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Bonus Episode: Suzanne Jovin Discussion with Ivy League Murders
3.6k Plays3 years ago
Hear Maggie and Allison talk with Laura and Sarah from Ivy League Murders concerning the Suzanne Jovin case. Laura and Sarah provide insight into Yale culture and the Best Buddies program and provide an interesting alternative theory.
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Transcript
Collaboration with Ivy League Murders
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuthhounds, the gifts just keep coming. It makes us so happy when we get the opportunity to join efforts with other podcasters in giving light to lesser known cases. We immediately jump on board because two podcasts, tag teaming an episode, means two separate audiences.
00:00:18
Speaker
who will hear about a case and expand the knowledge for the loved ones at the center of those cases. So in an effort to spread awareness about Suzanne Jovan's case, we also conducted a collaborative discussion about this case alongside Laura and Sarah from Ivy League Murders podcast, where they helped provide some insight into Yale culture, the best buddies program,
00:00:42
Speaker
and introduced another interesting potential theory. We did record this interview before our recording of this case. So Maggie will ask some questions in it that she did not know at the time, but now does. We hope that you continue to share the word about the cases you hear on the show and that you enjoy the following discussion. So without further ado, here it is.
Exploring Yale Culture and Suzanne's Case
00:01:11
Speaker
Welcome to Ivy League Murders. Ah, the Ivy League. They are the eight most prestigious colleges in the nation. And as we've seen recently, people will do or pay anything to get their kids into them. When you hear Ivy League, what comes to mind? Is it the hallowed halls of education and tradition?
00:01:33
Speaker
professors in tweed coats pontificating about Walt Whitman, elitism, finals clubs. What you probably don't think of is murder. On this podcast, we focus on cases affiliated with the Ivy League, exploring the darker side of higher education. What happens when genius becomes evil? We deep dive into the stories behind the picture perfect Ivy Leaguers
00:02:00
Speaker
who appear to have everything and throw it all away. And for what? Love? Money? Obsession? My name is Sarah Alcorn. I'm a Harvard graduate and I've been a private investigator since 1999. Join me and longtime crime diva, Laura McDonald, for Ivy Lee murders.
00:02:23
Speaker
Hey, Laura. Hey, Sarah. Hey, Alison. Hey, Maggie. Hello. So this episode we're calling Suzanne Jobin.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yale's cold case that should have been solved.
Details of Suzanne Jovan's Murder
00:02:35
Speaker
This week, we welcome to the podcast, Alison Williams and Maggie Damon from the Coffee and Cases podcast. We're collaborating with them and discussing a very troubling case from Yale. It was December 4th, 1998. Suzanne Jovan was a German born Yale senior. Suzanne was exhausted. She had just finished her senior thesis about Osama bin Laden.
00:03:01
Speaker
At about 9.30 p.m., Suzanne was leaving Yale campus for some well-deserved rest. 25 minutes later, passerby's placed a frantic 911 call. Suzanne was laying two miles away, brutally stabbed 17 times. She was dead before the police arrived. Who was Suzanne? Suzanne Jovan, by all accounts, was a strong, intelligent, kind and generous woman.
00:03:29
Speaker
She grew up in a 14th century Bavarian castle and had traveled all over Europe. She spoke many languages. She was absolutely beloved by her family and her fellow Yale students. She sang at rock bands at Yale. She was just full of life, very accomplished and independent. She was also a Yale legacy. Both of her parents were scientists in Germany.
00:03:55
Speaker
And when she got to Yale, she actually switched to political science and international affairs. And what's interesting to me is that her thesis was about Osama bin Laden, and this was 13 years before September 11th. I think it's kind of amazing. It's very interesting. I know. And this has brought up a lot of theories about that.
00:04:15
Speaker
And we welcome you guys,
Mysteries and Initial Investigation Failures
00:04:17
Speaker
Alison and Maggie to the podcast. We're really happy to collaborate with you guys. So you're from Coffee and Cases podcast. And that's right. And you guys, you guys really look at cold cases mostly. We do. Mostly lesser known.
