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

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (510)	3/4/2000 7:55:00 PM
From: James R. Barrett	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1397

Analysis of the knife. According to the police the knife had a blade length of 3-1/2" to 4-1/2" and was made from carbon steel. This is rather large for an ordinary pocket knife and too small to be a hunting knife. It sounds to me like it was one those large folding knives with a blade that locks when opened and is usually carried in a small "holster" on a man's belt. I'm sure you've seen hundreds of men wearing them. I mentioned the locking blade because that is very important. Trying to stab someone (or something hard like a skull) with an ordinary folding knife is very dangerous to the person wielding the knife. When you stab something hard the blade has a tendency to fold back into the handle and severely cut that person's hand. I know this from personal experience. A knife that locks in the open position will not do that. You must depress a lever on the back of the handle in order to close the blade. I happen to own one of these knives. I don't know where the cops got the idea that the killer had to know Suzanne just because the killer stabbed her 17 times. The killer stabbed her 17 times simply because she did not die right away after the first three or four stabs to the head and back. She was probably screaming and trying to run while he was stabbing her. If he had cut her throat first she would have sunk into unconsciousness in less than 30 seconds. Severing the carotid artery shuts off all oxygen to the brain. Also the blood would have poured down her windpipe and prevented her from screaming.

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (510)	3/4/2000 8:02:00 PM
From: Janice Shell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1397

Now we know the blade is 4-5 inches and non-serrated. Is that type of material used in a kitchen knife? Absolutely. I have two that answer precisely to that description. Five inches rather than four, though; damn I'm getting nerdy, just measured one. Exactly five inches. Very sharp point. Probably it could easily be broken. And WHOOOAAAA. A blade four to five inches long isn't small by any means. I doubt most pocket knives have blades longer than three inches. Of course we need to check this out. As I said: I've got two small kitchen knives, French manufacture, Sabatier style, carbon steel. Blades exactly five inches long. They're not exactly something you'd carry about in your pocket. I think it says that whoever did this didn't set out to kill anyone that night. If they had, I think they'd have brought along a much bigger knife. How? My main kitchen knife, also carbon steel, is a really magnificent Henckel with an eight inch blade. Not exactly something you stick in your pocket. I've owned it for nearly 20 years, and I've only had it sharpened twice. Knife people go crazy when they see it. But that's another story. My, ah, point is: knives that big are really a problem to carry around. Put 'em in a bag and they'll cut holes in it. See what I mean? We need to know if the knife was a folding knife. If so, I very much doubt it had a five inch blade. Even four is quite unlikely.