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Pastimes : Murder Mystery: Who Killed Yale Student Suzanne Jovin? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Janice Shell who wrote (268)	1/12/2000 3:19:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 1397

It was Friday night; big game, lots of parties. What if Suzanne's friend had told her she was going out and wouldn't be back till after midnight? Yes, that makes perfect sense. You know, it just dawned on me, I should contact this person to see if Suzanne's actions were at least perceived by her to be out of character or not. It's possible she might say "we routinely leave things for each other in her lobby", or she may say "Suzanne would never have done something that impersonal unless she knew she'd be away when I was planning to come over." But I'm saying that in this scenario she never exited through Phelps Gate. The "witness" didn't really see her on College St; if she saw anyone, it was just a woman who looked like Suzanne. Suzanne would merely have turned round and walked back across campus. This person's name has never been mentioned in print. This is not consistent with an attention-seeker. The key question is what this witness could reasonably have known from the media prior to calling the police. We know that she placed Suzanne right where we would expect her to be at a time consistent with when she purportedly dropped off the keys at Phelps Gate. So, to shed light on this, I went back to the early news reports to see just what had been written and when. The first article in the Yale Daily News was on the day after, 12/5/98 (http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/ArchivedArticle.asp?type=live&AID=207). I note with interest the part that reads: "Sources close to the investigation said Jovin returned keys to a Dwight Hall car at Phelps Gate at 9:30pm that evening, half an hour before she was found." The reason I think this is interesting is because the source must have been someone from the police substation whereas in later articles we never see mention of any such time. It's like there's a gap between when Stein saw her and the mysterious second witness. Peter Stein is first mentioned on 12/8, the next publication date of the YDN (http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/ArchivedArticle.asp?type=live&AID=209) so presumably he was interviewed the day before. Note that no mention is made of her clothing. On 12/9 we first see mention of the second witness: "Jovin was last seen between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. on College Street walking north toward Elm Street." The next sentence is the first mention of her clothing: "She was wearing a maroon fleece coat, blue jeans and casual boots, [NH Police Captain Brian] Sullivan said." The New Haven Register first reported details of the case on 12/7. The article quotes the YDN story that was published on 12/5 with the added statement 'Yale officials could not confirm this report. "All we know was that the car was returned to the lot and the keys were returned to the campus police," said Avni Gupti, Dwight Hall's cabinet coordinator." The Register doesn't make a single mention of the second witness in any story I checked (up to 1/14/98). On the one hand it's appalling how little information they seemed to have gotten on their own, but on the other hand they certainly did do a good job of attending and reporting what the police said in briefings. The most interesting line I read was on 1/28/99: "Since the murder in the city's East Rock section, police have interviewed some 150 of Jovin's classmates, teachers, and friends as well as at least four local television reporters." Note how they very clearly don't say they went into local neighborhoods and asked around nor is there any plea for information from said group. So, in conclusion, given a) the early ID from this person, b) that she shied away from publicity, c) no mention of clothing was given in any published source, and d) she was a student who apparently knew Jovin and not someone who just saw her picture in the paper, I'd have to conclude her ID of Jovin on College Street is credible. - Jeff