What Happened

On Dec 4,1996, a Suzanne Jovin, a 21-year-old senior was abducted from Yale, driven to a nearby neighborhood, and savagely murdered (stabbed 17 times) with a knife.  She was found at 9:55, she was horribly injured. An ambulance came and at 10:26, Jovin was pronounced dead at Yale–New Haven Hospital.

Her Evening Starts

Earlier she supervised a party for mentally challenge kids, drives home the help, and goes to her dorm room. She apparently received an untraceable call from Yale's telephone system, and left he room.

Witness

The woman who had seen Jovin walking on College Street at around 9:25 on the night of the stabbing saw Van de Velde on television and started shaking. "I got chills," she says. "I didn't know Van de Velde. I go home and turn on the news and I see him. She believes it was him.
 

Her Last Stop

She was seen at a local convenience store in the Yale complex.

She Got In Someone's Car

She was five minutes from home, on a busy street, in the middle of Yale, at 9:30 on a Friday night.

Dean At Saybrook College

The professor is the academic dean at Saybrook College in Yale. He is considered an aloof buffoon parading around in his blue blazer and tan pants, often referred to as the commodore.

The Headmaster

Abe Van De Velde was the headmaster/dean over hundreds of young adoring students.

New Haven Police

The police briefly questioned Van de Velde on the Monday after the slaying. The following day the police appeared to have become persuaded that Van de Velde was guilty. They interrogated him for four hours, "accusing him of the murder,"

He hires a lawyer, Heim Grudberg, who says Van de Velde fully cooperated, offering to give blood, and take a polygraph tests. He claims the police didn't follow through. The police said they did complete searches of the professor's car and apartment, but there appears to be no record of a search warrant.

The Area Of The Murder

Police always look for motive, means and opportunity and found Van de Velde lived less than half a mile from where Jovin's body was found, and had no alibi. He has insisted he worked late the night in question, then went home, where he remained, watching television and eating leftovers.

A Quirky Character

He graduates from Yale in 1982, recieved a doctorate from Tufts University, and has a top secret government security clearance as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He held a number of  education positions in the State Department during the administration of President George Bush.

Van de Velde returns as dean of Saybrook College in1993 as dean supervising Saybrook's 475 students. In 1997, he took a Navy assignment in Italy. Next he is deputy director of the Asia/Pacific Research Center, at Stanford University's Institute for International Studies.  Apparently he found Stanford wasn't to his taste and returned to Yale. 

Suzanne Takes His Class

Suzanne Jovin, takes the professor's class and is enthralled with Van de Velde.  Van de Velde appeared equally taken with Jovin. "I think he liked Suzanne's enthusiasm. It was flattering that a student would be so deeply involved in his topic." 

He becomes her personal mentor.

The Professor's Relationship

At some point in the semester Jovin's enthusiasm seemed to falter. She didn't go on either of the two field trips. "She thought they were a waste of her time," says a friend of hers. She also had reservations about a project on terrorism. The project, which was optional but which the class had voted to pursue, involved using the Internet to show how easy it would be for a terrorist to get information to create a weapon of mass destruction.   "Suzanne expressed to a fellow student that we, her parents, might have that information," the Jovins say, "but that we would be opposed to the project on moral and ethical grounds and that she therefore would not proceed further." Faced with students' objections, Van de Velde stopped the project. He does not recall any complaints from Jovin.
 

The Professor Is Abusing His Power 

By November, the professional relationship between Van de Velde and Jovin had broken down almost completely. She had an essay due, and her mentor was becoming belligerent. She told her parents how deeply resented the lack of mentoring by this senior thesis advisor,"

Van de Velde's lawyuer claimed,  "He'd gotten tied up over Thanksgiving and hadn't done it," says Ira Grudberg. "He was very apologetic, and he could see she was upset. That very day and night he made a lengthy review of it and met again with her on December 2, at which time he discussed it with her. She was much, much happier."

Her parents said, "She was still furious, being very insecure about what would happen, and went to the Yale administration about the problem "in a highly emotional, tearful session," but did not make a formal complaint.  

The Professor Lawyers Up

The next day after the murder, Van de Velde showed up in the Grudbergs' office. He did not speak to the police again.
 

Other Women Came Forward

Months before the murder he got back in touch with another woman, a local television reporter, which he had dated, but the results were disastrous. It appears that at some point during the fall of last year the woman went to the police and complained that she was being stalked and harassed by Van de Velde.

Another woman, a friend of the first woman, told police Van de Velde had sent  flowers anonymously. "He would phone her, run into her on the street. He wasn't taking 'no' for an answer."  "

Lawyer Grunberg

Heim Grunberg says, "Supposedly she claimed that he was looking in her window, that he was stalking her somehow".   With regards to the second woman, there was no proof.

There were never any charges filed against my client.
 

 

The Professor's Friends

The thing with Jim is this circumstantial evidence coinciding with his personal life," says the friend.

Van de Veldt's Mother

Esther Lois Van de Velde, says a friend, saw the letter, but "she didn't read the whole thing. She is trying to keep on with her life. This has been awful for her."
 

 

The Dean Of Yale Steps In

Broadhead, the Zionist who covered the Duke Lacrosse team's assault, jumps in with both feet to scoot the Professor out. Van De Velde was granted a 'Paid leave', and proceeded to Washington looking for work.

 

Nine Years Later

The police have reopened their tip line, but progress is slow.

The Professor Today

For a year he had a rough time, but the Navy gave him a series of 30- and 90-day assignments in Washington, at one point assisting the Pentagon as a “Y2K watch officer.” In 2003, the Department of Defense sent him to Cuba twice, where he says he “interviewed detainees” at Guantanamo Bay. He says he then held a “top secret/codeword security clearance” with the Department of Defense.

Van de Velde now resides with his wife and their 3-year-old son in a small town outside of Washington, D.C., where he works on government contracts for Booz Allen Hamilton, a private consulting firm.

All That's Left

Some friends put a small plaque in a Yale courtyard.