Going West: True Crime - Suzanne Jovin // 261

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

In December of 1998, a 21-year-old German woman studying at Yale turned in her senior essay and prepared for a pizza party. Later that night, a passerby called the police after stumbling upon Suzanne, unconscious and bleeding profusely in the street. She had been stabbed 17 times, and with a solid composite of her alleged killer, police narrowed in on someone from campus. This is the story of Suzanne Jovin. BONUS EPISODE patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/227444533/suzanne-nahuela-jovin 2. Hartford Courant: https://www.newspapers.com/image/177154299/?terms=suzanne%20jovin&match=1 3. Medium: https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-tragic-ivy-league-murder-of-suzanne-jovin-283811c93b6 4. Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1999/08/yale-murder199908 5. Yale Alumni Magazine: https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/2184-new-leads-in-a-cold-case 6. New Haven Register: https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Jovin-murder-mystery-continues-20-years-later-13438017.php 7. Thomas' letter to MLK Jr.: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/17967179/to-thomas-jovin 8. IEEE Explore, Donna Arndt Bio: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/38311186000 9. Ellen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenjovin/ 10. Rebecca's Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-jovin-36359a/ 11. Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2242997/Desperate-parents-Yale-student-hoping-justice-14-years-daughter-brutally-stabbed-death.html 12. Yale Daily News: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/12/04/jovin-99-remembered/ 13. New Haven Register: https://www.nhregister.com/connecticut/article/Prosecutor-James-Van-de-Velde-no-longer-a-11435141.php 14. Yale News: https://news.yale.edu/1999/05/05/suzanne-jovin-be-memorialized-yales-elm-and-ivy-ceremony 15. Best Buddies: https://www.bestbuddies.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, hope you're having a great start to your week. Thank you so much for tuning in to to your week. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode and thank you so much to Shannon, who recommended today's case. Really appreciate that Shannon because I had not heard about it, but this is a really

wild story. So thank you everybody. And we're hoping that we're not going to butcher some names, some German names. There's not too many luckily, but we did our research, so... so hopefully we'll say I'm right today for you guys. Gooding! Goodin'in'. I don't think that's it. Damn it. Alright, guys, well, this is episode 261 of Going West, so let's get into it! Thank you. In December of 1998, a 21-year-old German woman studying at Yale turned in her senior essay and prepared for a pizza party. Later that night, a passerby called the police after stumbling upon her, unconscious and bleeding profusely in the street.

She had been stabbed 17 times times and with a composite of her apparent killer, police zeroed in Germany, and her parents, Thomas Joven and Donna Joven, were a prominent couple in the science field in particular. Her father Thomas was born in Argentina and completed his undergraduate studies in biology at the California Institute of Technology before receiving his MD from the prestigious John Hopkins University. And he went on to become a molecular biologist and physicist. And while in undergrad, he even wrote a letter

to Martin Luther King Jr., detailing how little diversity he observed at his school and pledging to push for more representation in the sciences. And the letter received a glowing personal response from Martin Luther King Jr. himself that read, quote, it is very heartening to know that you are concerned about the fact that there are no colored students. This is certainly a manifestation of your genuine goodwill and your basic humanitarian concern. In the late 1960s, Thomas moved abroad to getting in,

to work under like a Nobel Prize winner at the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry, intending to only stay for a year as he had an offer to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT back in the states. But it was there that he met Donna, who had become his wife and Suzanne's mother. Now Donna was also born and raised in the states and attended Yale for her PhD in biochemistry. She then spent two years as a research fellow at Stanford University before being scouted for the Department of Molecular Biology at the Max Planck Institute in Gooding Inn alongside her future husband Thomas, and the two married in 1971. Now Suzanne was the middle of three girls, older sister Ellen and then later joined by younger sister Rebecca

