Yale Student Suzanne Jovin Was Brutally Stabbed — and Nearly 30 Years Later, Police Are Still Looking for Her Killer By KC Baker

It was Christmastime in 1998 when Yale University senior Suzanne Jovin hosted a holiday pizza party for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities at an off-campus church.

As director of the Yale chapter of Best Buddies — a service organization that pairs students with adults with IDD — Jovin, 21, had spent weeks preparing for the end-of-semester party that was held on Friday, Dec. 4, 1998, at Trinity Lutheran Church on Orange St. in New Haven, Conn., police said.

After the festivities ended, the student from Gottingen, Germany, headed back to her off-campus apartment and was never seen alive again.

Less than a half hour later, Jovin was found 8 miles away on the corner of East Rock and Edgehill roads, bleeding profusely after being stabbed 17 times in the head and neck, police said.

She was rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital where she was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 10:26 p.m., The New York Times reported.

Authorities searched tirelessly for her killer, but were unable to pinpoint a suspect.

Now, nearly 30 years later, the retired police sergeant who led the investigation is urging anyone who remembers anything that could help authorities find Jovin’s killer to speak up.

“We’re really interested in anybody in the neighborhood, anyone who might have seen something at the University that has information that may help us to come forward,” said now-retired New Haven Police sergeant and detective Ed Kendall, who led the investigation in the case, WSFB reported.

On Dec. 4, 2025 — the anniversary of Jovin’s murder — Kendall, who had gathered with others to hold a moment of silence in the young woman’s memory, stood over the very spot where she lost her life all those years ago.

“It is not forgotten that Suzanne Jovin was stabbed 27 years ago,” Kendall said, according to the New Haven Independent.

He said he visits the spot where she was found fatally stabbed every year in hopes of seeking justice for Jovin, who was double-majoring in political science and international studies at the time of her death, per the outlet.

“The loss of Suzanne — who was a loving daughter, sister, friend, classmate — was devastating,” Kendall said, NBC Connecticut reported. “To those lucky enough to know her, she was a vibrant, kind, intelligent young woman at the dawn of her bright future.”

One reason Kendall is still helping to track down Jovin’s killer is because her murder remains the only unsolved homicide in New Haven from that year, according to WSFB.

“[In] 1998, there were 15 murders in New Haven. All murders were solved and cases were closed, except this in the murder of Suzanne Jovin,” Kendall said, per the outlet.

Any clue, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, can help solve the case, he said, according to NBC Connecticut.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

On the night of the murder, when the party ended, Jovin drove some of the program’s participants home in a station wagon she had borrowed from the university before she returned to the church to help clean up.

At about 9:25 p.m., on her way to Phelps Hall to return the keys to the station wagon, she ran into classmate Peter Stein on Old Campus, the Yale Daily News reported in 2013.

During their brief chat, she reportedly told him she was heading home to her apartment on Park Street after dropping off the keys.

“She did not mention plans to go anywhere or do anything else afterward,” Stein told the student newspaper in April 1999. 

Shortly after, a student who had attended a hockey game that night reported seeing Jovin walking on College Street toward Elm Street, according to the paper.

At 9:58 p.m., she was found laying on the sidewalk and bleeding profusely.

A $150,000 reward — $50,000 from the state of Connecticut and $100,000 from Yale University — is being offered to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of her killer, authorities said.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-866-623-8058 or email [email protected]