Yale Student was Stabbed 17 Times Leaving a Pizza Party – Her Case has Never Been Solved

In December 1998, Yale senior Suzanne Jovin had a shining future, full of possibility. Saturday, December 4 — her last day on Earth — proved a fruitful day. Suzanne began her day by working on graduate school applications to Tufts, Columbia, and Georgetown.

She dropped off a revised version of her senior thesis to her academic advisor, Professor Jim Van de Velde, around 4:00 p.m. She then headed to Trinity Lutheran Church to host a pizza-making party for Best Buddies — an international organization for the mentally disabled and their student partners. Suzanne ran the Yale chapter of Best Buddies.

After finishing party clean-up, shortly before 8:30 p.m, Suzanne gave several volunteers rides home. She dropped off the borrowed Yale car and headed to Old Campus to turn in the keys. At 9:15 p.m, classmate Peter Stein ran into her and recalled her joking about fatigue and a need to go to bed. Peter was the last person who knew Suzanne who would see her alive.

A Life Snuffed Out

Suzanne Jovin was born on January 26, 1977, to molecular scientist Thomas and cell biologist Donna Jovin. The elder Jovins were hired to run the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen, Germany, and raised their family in a 14th century Bavarian Castle. Suzanne enjoyed a childhood full of travel throughout Europe and often vacationed with her grandparents in Mexico.

Suzanne embraced her role as an American in Germany and fluently spoke both English and German. At Theodor-Heuss Gymnasium, the German high school she attended, Suzanne double-majored in biology and chemistry. She gained fluency in four languages and played the piano and cello. Her intelligence and enthusiastic, joyful personality gained her popularity among her classmates. Along with her academic and social achievements, Suzanne exuded coolness — she even sang with several rock bands.

Although Suzanne was a legacy college student — her mom, Donna, earned her Ph.D. at Yale — her acceptance into the Ivy League came from her own merit. And at Yale, she enjoyed the same success she’d experienced in high school. She fit in with her American counterparts and hit the ground running with academic prowess and extracurricular activities.

In her years in New Haven, Suzanne worked in the Davenport Dining Hall, volunteered to tutor elementary school kids, sang in the freshman chorus, and performed with the Bach Society Orchestra. In her free time, she skied, ran, and played squash. She enjoyed a large social circle and somehow found time to develop a serious romance with fellow Yalie, Roman Caudillo. Caudillo was on a train at the time of Suzanne’s murder.

With a double major in International Studies and Political Science, Suzanne dreamed of changing global public policy and eradicating terrorist threats. The senior thesis she spent so much time working on centered on Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and global terrorism.

On December 4, 1998, at 9:55 p.m, a 911 call placed by a passerby on New Haven’s Edgehill Road — 1.9 miles from Yale’s campus — alerted authorities to the bleeding body of a young woman sprawled out on the grass between the sidewalk and the road. By the time the police arrived, the woman was dead. Suzanne Jovin had her life cut short, six weeks before her 22nd birthday. Her throat had been slit, and the coroner discovered 17 stab wounds to the back of her head and neck.

Her brutal murder left her friends and family reeling — who would possibly want to hurt Suzanne? She had no known enemies and was well-liked by professors and classmates alike. Fear brewed through the Yale and New Haven, CT communities as well. Although downtown New Haven had its seedier areas, Yale students were meant to feel safe on and around campus.

Laser Focusing on a Suspect sans Motive or Evidence

Suzanne’s attacker approached from behind and did not rob or sexually assault her. He or she left the tip of the murder weapon (a knife) lodged in her skull.

From the beginning, the New Haven Police Department zeroed in on one suspect: Suzanne’s senior thesis adviser, Jim Van de Velde. Although no evidence — circumstantial or otherwise — would point to Van de Velde, law enforcement created flimsy theories around their baseless beliefs of his involvement. A public accusation can damage even the best of reputations, not to mention deepen the anguish experienced by a professor who loses a bright student to a horrific crime.

Shock waves rippled through Yale. Van de Velde was considered “by the book” and uptight. And although quiet, he had an affable nature.

James “Jim” Van De Velde was a local “golden boy” who grew up in nearby Orange, CT. At Amity Regional High School, he played baseball and tennis, acted as Captain of the soccer team, and served as the student council president. Jim majored in political science as an undergraduate at Yale, served two internships in Asia, and graduated with honors. In 1987, he received his Ph.D. from Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

By 1993, he served as the Dean of Saybrook College at Yale and often ate in the dining hall with the 475 students under his charge. He left this position in 1997 to work for the US Naval Reserve in Italy and spent nine months as the Executive Director of Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. He arrived back in New Haven in 1998.

