Re: 12/4/12 - UK Daily Mail: Desperate parents of Yale student search for justice 14 years after their daughter was brutally stabbed to death
Desperate parents of Yale student search for justice 14 years after their daughter was brutally stabbed to death
By Leslie Larson
PUBLISHED:14:45 EST, 4 December 2012
UPDATED:16:34 EST, 4 December 2012
14 years after the brutal stabbing of Yale senior Suzanne Jovin, her distraught parents are still holding on to hope that the perpetrator of the horrific crime will be brought to justice.
The 21-year-old, a senior at the Ivy League school in New Haven, Connecticut, was stabbed 17 times in the back of the head and neck on December 4, 1998 in a serene neighborhood near the university but police have still not discovered the person behind the heinous killing.
Investigators are still no closer to catching her murderer but on the anniversary of their daughter's death, the Jovins have reaffirmed their faith that one day the case will be solved.
Cold case: Yale student Suzanne Jovin was brutally stabbed to death 17 times on December 4, 1998
Thomas and Donna Jovin said in a statement on Tuesday, 'We continue to hope that the case will be solved, even after the passage of 14 years,' according to the Hartford Courant.
The parents spoke out 14-years to the day that their daughter's promising future was cut short in an unspeakable crime that remains unsolved.
The Political Science major, an American born in Germany, was fluent in four languages, sang in the Bach Society Orchestra, had co-founded Yale’s German club and invested her time volunteering with programs to tutor inner-city students and help mentally challenged adults.
On that fateful Friday, Suzanne Jovin had spent much of the night organizing a social event for Best Buddies, an organization that pairs college students with mentally disabled adults. She had been volunteering with the group since her freshman year.
Serene: The bloodied body of the 21-year-old Yale student was found on the corner of Edgehill and East Rock Road in New Haven, Conn. (pictured November 2007)
After the event wrapped up, she returned to her apartment at around 8:45pm. Friends had seen Jovin in her room at that time and invited her to join them for a movie but she had declined saying she needed to hit the books.
But at 9:25pm, she was spotted leaving the campus near Phelps Gate, the main entrance to Yale.
Less than an hour later, at 9:55pm her bloodied body was discovered by residents in a quiet neighborhood near campus.
Though the young woman was killed in an upscale area, relatively early in the evening, there were no witnesses to the crime and no significant clues that have led police to a prime suspect.
Area residents said they heard a man and woman arguing shortly before they heard a woman screaming. Minutes later Jovin's body was discovered.
Investigators have said they believe the student knew her killer, who most likely approached the girl from behind. The killer, who they believe to be male, forcefully stabbed Jovin 17-times, thrusting the knife into her skull so severely that the tip of the knife broke off and was lodged in her head. The killer also slit her throat.
'We have lights on every single street here. … It’s not secluded. I just couldn’t imagine that anything like that could happen, number one in the neighborhood and then certainly not there,' LaJeune Oxley, a resident who lives at the corner of Edgehill and East Rock Roads where Jovin's body was found, told Vanity Fair in 2007.
Professor: James Van de Velde was investigated as a suspect in the stabbing death of Suzanne Jovin but was never charged
Police had investigated men who were connected to the victim including Jovin's longtime boyfriend, Roman Caudillo, and her professor, James Van de Velde, whose house was located a half-mile from the crime scene.
Jovin was writing her senior thesis on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Van de Velde was her faculty adviser on the project.
The academic was a member of the U.S. Naval Intelligence Reserves and and taught classes at Yale on international relations.
But throughout the semester, Jovin expressed her frustration with her professor for his lack of attention to her work.
'Suzanne indicated to us during the Thanksgiving break...how deeply she resented the lack of mentoring by this senior thesis adviser,' her parents had told Vanity Fair about their daughter's relationship with Van de Velde.
A media storm erupted when speculation emerged that police were investigating Van de Velde and someone connected to the investigation leaked to the press that he was among the people investigators had included in their pool of suspects.
The university cancelled the professor's classes but allowed him to stay on the faculty to conduct research. He left of his own volition, saying his reputation had been ruined.
He has sued the NHPD and Yale for naming him as a suspect, with his attorneys claiming the man 'was thrown to the wolves.'
His lawyer, David T. Grudberg, told the MailOnline the lawsuit is still pending
Meanwhile, Jovin's murder case has gone cold but is still under review by a team of retired police detectives who volunteer their time to review tips.
'For us, there remains a void in our life that can never be filled,' her family has said.
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