00:04:33
Speaker
lesser known. Okay, okay, great to know. And just having your input into this is really valuable to us. In this case, interestingly, it's not a very high profile case, even though it is a Yale case, and you would think it would be a little bit more high profile, but really isn't.
00:04:50
Speaker
Maybe we'll get some attention by talking about it. Let's hope. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we entitled this case the Yale cold case that should have been solved because as we'll see as we go through it, this is a case I think that could have gotten solved with the right attention on it. So.
00:05:08
Speaker
Let's go back to that night. It's December 4th. It's 1998. As we mentioned, Suzanne has had a full day. And let's go through the timeline, basically, of what happened that day. So I think, and this is a bit different than a lot of the cases that Maggie and I cover. It tends to be the fact that with a lot of the lesser known cases, we don't really have as many details as we do in this case.
00:05:34
Speaker
And so I think it's great that we can kind of piece together her last hours. I mean, almost to the minute. Obviously, it was around 4.15 to 4.30, I believe, when she had taken her senior thesis to her advisor, one of her professors at Yale, James Vanderbilt, to get some feedback on it. She had dropped it off and she had then headed to
00:06:01
Speaker
a pizza party with a best buddies program, which I had never heard of. Had you guys, is that something that you guys were familiar with? I think it's more of a like Tom Brady. Yeah, it's very big in Boston. Is it like a big brother, big sister program? No, it's more for people with mental challenges and developmental disabilities. A lot of people with Down syndrome on the spectrum, different
00:06:27
Speaker
developmental disabilities. They partner with people. And so this was a pizza party that Joe was putting on. Right. Yes. But a lot of New England athletes are involved in the program. So it's something we hear about a lot in New England. Right. And I believe by her senior year at Yale, she was the chair or director of
00:06:47
Speaker
the Best Buddies program. And so she had borrowed a car from Yale so she could drive some of the individuals to the Best Buddies Pizza Party, which started at six at Trinity Lutheran Church.
00:07:00
Speaker
And then she left the party around 8.30 to go back to her place that was on Park Street and returned the car at 8.45. So again, and we know almost to the minute, different things that are happening. And immediately after that, of course, she went back to her place after dropping the car off and some friends were walking by. They saw her in her window between 8.40 and 8.50. And I guess I'm picturing, you know, one of those where you're throwing rocks at the window
00:07:29
Speaker
you're doing something to get someone's attention." And they say, we're headed to the movies. But she was, like Sarah said, she was exhausted. She had just worked on this paper. It's near the end of the semester. And so she said, you know what, I'm going to pass. I need to work some more on this essay. Around 9.02, we know she sent an email to a classmate who was asking to borrow a book to study for the GRE.
00:07:53
Speaker
And in this email, which I know we'll get into later, she said something like, well, I let someone borrow my GRE study book. I'll get it back. I'll put it in the foyer for you, and then gave the passcode to get in. And she logged off of her computer around 910.
00:08:12
Speaker
She had dropped the car off, but she needed to return the keys to the car. And so around 922, she was walking to return the keys. She actually passes by classmate Peter Stein. And she was near from what I read Yale's police office, which was at the Phelps Gate.
00:08:30
Speaker
on College Street. So we even know kind of where she is geographically. And she said she's going to take this key back and then I'm going to crash. I'm so tired. I can't wait to climb into my bed. And he said she
Criticism of Investigation and Key Suspects
00:08:44
Speaker
wasn't holding anything other than a few sheets of
00:08:47
Speaker
of white paper. That was all he really kind of noticed. She didn't seem anxious. She wasn't concerned about anything. About five minutes later, between 9.25 and 9.30, she was seen again walking toward Elm Street.
00:09:03
Speaker
And this eyewitness who didn't know Suzanne just recalled seeing a woman of her description with a Hispanic or black man in a hooded sweatshirt walking in front of her and a blonde man with glasses dressed nicely
00:09:21
Speaker
Walking behind her she was seen by other eyewitnesses again in that same Five-minute time frame 925 to 930 walking north continuing on College Street and what's interesting is She told Peter Stein that she was exhausted that she couldn't wait to get back. She just needed to turn the keys in and
00:09:41
Speaker
And yet from everything I read, she's kind of walking in kind of circuitous path, I guess, if that was her her plan was to go immediately back home. So this kind of out of the way. Right. The comment that's made is that she's not walking in the direction that would be logical to go back to her house.