And the girls were raised in a Bavarian castle dating back to the 1400s, which is so freaking cool That's pretty sick. Yeah, very sick very like sciencey family that lives in a fucking castle love that shit Dope so like her parents Suzanne was a bright and very gifted student, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. She grew up speaking English and German, and her family traveled frequently, opening her mind to all different types of backgrounds and cultures, which had a very huge bearing on her empathy and understanding of the world, and it also shaped what she wanted to do with her life after she graduated from university. Her sisters were similarly academically gifted, which is not really a surprise given who

their parents are. An Ellen graduated from Harvard in 1987 with a degree in German studies before attending UCLA for her masters in comparative literature. She went on to found grammar table, a traveling grammar pop-up, sits as the co-president of syntaxes a writing and communication skills training program, and just this past year, she wrote a book about grammar called Rebel Without a Clause. Suzanne's younger sister Rebecca earned her undergraduate degree in political science from Stanford and continued on to receive her masters in international affairs from Columbia so just like a very smart gifted intelligent you know very uh... goal-oriented

family studios family yes so according to her linkedin also she is now employed by the u.n. or the united nations and she lives in viana austria so Suzanne back to Suzanne attended teodor ho Jimnasium, majoring in biology and chemistry. And while studying there, she gained proficiency in two other languages in addition to German and English. She also loved music, learning to play the cello and the piano, as well as singing in a rock band. After graduating from secondary school in 1995, she then relocated to the US for undergraduate school. And living up to the Jove and Family legacy,

Suzanne settled on her mother's alma mater, Yale University, to pursue her undergraduate studies in political science, planning to eventually work in foreign policy and de-escalating global terrorism. And Yale is where today's story takes place. So in 1995, Suzanne moved to New Haven, Connecticut to study at Yale. That's where Yale is obviously. And she was double majoring in political science and international studies.

And in addition to, like obviously being a very dedicated student, she filled her time with extracurricular activities as well as work and volunteering. Like I said, very goal-oriented. So she sang in the school choir, she played in the school orchestra, and along with a friend, co-founded the German club. She was a talented athlete, she loved to run, ski, and play squash, and starting her sophomore year, she worked in the Davenport dining hall right there on campus. She was also a volunteer tutor for elementary school children, and she worked with an organization

called Best Buddies, which pairs an intellectually or developmentally disabled person with a volunteer to foster a long-term friendship. Suzanne reportedly had a great relationship with her best buddy, Lee. Her friends and classmates remember her not only for her commitment to academia, but also for her fun, lighthearted nature, saying she also loved to go out with friends and dance. One friend of hers since freshman year remembers, quote, When I think of Suzanne, I mostly remember how much fun she was. Suzanne laughed a lot. At Naples, which is a bar and restaurant in New Haven, she'd go nuts when we got to go on the dance floor.

We went caroling freshman year and we had so much fun, we glommed on to some crazy Christian group and we ran around singing and somehow ended up drinking schnobs all night. Suzanne found the time also to have a flourishing social life and enjoyed a large circle of friends as well as striking up a relationship with fellow student Roman Claudio. Her best friend at Yale was a guy named David Bach, and he later went on to become the senior associate dean of the School of Management, and he described Suzanne as a beautiful, compassionate person

with a strong moral compass. Among all the hardworking and talented students at Yale, he says Suzanne stood out. Another friend remembers Suzanne was just an angel. In the late fall of her second-to-last semester at Yale, Suzanne was swamped as usual, but the last few days leading up to her winner break were especially hectic. Suzanne was in the midst of completing not one, but two senior thesis essays, one of which was focused on terrorist and then

al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The day of December 4, 1998 came as a huge relief for Suzanne. As she turned in the final draft of her essay and was looking forward to focusing on studying for upcoming exams. At around 4.15 pm that Friday, Suzanne dropped a copy of her essay with her senior advisor and the professor overseeing her completion of her thesis, James Van Develd. Initially, Suzanne spoke of Professor Van Develd glowingly, telling friends and family how thrilled she was with his instruction in guidance.

But lately, according to those close to her, this relationship had cooled off a bit, as Suzanne thought that she wasn't receiving the attention that she and her thesis needed. This particular detail would be scrutinized to no end over the course of the investigation, and would splinter into a theory that many feel wound up costing the investigation its true perpetrator. After dropping off the final draft of her thesis, Suzanne was holding an event for Best Buddies at a nearby church. Yeah, she's amazing. Yeah, she's just incredibly motivated. It makes me feel like a lazy bastard. So she borrowed a car from the university and headed to Trinity Lutheran Church at 292 Orange Street in New Haven to set up a pizza party. After the party wound down, she

stayed to help clean up and left the church around 8.30 pm. Now, Suzanne dropped another volunteer off at home and then parked the borrowed car at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue and House Street on Yale's campus around 8.45 pm, so 15 minutes later. She then walked to her apartment about two blocks away from where she parked the car, at 258 Park Street, ironically situated above a university police station. Around this time, shortly after she arrived home, a few of her friends stopped by asking if she wanted to go to a movie, which was an outing which likely would have saved her life.

