crime Squad and commanding officer at the state’s Forensic Science Laboratory.
Mannion said the team’s existence had been kept secret because “we wanted to remain in the background.” Clark said the news conference was finally held to unveil the team because the four members wanted to appeal to the public for help and the ninth anniversary of Jovin’s murder is imminent.
Clark said the team will present its conclusions to him at an unspecified timetable.
Clark also disclosed the four men (who presumably are drawing state pensions) have volunteered to work on the Jovin case for $1 per year.
He said the case was returned to New Haven from the state Cold Case Unit last summer because the CCU “has many, many cases and not enough staff.” Clark added, “We have more resources than they do.”
Dearington transferred the case to the CCU in September 2006. Van de Velde and freelance journalist Donald Connery several weeks ago questioned whether the CCU was actively investigating the case.
After the news conference, which Connery attended, he said, “At least and at last, something is happening.”
David Cameron, a Yale political science professor who knows Van de Velde and has long criticized the police investigation, said afterward, “It’s good to have new pairs of eyes on this case. They (NHPD) focused on Jim very early and that caused them to not go down many avenues. These new guys presumably won’t have that fixation.”
Randall Beach can be reached at rbeach@nhregister.com or 789-5766.
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