00:10:01
Speaker
Right. Like going north on College Street was going away from where her apartment was on on Park Ave. She could have been meeting somebody. Yeah, right. No, sometimes I'm so tired. Like when I get off work, I want to go in, but it's just my body can't get out of my car. And I just need a minute to collect myself. So maybe she was like, No, I'm just gonna take the leisurely way home. Or maybe she felt she needed to avoid someone. So she's going around
00:10:27
Speaker
different way. Yeah but it contradicts what she tells Peter Stein though which is like oh my god I'm so exhausted I can't wait to get home and get some rest you know because earlier that day she had filled out grad school applications she'd gone to this pizza party anybody doing also like a dissertation or a thesis you know that they've been like living on like fumes and coffee right yeah so it is a little odd that she's had
00:10:53
Speaker
heading in a different direction, I think. And so one of those witnesses who saw her again in that time frame around 930 had just left the Yale Princeton hockey game and was headed to an off-campus party. And then from there we know that less than 30 minutes later, so around 955, she was nearly two miles away
00:11:15
Speaker
And the two who came upon her, I think she was still alive at the moment they came upon her. But by the time first responders came to the scene, which was only about three minutes later, she was already deceased. And I know that
00:11:31
Speaker
in their investigation, I guess. And maybe I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but obviously they're thinking about motive. And here's a woman who's still fully dressed. She's got her jewelry still on her. And so already I think we're questioning, okay, who could have done this? How did she get this far from where she was just seen by eyewitnesses? And for what purpose? Because obviously it doesn't seem that this was sexually motivated or monetarily motivated.
00:12:00
Speaker
It's true, but she was stabbed 17 times. Yes, I was just going to say that that's very personal. It's a very rageful attack. You know, her throat has been slit. There's part of a knife that is recovered that's been lodged in her skull, like part of a knife edge of a knife got nicked off in her skull.
00:12:20
Speaker
And she's two miles away from her apartment, which was at 258 Park Street. When the police get there, what do the witnesses tell the police? Well, so there were many accounts actually of people who had heard a couple arguing.
00:12:37
Speaker
in front of some kind of luxury apartment complex. And so that had drawn a lot of attention, this couple arguing, and actually the two individuals who were out for an evening walk who happened upon Suzanne's body. One was, I believe, a medical student, and they had heard a scream, which was what drew them to the area.
00:13:01
Speaker
So the people arguing are not Suzanne and potentially someone else. These are two different people. I don't think we know. And it may be that it was the altercation that ended Suzanne's life, but somebody took it to be a couple arguing. You know what I mean? That's, you know, it would be weirdly coincidental if there was happened to be a couple arguing in the area. It's possible. Absolutely.
00:13:25
Speaker
When the police get there, they find Suzanne, they talk to the witness, obviously they get Suzanne to the hospital immediately. But I think she was actually dead. I think they said that the time of death was like 9 43.
00:13:41
Speaker
it indicates that there was a scuffle. She was even dead when she had been found essentially. Well, one of the sources I read, I'll have to find it, but I thought it said that they believed, at least initially, maybe when they called, that she was still alive. But in several of the sources that I read as well, and what I think is interesting about her injuries is you guys said it with 17
00:14:05
Speaker
stab wounds and her throat being cut. It does seem very impassioned and a crime of passion, but a lot of the, I guess theories of those injuries was that her attacker came at her from behind.
00:14:21
Speaker
which I find fascinating because in my mind and generally when I'm thinking of these crimes of passions, yes, there's overkill, but I think it generally happens face to face. And so I thought that was interesting. I think that it may have happened in a vehicle that she got into the car of somebody she knows because if she didn't know and the person was pulling her into the car, there would have been more of a commotion and there were witnesses around.