Van de Velde had an exemplary record, and his colleagues all had positive things to say about him. He provided stellar academic advisement for many students.

Suzanne was ecstatic to have Van de Velde as her thesis adviser. Though as the December 8 due date of her thesis approached, she began to feel like he was blowing her off. She voiced these complaints in an off-hand manner via phone calls with her mom and friends, but never revealed any fear or creepy vibes about Van de Velde. Law enforcement had no knowledge of these conversations before naming Van de Velde a suspect either.

Four days after Suzanne’s murder, the NHPD brought Jim Van de Velde in for questioning. He spent four hours under interrogation, and he cooperated fully with the police. He offered up the keys to his car. He offered to take a lie detector test. The police declined to accept these offers but continued to hone in on Jim as their number one “suspect”. However, they never brought him in for further questioning. An unfair cloud of suspicion hung heavy over Van de Velde.

Without any followed leads, members of the student body even posited whether a fellow student may have been the perpetrator.

The New Haven Police Department did not have any physical evidence against Van de Velde, nor did they have proof of a pattern of anger or threatened violence by him toward Suzanne. For no obvious reason, Van de Velde became their guy.

My collegiate thesis advisor once told me he had a dog named “Sarah.” If he forgot my name, I was to bark like a dog. I ranted to friends about this incident, but I certainly didn’t hold lingering anger or fear toward said professor. Seniors in the midst of thesis projects are often under enormous stress — a bit of frustration is par for the course.

The University canceled Van de Velde’s Spring classes at Yale, and after Christmas Break, he never again set foot on campus.

Van de Velde sued New Haven and Yale and settled out of court. He currently works as a lecturer at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, as an adjunct for the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and is still a lieutenant with the US Naval Reserve. He has since married. The New Haven Police Department has never apologized for the unfair cloud of suspicion cast over him.

In 2013, fifteen years after the murder of Suzanne Jovin, Connecticut’s Chief State’s Attorney, Michael Dearington, claimed Van De Velde was no longer a suspect, but also issued no apology or retraction of previous statements.

Botched Leads, Ongoing Attention, and Where the Case Stands Now

As law enforcement pieced together Suzanne’s timeline of December 4, 1988, they discovered an email she sent to a friend at 9:02 p.m. The friend had asked to borrow Suzanne’s GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) study materials. Suzanne replied she’d lent them to someone who was supposed to drop the materials off before the end of the weekend. If the unnamed borrower has come forward or been interrogated by law enforcement, their name has never been released.

Again, Suzanne’s fully clothed body never produced signs of sexual assault, and Suzanne had not brought her wallet with her — thus, if robbery was a motive, the perpetrator did not acquire money.

A Fresca bottle found in the bushes revealed Suzanne’s fingerprints and an unknown partial palm print. In 1998, only one supermarket in the area — Krausser’s Market on York Street — sold Fresca. The police never interviewed Krausser’s workers nor examined Krausser’s video footage from the night of the murder.

2001 also yielded the discovery of unknown DNA found in scrapings under Suzanne’s left fingernails. This DNA was later identified as cross-contamination from the lab working on the case. World-renowned Forensic Scientist Dr. Henry C. Lee offered his assistance to the New Haven Police Department. Initially, the department declined his offer but later asked him to examine some evidence.

Perhaps the most substantial lead produced came from a female driver. On the night of the murder, the driver was on Whitney Avenue — not far from Edgehill. A man approached her passenger’s side door, pressed his face against the window, and then sprinted off into the night. She didn’t catch much of his facial features but noticed he was white, muscular, and wore a loose green jacket.

In 2000, Yale University hired its own investigators — both retired, high-ranking New York City Police Officials — Andy Rosenzweig and Patrick Harnett. Rosenzweig and Harnett remain on the case to this day. Harnett has publicly decried the NHPD’s treatment of Van de Velde, and both investigators agree that Suzanne’s murder can be solved. They have also given public statements on the investigative errors committed by the NHPD.

In 2011, a New Haven resident named Giles Carter came forward with information. An unnamed acquaintance and former Yale graduate student appeared at his door in an anxious state. He asked Carter to go for a walk and confessed he was obsessed with Suzanne Jovin’s murder. The man bore a striking resemblance to a circulated sketch of a possible suspect. He died a few months later in a suspected suicide.

A childhood friend of Van de Velde, Jeff Mitchell, produced the 2019 documentary, The Green Jacket Killer in hopes of finally solving the case.

Almost twenty-three years later, Suzanne Jovin’s murder remains unsolved. Every few years, local and national news shine the spotlight on Suzanne’s case. Suzanne’s case remains active. Someone in the greater New Haven, CT area knows something. While nothing will bring Suzanne Jovin back to her loved ones, they deserve to see justice served.