But just ready to finally put her thesis behind her, Suzanne wanted to stay in and study before getting some sleep. At 9.02pm, she logged into her Yale School email account, sending an email in German to a female friend, telling her that she had loaned a set of GRE books or graduation requirement exam books to a friend and that she needed to run out and get them back. She explained that she would then leave them in the lobby of her apartment building for this friend to pick up. She sent this email around 9-10 pm and didn't mention who had borrowed the books or where she would be picking them up from that evening. At around 9-15 pm, so five minutes after sending this email, Suzanne left her apartment again to drop off the keys to the car that she had borrowed and presumably to retrieve the books. She was wearing a maroon fleece pullover, jeans, and hiking boots

this night. And it was either never known or never announced who had the books in their possession at the time. So this is something that we do not know. After dropping the keys off at one of the campus police stations near the Phelps Gate on Gales Old Campus, she bumped into an acquaintance named Peter Stein. Their conversation was very quick and just unremarkable, and Peter remembered later, quote, she did not mention plans to go anywhere or do anything else afterward. She just said that she was very, very tired and that she was looking forward to getting a lot of sleep. And he remembered that Suzanne didn't seem to have anything with her except for a few

sheets of paper that she was holding. Obviously, he's not really paying attention to what she's got going on. It's just a very short conversation. But looking back, he didn't remember her holding any books or anything like that, just a some paper. Right. So 15 minutes later, around 9.30pm, a female student who had been attending that evening's Yale vs. Princeton hockey game on campus left the event early and spotted

Suzanne walking. Now it was an important game. The Yale Bulldogs and Princeton Tigers are massive rivals and it was heavily attended. Now this student didn't actually know Suzanne, but once news spread of the tragedy that we're gonna talk about, she came forward to say that she was sure that it had been Suzanne Joven that she had seen out walking that evening, one of the last to see her live.

Suzanne was headed down college street towards Elm Street, something to note, this was reportedly not the most direct route back to her apartment, which likely means that she had either gotten sidetracked by someone or something, or that she was running another errand, such as picking up the GRE books. At the same time, this student noticed two other people in the vicinity, both men. One she described as dark-com, complex and wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and one that she described as blonde, muscular, dressed sharply, and wearing

a green jacket and glasses. This man had been walking just a short distance behind Suzanne. It's been speculated that Suzanne may have been waiting there to meet someone, perhaps to pick up the books, or for some other reason unknown to anyone but her. It's also possible that she was simply stopping to look at the Christmas decorations that had gone up in the area. But the next time a witness would see her, it would be too late. Between 9.55 and 9.58 pm, less than 30 minutes after Suzanne had been seen walking across campus, a motorist called 911 to report an injured woman. Police arrived at the scene

just three minutes later to find a shocking sight. Suzanne Joven was faced down in the grass between the sidewalk and the road, her feet overlapping the street. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back of the head and the neck. Her throat had been slit and she was bleeding rapidly. I mean this was a brutal attack. Yeah, this seems like a very personal attack. I totally agree. I mean, this was a brutal attack. Yeah, this seems like a very personal attack. You would appear. I totally agree.

And one of the blows to her head was so forceful that the tip of the blade was actually lodged in her skull. She was found just under two miles or about three kilometers from where she had last been seen, which, given the frame of time, was possible to accomplish on foot, but it would also be possible that she was transported in a car, which would make the search for her killer even more complicated. 21-year-old Suzanne was rushed to the Yale-New Haven hospital, but was pronounced dead

at 10.26 pm. So in less than an hour, Suzanne went from just running errands on campus and heading home for a quiet night in to being violently murdered, and her attacker was nowhere to be found. Police initially thought that robbery may have been the motive, and for a relatively small city of just over 120,000 people, the crime rate of New Haven was surprisingly high. According to recent statistics, the likelihood of being a victim of property crime in New Haven is just 1 in 28.