00:14:47
Speaker
Well, it is theorized, too, because of the length of time from where she was last seen. Right. To get two miles away. Right. So I think she got my theory is that she got willingly into the car and which also is another thing that the police might have put out at the time that if somebody could have had blood in their car, which would have been another thing to put out to the public because that could have been somebody could have said that was from something else. But I would assume there would have been blood in the car if this happened in a car, which is true.
00:15:16
Speaker
But but I think we have to work with what they had at that point and what they had were the witnesses who reported the crime. They also had someone had seen and I'll read from the report. It says that witnesses saw a tan or brown van stopped in the roadway facing East immediately adjacent to where Suzanne was found.
00:15:38
Speaker
There was also description of a man in his 20s or 30s with an athletic build, well groomed hair, dark pants, and a loose fitting greenish jacket running like his life depended on it in the opposite direction from where Suzanne Jopin had been killed.
00:15:57
Speaker
Guy, a very similar description, and he's now known as sort of the green jacket killer, very close by the crime scene of Suzanne's death, he stops in a woman's window and he kind of like leers at her through the window. And so a composite sketch of this man was drawn up. And like I said, he becomes known as the green jacket.
00:16:20
Speaker
killer. And we'll talk a little bit more about it when we go through our suspects that we had. And obviously, that's going to be etched in your mind, because I know if I were driving down the street by myself and all of a sudden I see a man running like his life depended on it, who then glares into my window. Yes. His face would be forever in your mind. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And so they have this composite sketch of a possible suspect.
00:16:47
Speaker
But again, we'll see what they do with this. It's also hard, I feel like, around a university when you have so many young people and people who may act kind of out of character to look at suspects in the same way you might have in another place. That's true. And we should say that this area, which is Edge Hill and Allison, you probably know the cross street of where Jobin was found stabbed,
00:17:10
Speaker
I know it's Edge Hill Street. It's a very wealthy neighborhood in New Haven. New Haven is a fairly dangerous city, we know this, especially at that time, but this was a very wealthy neighborhood. Yeah, it was Edge Hill and East Rock Roads. That's right. Yeah, East Rock Road.
00:17:27
Speaker
That's right. This case, you guys, is such a troubling case on so many different levels to me. The brutal murder of Suzanne, first and foremost and most importantly, and then a very, very
00:17:43
Speaker
strange investigation into, if I can call it that, into the case in general, which included botched evidence, a very blindered investigation by the police. So let's just go through some of the things that were and weren't done. One thing we should mention too, by Suzanne's body, they find a Fresca bottle.
00:18:04
Speaker
that's like in the bushes that has Suzanne's fingerprints on it. So we know that at some point this Fresca bottle was in Suzanne's possession. And this is not something that's commonly sold in the area. And I think that key detail says a lot because when Peter Stein ran into her minutes before, she only had a few papers in her hand. She did not have that he saw anyway.
00:18:29
Speaker
this Fresca bottle, and so that kind of leads law enforcement investigators to later be able to figure out where she had purchased this Fresca bottle. That's true, possibly, as we'll see, because there's one store in that area that sold that, but we don't even know if she bought it from that particular store. That's true.
00:18:51
Speaker
Well, because the police never went and they did actually have surveillance and they have video there, but the police never took it. That's right. That's right. But anyway, we can get into that. Yeah, so let's what's next is sort of the the investigation and how that unfolded.
00:19:07
Speaker
Like I had said, they found this Fresca bottle. There's a market in that area near where Suzanne's body was found. It's a market called Krauser's. They never went to the store because this is the only place that sells Fresca in that area. They never went to the store. They never questioned them.
Unsolved Case and Interest in Justice
00:19:25
Speaker
They never looked for camera footage. There was also DNA that was found under Jobin's fingernails. They
00:19:33
Speaker
waited years to test this. And when they did, the scrapings ended up matching someone that was working for the lab. The brown van that was seen near Jovan, like I said, it was parked adjacent to where Jovan was found. They didn't canvas the area. They did not look for a van. They did not release this information to the public. There were just some things that the police did that just did not make sense to me.
