HIGHER AROUND EDUCATION: Yale still baffled by December murder

The Yale Daily News NEW HAVEN, Conn. (U-WIRE) -- Of the 14 murders reported in New Haven last year, Yale senior Suzanne Jovin's is the only one to remain unsolved. Five weeks after the murder, and despite the assistance of a Federal Bureau of Investigation criminology lab and a world-renowned forensic pathologist, the New Haven Police Department has yet to make an arrest in the case or even confirm the existence of an official suspect. In its latest attempt to further an investigation that has yielded no witnesses, murder weapon or promising forensic leads, the New Haven and Yale police departments sent four detectives last week to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Va. The detectives met with specialists there in an attempt to build a psychological profile of Jovin's killer. Detective Burnell Burell said it would take "some time" before the findings of the full FBI report are released. "Preliminary reports from the FBI have enlightened us to certain things," Burell said of the New Haven Police Department. "But they have not provided us with anything definite that would allow us to say that this person did it." The New Haven Police Department has also enlisted the help of Henry Lee in its investigation. Lee, who gained national notoriety for his work on the O.J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey murder cases, is Connecticut's public safety commissioner. Lieutenant David Burleigh, NHPD communications supervisor, said Lee has returned no findings as of yet. The Yale community awoke to shock December 5 when it learned that a senior had been brutally killed the night before. Campus fears heightened when local news agencies reported that lecturer James Van De Velde, who was Jovin's senior essay advisor, was a subject of police investigation. In response, Van De Velde publicly denied involvement in the homicide, and police officials reiterated that they have no suspects. Jovin, 21, was last seen at approximately 9:15 p.m. on December 4. She was found stabbed in the back on the sidewalk near the corner of Edgehill and East Rock roads approximately 45 minutes later. She was wearing jeans, boots and a maroon fleece. Her wallet was found at her home. Burleigh recanted his earlier statement that the NHPD believed the killer lived within a three-block radius of where Jovin's body was found, saying the investigation is now changing its focus. "We have pretty much exhausted the three-block radius, and we're now looking at a second possible scenario, that she was brought there in a car," Burleigh said. Burleigh denied the police are trying to build a circumstantial evidence case against any individual suspect. "We would never build a circumstantial case because they don't go over in court," Burleigh said. "The only way to get a conviction in court is to get physical evidence that places a suspect at the crime scene." New Haven police are instead relying upon yet-unheralded witnesses to step forward. Officers have posted flyers in the East Rock neighborhood and in the downtown area asking anyone with information to contact them. In a letter to the Yale community, Yale Secretary Linda Lorimer announced the creation of a scholarship in Jovin's honor, established to support projects that build ties between the Yale community and the citizens of New Haven.