But in Suzanne's case, this had probably not been the motive because she hadn't been wearing a purse or a backpack, and the only items of value that she had on her person were her earrings, watch, and a single dollar bill in her pocket all of which were found on her when she was found and her wallet had been back at her apartment and obviously it doesn't really feel like this is a robbery gone wrong I mean no because you said it feels so personal yeah we talked about how she was stabbed seventeen times in her throat was lit I don't imagine that somebody would do all that just to get a hold of her wallet. Yeah, completely agree. Not saying that that couldn't happen. I'm just saying it's less

likely. Right. And police don't think that's the case anyway. So I feel like we could just you know rule that out here. Sure. So Suzanne was found near the corner of Edge Hill Road and East Rock Road just under two miles or about 3 kilometers from where she had last been seen as Daphne mentioned. Now according to Google Maps, the walk from the intersection where Suzanne had been spotted by the hockey spectator to the intersection where she was found would have taken about 35 minutes to complete, versus just six minutes in a car. Neighbors and residents of the area were absolutely shocked at this horrifying turn of events.

This Yale adjacent neighborhood was called East Rock, an affluent and beautiful area of New Haven that attracted professionals, families, professors, and the fortunate Yale students who could afford to live there. Characterized by quaint brown stones and considered very safe, one reporter even called it an enclave of yuppies. One resident who was interviewed by Vanity Fair about Suzanne's murder, Luzune Oxley said, quote, We have lights on every single street here.

It's not secluded. I just couldn't imagine that anything like that could happen. Number one in the neighborhood, and then certainly not there. here. It's not secluded. I just couldn't imagine that anything like that could happen. Number 1 in the neighborhood and then certainly not there. Luzun could actually see the spot where Suzanne was found from her home. It was just across the street. She recalls the exact evening that Suzanne was killed. Luzun normally kept her kitchen door open, but for some reason that night she shut it

and believes now that if she hadn't, she may have seen or heard something that could have led police to their culprit. Lizune recalls quote, as soon as I opened the door, a police officer said, there's a lady down. The body was right next to that tree. She was face down. Her feet were almost in the street. We call that grassy area the parkway.

The body was across the parkway at an angle. She looked to me as though she was trying to get to that house and didn't make it. Others interviewed in the neighborhood remember the evening of December 4, 1998, being unseasonably warm, and that many were strolling the well lit, manicured streets of East Rock that evening. The fact that no one witnessed the attack on Suzanne was nothing short of shocking. Multiple neighbors reported hearing a verbal altercation between a man and a woman followed

by a woman's scream around 9.45 pm. Yeah, no one actually saw anything. So at least people did hear so they can kind of pinpoint a time frame, even though, you know, she was found so quickly anyway, but it is just crazy that that nobody saw this happen. And very interesting that she, you know, lived above this police station and that this area that she was found in is particularly safe. Yeah, exactly.

So the brutal slaying of one of Yale's seemingly most promising students sent shockwaves to the whole community of New Haven. And of course, the student body of Yale. Flowers and memorials were placed near the entrance of the Davenport Dining Hall, where Suzanne had worked, and students openly wept across campus. In addition to the shocking and tragic loss felt by Suzanne's friends and peers on campus, her family was, of course, just horrified by the situation, and her younger sister, Rebecca,

across the country finishing up her first semester at Stanford said, quote, I miss everything about Suzanne. When she left for college, I cried for weeks on end. I feel the same way now, but now I know the separation is permanent. Her parents declined to speak with most publications, of course wanting to mourn privately, but they did consent to be interviewed by local Connecticut paper The Hartford Current, which printed, quote, The Jovins expressed profound sadness about the violent state of American culture, the inability of men and boys to control their rage, and the victimization of women.

Because of the brutality of the crime, police immediately zeroed in on those closest to her, classifying it as a crime of passion, given the heinished nature of the stabbing, and the fact that her attacker chose stabbing specifically. She had not been sexually assaulted either, so while the motive remained unknown, it appeared to be purely a rage or revenge killing, which remember, I mean, everybody loved Suzanne. She was such a wonderful person, so it just kind of makes you wonder who would have a distaste for her.