00:20:03
Speaker
And apparently this was a troubled time for the New Haven police. It was also a troubled time for the lab as well. The lab, I looked it up, they lost their accreditation in 2011. They got it back in 2012, but there was a backlog of cases in the Connecticut crime lab. And what they were doing is they were not working on cases. They were actually working on private cases
00:20:29
Speaker
and relegating the other cases on the side. So there was this backlog of cases. For years and years and years, evidence just sat there untested. This is just very bizarre to me, and I usually defend law enforcement, and this is indefensible, but we covered the Annie Lee case, another Yale case.
00:20:48
Speaker
where they were criticized because the case got so much attention and so much law enforcement. And it just amazes me, especially this being a Yale case, that this was so botched. But they did a great job on the Annie Lee case. They did do a great job on the Annie Lee case, but often when you see these cases, especially affiliated with these major universities, they're actually given extra attention. In this case, it just
00:21:13
Speaker
everything that could have gone wrong, they did wrong. Not only that, but Allison, can you talk a little bit about who they did choose as a suspect and how? Absolutely. Yeah, so we were talking about the missteps of law enforcement. And here is yet another example.
00:21:32
Speaker
And I think because what I mentioned earlier, because there's no sexual assault, because there's still jewelry on her, as we discussed, it seems a crime of passion. And so they're thinking, okay, well, we've got to find who could be responsible. Who did she have a beef with? Was there any sort of disagreement?
00:21:51
Speaker
And the only name that's coming up once law enforcement really starts their investigation and talking to her friends and family is Suzanne Jovan's thesis advisor, Professor James Vanderbilt, who she met with on that final day of her life. And, you know, Vanderbilt himself, and he's, I guess, an oddity in terms of viewing him, I guess, in my mind as necessarily a murderer and why they kind of honed in on him.
00:22:20
Speaker
He was a Yale grad himself. He had his PhD in international security studies. He was well-respected. He worked for the Pentagon and the State Department. He had top-secret security clearance. I mean, this was not somebody who was just Joe Schmoe off the street.
00:22:41
Speaker
And his classes were so popular there at Yale that I read that people would actually have to apply to, and I don't know if that's common in Ivy League schools, but I think I read there were like 169 students who wanted to be in his class of 40 spots.
Hope with DNA Technology and Reopening the Case
00:22:57
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And of course, Suzanne was one of them, and they originally had this really good working relationship because she was interested in the same things that he was. But that relationship, and I think this is why originally the friends and family brought up Vanderbilt's name to law enforcement,
00:23:19
Speaker
because their relationship did seem, and it was a professional relationship. Law enforcement kind of looked into that. It was strictly professional. But as her thesis advisor, she kind of wanted a lot of feedback and she felt like he wasn't giving her senior thesis the attention that it needed.
00:23:37
Speaker
And so she had spoken to her friends. She was complaining about not feeling supported, that he wasn't interested. She had complained to her family. They had mentioned his name. And so even though you have very little really physical evidence, because as you guys mentioned, the DNA under Suzanne's fingernails ends up being a contamination from the lab. We have a partial palm print on the Fresca bottle.
00:24:03
Speaker
But despite all of that, it's like law enforcement were eagle-eyed focused on Vanderbilt. And I guess I really- Based on that thing, yeah. Right, yeah. And I really struggled with trying to figure out why. And one fabulous article in Vanity Fair by Susannah Andrews, she kind of talked a little bit about one rumor or accusation against
00:24:32
Speaker
van de Veld, and that was he had temporarily taken a position in California. He had just recently come back to Yale the semester that this case happened, and he had rekindled a relationship with a past girlfriend. And there was a rumor that she said that he was harassing her, though I couldn't find anything. There was no report filed. He has always denied it. And so I think you know how the rumor mill works.
00:25:00
Speaker
It's like the court of public opinion. You hear a rumor and that becomes it. And so here's Jim Vanderbilt, who was this highly esteemed professor with all of these accolades. And now everyone is looking at him as this murderer, derelict, and Yale responds in just as atrocious of a way, I think, as law enforcement did.
