Police look for suspects in Yale murder

The Yale Daily News NEW HAVEN, Conn. (U-WIRE) -- The New Haven Police Department has narrowed the range of possible suspects in its investigation of Yale senior Suzanne Jovin's homicide to males living within three blocks of the site where the Davenport senior was killed, NHPD communications supervisor Lt. David Burleigh said Wednesday. While the investigation continues to encounter roadblocks, detectives have uncovered leads that might enable them to solve the case, Burleigh said. He declined to provide details about new leads. "I think they're on the right track," he added. But police and Yale officials said reports that police had identified a Yale faculty member as a prime suspect in the homicide case are premature. Officials said police questioned a Yale faculty member twice but added that they did not consider the individual a suspect. Burleigh said reports that a Yale faculty member killed Jovin are "premature and reckless." While many university faculty members live in the vicinity of Edgehill Avenue, investigators said they are not exclusively considering Yale teachers as suspects. Burleigh said police recalled the faculty member for additional questioning because detectives forgot to ask him several questions the first time. "It is not unusual that he was called twice," Burleigh added. "Reports that he is a suspect are based on the fact that he was called in twice, and that does not mean anything at all." Police have not given the university the faculty member's name, according to Yale spokesperson Thomas Conroy. New Haven Police Chief Melvin Wearing told Yale officials that reports identifying a faculty member as the prime suspect are not true, Provost Alison Richard said. Captain Brian Sullivan, the head of the New Haven Police Department's detective bureau, said in a press conference two days ago that the investigation has identified no suspects, no witnesses, no strong leads, no weapon and no motive in the homicide. Police are searching for a male suspect based on reports from an Edgehill Avenue resident who said he heard a loud altercation between a man and a woman on the street between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m., Sullivan said. Officers who responded at 9:58 p.m. Friday to reports of a woman bleeding at the intersection of Edgehill Avenue and East Rock Road discovered Jovin suffering from multiple stab wounds to the back, he added. Police rushed Jovin to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where a medical examiner pronounced her dead at 10:26 p.m., said Joseph Drozdal, a spokesperson for the Chief Medical Examiner's Office. A medical examination of the body found no evidence of sexual assault, but detectives said they had not ruled out robbery as a possible motive. Since Jovin left her wallet at her Park Street apartment, police could not determine whether her assailant intended to steal it, Sullivan said.

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