Because even people that knew her just couldn't figure out why this fate would have been falling someone as, you know, lovely, intelligent, and responsible as she was. Like, nobody seemed to have a motive for the killing or a vendetta against her. So scrambling to put together any clues or details in the case that would lead to a potential suspect, law enforcement combed the area near where Suzanne was discovered attentively. They found an empty fresco bottle

that had both Suzanne's fingerprints and a foreign partial palm print on it, which led them to another location that Suzanne may have been to in a short period of time between when she was last seen walking and when she was found, you know, quote, injured. According to the investigation, only one local market carried this drink, Crousers Market on York Street, which has since either closed or changed hands. But for some reason,

police declined to follow up on the lead, neither interviewing store employees, nor obtaining security camera footage from the evening that Suzanne was killed. So I think to a lot of us this feels like a big oversight. We're not sure why this wasn't done, but unfortunately it just wasn't done. And in what is now considered maybe the most promising lead because it connected the mystery blonde man spotted by the student leaving the hockey game to the scene of the crime. A female motorist

recalls seeing a man running from the area that night. She had been driving down Whitney Avenue, which is just one block east of where Suzanne was found, and she described seeing a man running to her passenger door, pressing his face against the window, and peering inside at her before fleeing the scene. Very creepy, so scary. So the driver remembered him being a white man who was muscular and wearing a green jacket. Many believe this man, who is also believed to have been the man spotted walking behind

Suzanne near the hockey rink to be her killer. So much so that the only known suspects friend actually produced a film about the theory called the Green Jacket Killer. But this mystery person has never been identified. So who was the only known suspect. It was Suzanne's professor and senior thesis advisor, 38-year-old James Van Develle. James emerged quickly as a suspect because he was one of the only people that Suzanne's friends and family could recall Suzanne having conflict with in the days and weeks leading up to her murder.

And as we said earlier, Suzanne was finishing up her two senior thesis essays, one of which was centered around global terrorism, with a focus on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and James Van de Veld was considered an expert in terrorism, having served in the US Navy as a lieutenant commander, and the intelligence sector, receiving, quote, top secret security clearance. James served for five years, living and working in Singapore, Belgium, and Panama before he left to serve as the Dean of Yale University's Sabre at College, which were residential dormitories on campus. James was by all accounts beloved as a dean and a teacher, and some of his students remember

him going to bat for them when their dorm was infested with rats. Maybe he should have used a bat. And that scenario. Sorry, that was fucking stupid. Others were called that he would cook homemade meals for them. And he oversaw close to 500 students and made a point of knowing each of them by name. It's all this is interesting because we have covered cases before where a professor is looked at.

And usually, when this is the case, it's like we did Katie Benoins case a few months ago. And that professor, he had sexual assault allegations against him or kind of just inappropriate behavior towards students. So it's interesting that he doesn't have that. So it just makes you wonder how viable of a suspect he really is, not that he couldn't have hidden that kind of behavior, but people just had really good things to say about this guy.

Yeah, and what's really interesting here is that rumors were actually swirling around campus that he had worked for the CIA, but others remember him a bit differently. That is time working in sensitive government intelligence made him too uptight and that he had trouble forming genuine connections with people because he was distant and socially awkward. One former student also said that he connected better with male than female students

remembering, quote, men had a better rapport with him because he played on some intermural teams. For women, it was more difficult. He wasn't particularly friendly. Another of his students was questioned by police about his relationship with Suzanne and claimed that he never would have done anything inappropriate with a student. However, he had noticed them. In an interview about James later, she said, quote, there were no rumors of him having problems

with women or relationships with students. He said that it was odd being a young guy as a dean, seeing all these freshmen who are so beautiful and that it's hard not to notice. They wanted to know if I had had an affair with him. I told them that I had not. Now while this account had not been confirmed or denied from the New Haven Police Department, an account also emerged after Suzanne's murder that James had been stalking a local television reporter

whom he was dating, and that she eventually filed a police report because she was so disturbed by him. And there it is. Yeah, and again, this is pure conjecture, but it was damning evidence considering what he was being accused of at this point. And the only person with whom Suzanne had had

any recent conflict with at all, at least known to the public or police, was James. So the police really zeroed in on him as their person of interest. Like they just got super narrow visioned here. And Suzanne had initially been thrilled to have his guidance on her essay on terrorism, of course, given his background in security. But according to friends and family, she had become less enamored with him as time went on, claiming she thought that he was

blowing her off. And this probably had less to do with personal reasons and more to do with all the other students that he was advising, but Suzanne was disappointed and she explained the situation on the phone to her mom and told a few friends about it as well. However, her friends and family believed the claims were really blown out of proportion and that police glommed onto these claims simply to have a finger to point. Yeah, and also, is this a motive for murder? I don't know.