00:25:27
Speaker
And they said, well, we're canceling all of your classes for next semester. And you shouldn't be back on campus because you're a distraction. Yeah. And they didn't support him at all. Not only that, the police actually ended up his classes got canceled and then he got a new position somewhere. They went out of their way.
00:25:45
Speaker
to go to the new job to tell them to like basically a smear campaign. Like if you guys are so backlogged and so busy, you have time to go and do this. And my problem and I think Stephen Pacheco said this on and I quoting him basically think he does an excellent, excellent job on his podcast trace evidence really covering this case, but it's very true. They find their suspect and then they try to get the evidence to match it.
00:26:13
Speaker
rather than going from the evidence and then developing suspects from that. That's my issue with this case. Right. Yeah. And of course, Maggie doesn't know the details of this case. But what they're talking about with trying to make the evidence fit, Vanderbilt is we have the one eyewitness who saw
00:26:32
Speaker
Suzanne walking down the street and saw the blonde gentleman with glasses dressed very nicely behind her. And really, the extent of her description is a blonde man with glasses. It's extremely vague, but she sees Vandeveld on the news because he's being interviewed and she's like, oh my goodness, this guy fits my description. And what's hard for me to swallow with that is so do so many other people.
00:27:00
Speaker
And even when I witnessed mentioned seeing a red car and I read that law enforcement actually took that witness and they were like, I think they asked them 14 separate times. Are you sure it wasn't a red Jeep Wrangler?
00:27:16
Speaker
because that's what Vanderbilt drove. And she said, no, it was a small red car. It wasn't a Jeep Wrangler and she just kept denying it. And they kept showing her pictures of Vanderbilt and they were like, are you sure this isn't the man who you saw driving it? And that witnesses like, no, that's not who I saw. You're right. I think they just kept trying to get something to stick.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah. But then we have Billy, who's the other, they've never named him publicly. He goes by Billy, which I find interesting that they've protected. He has since committed suicide, but they've- But why do you explain to the listeners who Billy is? Well, Billy was a grad student in Yale in the architecture program, who was, I would say, had some mental illness, some mental problems.
00:28:00
Speaker
And a man who's a documentary filmmaker named Giles Carter had reported to the investigators that he believed Billy was involved because right around that time, he had gone off his meds, he had started talking about the fact that he was obsessed with the Suzanne Jovan case.
00:28:19
Speaker
He was ranting and raving about them not catching him. So he was talking about he clearly had an obsession with it. He had a long standing problem with women. He also bore resemblance to the composite, to the green jacket. Right. Yeah, composite. So and it's interesting that law enforcement protected his identity while outing.
00:28:42
Speaker
Right. Right. So Billy, it's just my opinion is somewhat of a red herring, because it's very difficult to know. Now, this obsession went on, there was mental illness, he had been committed. So we have somebody who's very troubled before Suzanne's death and afterwards and
00:29:01
Speaker
Afterwards, he does commit suicide in a very bizarre way where he drives his car into traffic and then kind of gets out of the car and walks into traffic. So he's very troubled. So it's very difficult to know if he's involved or if he's just mentally disturbed and has latched on to this case. And since the DNA has been so botched,
00:29:22
Speaker
It's very difficult. And I think that Billy's existence may cause troubles in any type of further investigation because it could create reasonable doubt when somebody else is indicted. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I think several people, Carter included, actually wrote basically a report, a theory of all the reasons that they believed that Billy should be considered
00:29:48
Speaker
much more seriously as a suspect in this case. They did it and they did it in defense of Vander because it was an 11 page report of all the different reasons they thought that he should be seriously considered and law enforcement
00:30:04
Speaker
We don't know what else they know, but they did not consider him a suspect. They've protected his name and identity. So we really don't know that much about him, but I do find it very interesting that they have gone to such lengths to protect this person.
