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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 (1160)	1/5/2004 12:27:39 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1397

A few clarifications... I used to live on Park Street in New Haven (until 1993), the same street on which Suzanne Jovin lived (in 1998). The most direct route to the Yale Coop and the surrounding stores from my apartment was to walk straight down Park Street. Instead, I'd head down York Street, which ran parallel to Park. I just didn't like the stretch of Elm between York and Park, nor the fact I had to cross over Whalley and then a parking lot. Below is a simplification: Whalley Park\ / / -----\--/ /Broadway \/ / York \/ -----x--\----- Elm Here's a more accurate map: mapquest.com The "X" indicates where Krauszers market was, the place Jovin most likely bought her Fresca. I bring this up because even before James Van de Velde and I knew the Fresca bottle existed and thus had no reason to believe she could have made it that far (her last offical sighting being "walking north on College St), we agreed that that was one of only two spots where an abduction scenario would make sense (the other being further up College at the point it became Prospect St and passed by a cemetery). To complete her roundabout way home, she'd have kept walking up Elm and then turned left onto Park. Obviously if we realized a good abduction spot then it follows so likely did the abductors. It would also then follow at least one of the abductors had a good knowledge of New Haven and that such an act was planned in advance (i.e. they just sat and waited like spiders in a web). I know for a fact the New Haven Police only put up reward posters in the vicinity of the Yale campus and where they found Jovin's body. To what degree the NHPD bothered to ask the inner city folk if they knew anything I have no idea. My guess would be that the NHPD would answer the question with something like "if a bunch of kids from the community did it, they wouldn't all keep quiet and someone would tell someone who would tell us; we've heard nothing." This leads me to one of two conclusions: 1) since the focus has been on one person for so long, whatever buzz might have come from the community has long since faded away, or 2) the killer(s) were from outside New Haven. Since I think it more likely than not one wouldn't plan to abduct someone in their home town here they might be recognized, I've always considered the out-of-town killer scenario more probable (though not by much). The problem has always been that I doubt someone coming into New Haven casually (say, to buy drugs) would acquire an intimate knowledge of the streets surrounding Yale. Hence, the idea of a younger Yale hourly employee (such as a cafeteria worker) seems like a good way to explain how someone might be from out of town yet still know the area. However, while it's reasonable to assume the worker may have recognized Jovin, I draw a very rigid line when it comes to surmising that he had targeted/stalked her. All the above pales in comparison to the physical evidence. In other words, the best chance to solve the crime is to concentrate on matching the DNA and fingerprints. Connecticut began collecting DNA from non sex offenders only a few months ago compared to just about every other state in the country. Thus, unfortunately, it might take some time for the database to build up enough entries for a match. The fingerprint, unfortunately, is a partial print. However, since the police admit it doesn't match Van de Velde, it must have some value for matching. Perhaps while it couldn't provide a singular match it could at least be used to gather a pool of hits and then those hits could be thinned out manually for suspects. At the very least, the NHPD should fingerprint the 1998 Krauszer employees who stocked soda to rule out the print belonged to one of them. If it does not, then they should avail themselves of technology that could extract DNA from them and see if said DNA matched that found under Jovin's fingernails. If it does, that to me would be proof positive it belonged to the killer thus finally exonerating Van de Velde scientifically and lifting his five year burden of being guilty until proven innocent. - Jeff