Well, that's another thing too is she felt like she wasn't getting enough attention. It wasn't like, oh, he's being really too much on me. Yeah, it wasn't like he was not getting the attention that he was seeking from Suzanne and that's why he killed her. Yeah, like how is ignoring somebody emotive for murder or not ignoring somebody but not giving somebody enough time of day emotive for murder. Yeah. But I think because it was looked at as an issue for Suzanne, even though it was the opposite

of him coming towards her, if that makes sense. Well, it's like when there's not enough like scenarios in Suzanne's life that make you consider why someone would want to murder her, like if there wasn't enough enemies in her life, they're just really looking at like the one scenario in her life that she was possibly a little upset by, and they're like, oh, well, that's gotta be the guy. Yeah, we gotta make this fit. Yeah, we gotta find a connection here. Which I get if you don't have a lot to work off of

and you don't have any suspects in your mind, you try to make something work, but it's also like, don't make it work to fit your narrative if it's not the narrative. Sure, and I don't know, James personally, so I really can't say what his character characters like or what he was like with students. But, you know, we just gave you the facts about what other people thought about him. And of course, I mean, look into him by all means. But what was disappointing for her family is that Suzanne had never voiced

any concerns that or any concerns, rather, that James made her feel uncomfortable or that he was, like we're saying, predatory towards her in any way, yet police are really looking into him and maybe missing out on somebody else who actually did it because their focus on somebody who probably maybe did not do it. But anyway, so he may not have been the most congenial person on campus, but of course the claims were largely speculation And there was no evidence of a romantic or sexual relationship between Suzanne and James for anybody who's wondering and Suzanne Had actually happily been dating her boyfriend Roman for three years Yeah, so on December 8th 1998 four days after after Suzanne's murder, James Van Develd was brought

in for questioning. While police had no actual evidence connecting him to her body or last known location, he loosely fit the description of the man seen by multiple locals in Suzanne's vicinity that night. While being questioned, James offered to submit a DNA test to let investigators search his car and to undergo a polygraph test, but the police declined to take him up on it. That's just weird.

Yeah, which is really weird. He's like, I'm trying to help with the situation here. So, James, who was 39 at the time, told the Associated Press quote, I wasn't a boyfriend, ex-husband, a work colleague, I had no argument with her. My DNA was not at the scene. I was not seen at the scene. However, with the amount of rumors circulating the campus, Yale made the decision to suspend his spring semester of classes, telling him that it was going to cause too much of a distraction

for their students. Yeah, because now there's all these rumors circulating that he could have murdered a student, which is so sad because if he's innocent, his career is being ruined for absolutely no reason. Yeah, it's basically over because he's a person of interest at this point. Not saying that police shouldn't have taken those steps because they should have, but I don't know, it feels a little rough in that scenario to just like But also if you really think he didn't or if you really think he did it wouldn't you jump through all the hoops with him like giving him a Polygraph test like did they not give him one because they thought he was gonna pass

Yeah, I don't know why they have to put him to the side. Yeah, I don't understand why that wasn't done Yeah, I mean this kind of just goes to show you how shitty this investigation is. Yeah, so on January 11th, 1999, the New Haven Police Department announced that they officially considered James Van Develd, a suspect in the murder of Suzanne Joven, but nothing ever confirmed this connection. So there was very little forward motion in this investigation.

James later described struggling for years to find steady employment again, and felt as if his life in New Haven had been basically ripped away from him. Yeah, he took a junk positions until 2004, when he joined the State Department as a counterterrorism expert and analyst. James filed lawsuits against both the New Haven Police Department and Yale University,

winning both of those. He's now married with two children and is teaching full-time once again. And get this, there have not been any other persons of interest or suspects in this case, at least none that have been announced to the public by the New Haven police. And initially, police considered Suzanne's best buddy Lee from the organization for which she volunteered, but Lee was found to be with his caretaker at the time, so it wasn't Lee. And they also considered her boyfriend, Roman, but Roman had been in New York that day and at the time of Suzanne's murder had