00:30:19
Speaker
and then gone out of their way to ruin another person's reputation. Right. But Vanderbilt actually got his reputation back. There was a lawsuit with Yale for an undisclosed amount with the New Haven police police. He did prevail, but forever. He's the victim here as well of a botched investigation, basically. And I think that when I started looking into this case, and I am not saying that I believe that this following person I'm going to mention,
00:30:49
Speaker
is a viable suspect for Suzanne Jobin, but I just did want to talk about it because there were actually two serial killers in Connecticut operating at the same time.
00:31:02
Speaker
There was a guy named William Devin Powell, and there was also somebody who has not yet been identified, and that's the root eight killer. So the root eight killer, an identity has not been found for them. But Powell is kind of interesting because even though he's from Virginia,
00:31:23
Speaker
He was up in the Connecticut area and actually found a court document which listed his address in Harwington, Connecticut. And this was two years prior to Suzanne's death. So in 1996, Powell had some kind of footprint about 40 miles away from New Haven.
00:31:44
Speaker
He also happened to own a brown van. Powell was eventually caught in 2004. He was convicted on seven murders of women. And I'm not saying Powell, I don't know. It just odd to me that this man had a van. He was, as far as I know in the area, now he could have been incarcerated. There could have been some reason why they did not link her murder to Powell. But again, there are certain
00:32:14
Speaker
In doing some research into both the root eight killer as well as William Devin Powell, there's also an unsolved root eight killing that I believe Powell would be an excellent suspect for. Did he have a particular way that he killed his victims? Well, here's the thing. He actually did not. For the most part, he would rape and strangle his victims. A lot of them were found behind a shopping mall in this particular area in Connecticut.
00:32:44
Speaker
However, they found a bloody knife in his van. They also found evidence of other murders in his van. None of them have been solved. So with these cold cases particularly, I think just kind of like sometimes taking a bird's eye view of what was going on.
00:33:03
Speaker
in Connecticut at that time fairly near that area because you have this irrational violent crime that happens. So in a way, I think you have to look outside of the box to see what else is going on. Now, again, I couldn't figure out whether Powell was still incarcerated at that time. I'm not saying he's the person. What I'm saying is that I think with a more thorough investigation in this case,
00:33:33
Speaker
I think it can still be solved. One question I had on this case was the palm print that's found on the Fresca bottle. Did they ever pull DNA from that? That's contact DNA. She touched that bottle, I'm sure shortly before her death. And so whoever palm print is on that, and I'm hoping it's not some tech who just picked the bottle up, because why won't they test that? Do we know the results of that?
00:34:01
Speaker
And I think it's something that you had said, Alison, there's all kinds of technology now, where you could do a parabon recreation from that DNA and get a picture of what the person looked like. Yeah, and this is a case of
00:34:15
Speaker
ready to be reopened and yeah. Yeah. And we talk about Othram as well. David and Kristen Middleman are heading that the program and with their forensic genealogy and the genetic sequencing, they've taken degraded DNA from a case in 1881.
00:34:37
Speaker
and kind of regenetically modified into where it looks like you've just taken a cheek swab yesterday. And so I know that if they were to take on this case, they could figure out what I find interesting about this palm print. And obviously, you know, we've mentioned a couple of theories and there are even more
00:34:55
Speaker
theories that point away from who police honed in on as a suspect. But what I find, I guess, fascinating about this is, yeah, we've got this DNA, and yet when a couple of, I think they were documentary filmmakers were interested in covering this case,
00:35:15
Speaker
They filed a Freedom of Information Act request and a judge actually denied them, basically citing that some of the evidence that would be revealed in it could make for, I guess, a prejudiced jury.
00:35:30
Speaker
And so I feel like they're prejudiced because they're already pretty much sold on the fact it's one man that it clearly is one. I mean, that's fair point. Right. Exactly. A prejudice for what? Some future? Maybe against the police. Yeah. This is where I have a really hard time. I think if a case has gone cold because of a botched investigation, there should be, I totally understand and respect
00:35:59
Speaker
law enforcement for retaining information that is critical in preserving, let's say, the integrity of a crime scene, for example, if there's some detail that they don't want to release because only the killer would know or something like that. Right. I don't really understand that. But at a point where you've got, how old is this case now? It's 24 years old at this point. Right. I mean, come on. At what point
00:36:25
Speaker
our police departments just allowed to hold on to evidence. They even turned away Henry Lee, who basically volunteered his services and said, Hey guys, let me look at the forensic evidence.