been on a train back to New Haven. So this left room for some wilder theories to start floating around. Like one idea was that Suzanne's murder was actually a hit based on her work on terrorism and the fact that she was working under a high profile former intelligence agent, aka James, but she was just a college student who wrote an essay you know i mean that just seems a little silly far-fetched and some speculated that james had been using susan as a conduit to leak highly sensitive information and that susan was caught in the cross hairs which is a sacrifice

of sorts to keep the intelligence hidden but also the the thing to me doesn't make sense because she was stabbed 17 times that just seems like yeah yeah yeah she was stabbed 17 times out in the open yeah in public yeah I don't know and this is not considered a viable theory like the the hit theory given that the only person likely to read her paper, the one in question about Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, was James himself. In 2000, so less than two years after Suzanne's murder, two retired New York detectives,

Andy Rosen's wig and Patrick Carnett join the investigation and both are still involved to this day, 22 years later, and agree that the case can be solved. Well, 22 years after they joined, 24 years after her murder. So Andy Rosen's wig posed the theory that Suzanne's murderer may have been someone connected to Al Qaeda or Islamic extremism who killed her as an act of revenge for penning the essay about Osama bin Laden. Rosen's wig wrote, quote, I'd be looking for someone from or sympathetic with the fringe

element of the Muslim or Middle Eastern community in and around Yale and New Haven who may have crossed paths with Suzanne and who she decided to confide that she was doing research on al-Qaeda. Maybe that person then decided to take it upon themselves to befriend her and ultimately kill her in his or her demented mind doing their part in the jihad. What do you think about that heath? I think it's a very interesting theory. Like, it's hard to tell if she was targeted particularly, or if this was like a random act of violence.

I don't know why. I feel like it wasn't random. I, I, sorry to interrupt. I just feel like, obviously this guy has been investigating this case for so long, so I don't want to say that his theory is wrong because he knows so much more about this investigation than you and I have researched. But I just feel like, I don't know, like far-fetched things can be true, but this just seems silly.

This was a thesis paper. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know what makes them truly believe in this theory, but I mean, like you said, I don't have the information that they have, so it's really hard for me to say or to even want to speculate on it, to be honest. Well, just going off of what the witness has saw with this, you know, blonde green jacket guy walking behind her, and then a guy with a similar appearance going up to a car and pressing his face against the window.

Like this could have just been some unhinged man in the area who and it could have been random in that way and he could have just been looking for somebody to cause violence upon you know unhinged people exist. Yeah, we also have to think about the fact that in that scenario there was two men. There was also a man who was darker fact that in that scenario there was two men there was also a man who was darker complex did uh... so where does that person play into this investigation yeah well i think i think the green jacket i comes forward more because somebody else had seen him and he had acted strangely

that doesn't mean that green jacket guys the killer but or that either of these people that were seen near her where the killer somebody could have come come out of nowhere but i don't know i think if it was a random killer somebody could have come come out of nowhere. But I don't know. I think if it was a random attack, it could have been somebody just using this as an opportune moment. Nobody's around. There's somebody here.

I have a knife, but I don't know. It just it seems like it was either that or it was some kind of personal attack on her. But like we said, nobody that we know of would have a motive. But I don't know if it's related to her thesis paper. Yeah, I don't know either, but let's talk about one final theory that actually emerged as recently as 2011. So a new Haven resident named Giles Carter remembered a detail from the period of time following

Suzanne's murder. Now Giles claims a male acquaintance and student at the architecture school of Yale once told him quote, you should know that I'm obsessed with the Suzanne Joven murder. Now this student who has not been publicly identified for privacy reasons was known to suffer psychological problems and drug addiction. He matched the physical description of the man who was believed to have been seen walking behind her a half hour before her murder and Running from the scene shortly after so green jacket guy. Oh, yeah, so he even like Suzanne spoke German But the thing is he died before ever being questioned or even connected to the murder. And although it was reported as a car accident, others believe that he took his own life, racked with guilt over what he did to Suzanne.

Giles remembers the descendant's parents, deleting emails from their son's computer after his death as well. That is so suspicious. Yeah, very weird. So when he informed them that they may be standing in the way of the investigation into a murder his mother reportedly replied, oh Joven so I mean that's this whole this whole theory to me is the

most probable semen route to take If this guy did match the description of the person that was seen near her and running from the scene and coming up to this person's car. And he was reportedly obsessed with her case, which we see a lot with killers who want to be a part of the investigation. Or they want to keep tabs on what is happening in the investigation. This seems more likely he spoke German. And then his parents are deleting emails from his computer and he happens to die before being questioned and maybe he took his own life.