Conclusion: Call for Justice
00:36:36
Speaker
And it was like, Oh, no, thank you. We've got this. Like, I mean, with the, with the phenomenon of true crime and podcasts, I mean, cases are getting solved.
00:36:45
Speaker
You know, people are becoming sleuths at home. And I agree, I think after a certain period of time, more information should be released because people want to solve these cases. People want to know and if there's nothing there, it's better to put it out there and let people go at it. Hopefully New Haven PD is doing that.
00:37:05
Speaker
I know that Vanderbilt begged them to like, please pass this on to the cold case division so that they can actually solve this. I feel for Suzanne's parents and her siblings and I just really my gut says that this could have been solved. And it's still can be. I think it still can be with the advances, as Alison mentioned, the advances that have been made, there's still probably stuff in the evidence.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, right. Yeah, we spoke on the phone about should there be some sort of regulation in place saying, okay, you've got a timeframe. Yeah, you solely are working this case. And if you cannot get it solved within that time, then at least if you're not going to share
00:37:53
Speaker
other evidence with the public, then at least allow in those outside agencies that can give that fresh perspective. Yeah, exactly. Because there might be something in looking at the serial killer, William Devin Powell. I just thought, I don't have the confidence that at that time that New Haven PD was really crossing the T's and dotting the I's.
00:38:19
Speaker
You need to have that confidence that law enforcement is doing their job, frankly. And that's why they need a they need a new fresh set of eyes, a new detective in there to go through everything. And maybe they have one. Maybe they have. I hope so. I hope so, too. You guys are the cold case experts. Do you think that the Suzanne Jovan case can be solved? I do. I think that it's going to take sharing of her case. I mean, that's always the biggest help
00:38:48
Speaker
in these cold cases is just sharing the story and jogging people's memory. And really, and Maggie can attest to this too, really reinforcing to people that the smallest detail that you think is insignificant can be monumental because it might corroborate something that someone else has come forward saying.
00:39:09
Speaker
And in cases like this, which you all have already mentioned, obviously the investigation wasn't done very good. This case has been called now for 24 years. So what is the harm in releasing, even if it's just a tidbit of information to get people talking about it again and remembering that night, you have to keep people focused on it and remembering her, or it's just going to continue to sit cold.
00:39:31
Speaker
when with all these witnesses and potential DNA and surveillance footage that's not been looked at, we should be able to find out who killed her. Yes, absolutely. And you know, just to go back to Suzanne, because the thing that really struck me in researching this case is that
00:39:49
Speaker
Here she was, she had filled out grad school applications. She's on her final draft of her thesis, and she still shows up for this Best Buddies pizza party and puts it on, cleans up, drives people home from it. It's like, that's the kind of person she was, it seems to me.
00:40:08
Speaker
This has brought her to life. Absolutely. And I think in all of my research as well, that's the kind of image I had of Suzanne in my mind is exactly what you did. And even her friend said she wasn't interested in a career to make money. She wanted to be influential and help people.
00:40:28
Speaker
And I think the most heartbreaking thing about this case to me is when I think about Suzanne as a person is one thing that her parents actually said in the Vanity Fair article. They told Vanity Fair, we try to encourage self-confidence in our daughters to the extent of recognizing their worth and capabilities and exerting their rights while avoiding arrogance. And we encourage them to never feel limited by their sex.
00:40:53
Speaker
And that's exactly what parents need to be teaching. And I think that's what was so heartbreaking for me is that this woman who she's so driven.
00:41:03
Speaker
and she's so caring and that she would be the victim. Absolutely. I mean, we have daughters and I have a daughter close to that age and it's so tragic. The innocence of that age and the newness of discovering the world and just to have that taken and it's so tragic and I'd like nothing more than to have some justice for her family and take a killer off the street or at least find out who they are.
00:41:31
Speaker
Fantastic. Yeah. Oh, you guys. That was great.