I mean, that's a lot to me. That's like a lot of little ticks. Yeah, it is, but also sometimes investigations like this deal with a lot of wild speculation. And that could have possibly been part of it. You know, like when something like that happens, it's like these theories get thrown out there, but really the problem is, is that there wasn't any DNA evidence,

there wasn't any physical evidence, it was just a few witness reports saying that they saw this person who was wearing a green jacket, but at the same time, we don't even know if green jacket guy is the killer. So really, they kinda just don't have anything here. Well, yeah, that's why this is hard, because we can speculate so the cows come home, but we don't have enough to actually connect any of it.

But I do think this is interesting because something I meant to mention earlier is that she did have a boyfriend, as I mean, I mentioned that. But she had a boyfriend, they were dating for three years. So is it possible that somebody like this this guy whose name we do not know could have been obsessed with her at school you know if they both spoke German for example maybe he was a part of the German club and he you know kind of had a liking towards her but she rejected him because she's in a relationship and so that we see that a lot of of you know just kind of seeking vengeance for rejection.

That's a huge motive for murder. Absolutely, absolutely. It is. But I don't know if this, I just made that up. You know, I don't know if this guy had been rejected by her, like that is totally speculation. But also one other thing that we know is that she wasn't sexually assaulted, you know. Well, maybe there was no time. Or maybe that wasn't the motive to sexually assault her.

Maybe it was just, I am so upset that you rejected me, that I, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. They were in public. They were on the streets. I mean, you could think of a million different scenarios, but unfortunately, it wouldn't get us any closer. Yeah, so I mean, it's tough because there was so much attention put on James and it doesn't seem really like James was behind this, where it seems like some other people could have

slipped through the cracks. I still... Sorry, not to cut you off here, but... No, but the fact that I still think that it would be interesting to have James's DNA since he did offer it in the first place and they never tested him for it. Yes, I'm glad you brought that up because I forgot to mention that earlier when we talked about the polygraph. But yeah, I mean they should have tested it just to close that door. Right, I mean I don't know why that wasn't done.

But he did offer, you know, he wasn't hiding and saying, I'm gonna get a lawyer, I don't need to give you my DNA. In a sense, he said, I'll give you my DNA. I'm innocent. He said, I'll give you my DNA. I'll give you a polygraph. And they just didn't do it for whatever reason. So it's very disappointing. So Suzanne's parents posthumously accepted the Elm and I view award on what would have been Suzanne's graduation day.

This award commemorated outstanding contribution to the cause of strengthening the relationship between the City of New Haven and Yale University. A scholarship fund was also established in her name, the Susan and Joven Memorial Fund. And in its first year, the fund donated its funds to best buddies, which again is the organization that was especially close to Suzanne's heart. organization that was especially close to Suzanne's heart. Tragically, Donna and Thomas, now in their 80s, are still awaiting answers in the death of their daughter over 24 years later. They said, sadly, quote,

for us, there remains a void in our life that can never be filled. They are especially mournful of the contribution that she would have made in the world, saying, quote, she believed in the sanctity of every human being and the responsibility to help those in need. How obscene that her own life was so brutally extinguished. Yale University and the City of New Haven are still offering a combined $150,000 for information leading to the apprehension of Suzanne's murderer. If you have any information about the murder of Suzanne Joven, please call her dedicated toll-free 8-0-5-8.

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I really hope that answers come to this case, and I know they're still working on it constantly, but please, if you guys happen to know anything, call the tip line, make sure you share the episode if you don't know anything because somebody out there could, and her family, of course, is still very much looking for answers. So thank you in advance for sharing, thank you so much for listening, and we'll see

in a few days. Oh, but really quick, so we have a bunch of merch in our store at going westpa.com if you hit the shop tab It's all right there some of it can still come in time before the holidays So if you are interested in getting some merch as a gift for the stranger in your life do so Not everything can chip in time now that it's like mid-December, but some of it there is still time So thank you to advance if you get that, and happy almost holidays. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

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