Suzanne Jovin was last seen alive at almost exactly 9:30 PM.
Vivacious and witty, Suzanne Jovin had been living in New Haven for the previous three years and was, like most Yale students, streetwise. That means it is almost impossible to imagine her getting into a car or a van with total strangers !!
No savvy young woman of college age would do such a thing in broad daylight, much less at 9:30 PM on the evening of a fairly tiring day. There were a fair number of people out and about on Elm Street at that hour, and no one reported seeing a young Yale woman grabbed outright and dragged into a vehicle.
To get to the location on East Rock Road where she was found, mortally wounded, a person in a car or van would have to go up the hill on Prospect, known now as Science Hill but more properly Prospect Hill, or north on Whitney Avenue, turning left on to East Rock at a controlled intersection. Either way, I have timed that trip, driving at a moderate pace, and it takes eight or nine minutes if traffic is light to moderate.
LOUD NOISES AND AN ARGUMENT
People who live in the area do recall hearing the sounds of an argument before hearing a voice cry out, "why are you doing this to me ?" Some heard a muffled scream and others didn't, that seems to be still somewhat in doubt. It wasn't a protracted set of loud noises, however, and no one remembered seeing a van at or near that intersection.
What is extremely interesting, however, was a fact which came out in the article written in April of 2001 and published in the Sunday edition of the Hartford Courant. The police apparently took a statement from a New Haven couple who were returning to their home that evening, driving on Prospect towards the intersection with East Rock at about 10:00 PM or a minute or two after the hour.
They reported being 'cut off' by a young man in a red car, who turned left from Prospect directly across their path, onto the street called Goodrich. This street terminates at Prospect and runs down hill from that location for over a mile. They said it was a "red car" not a red Jeep or SUV. They also said that they had a clear look at the young man's face, and it was "a mask of rage" such as they had never seen before or since. The fleeting glimpse of this mystery driver was all they got, and they were not able to identify him further. He was in a very big hurry, however, and would have collided with their vehicle had his turn been executed only five or six seconds later !!
It is worth noting, here, that the Lebanese "hi-jacker" of 9/11, one Marwan al Shehi, was known to have rented a red Mitsubishi from the airport in Newark, New Jersey, at some point in 2000.
It has also been reported that al Shehi was in Germany in 1998, but as has been discussed on Mad Cow News, there seem to be some very big 'holes' and discrepancies in the timelines of some of the alleged hi-jackers, who may have been coming and going from the United States on many trips over the years prior to the day of the massacres. This element deserves further scrutiny, and I am not wholly confident that Marwan al Shehi had a role in Jovin's murder -- except for the fact that he's been identified as being in Germany for studies and therefore, it is presumed he spoke German at least passably well.
The only clue of any consequence in Jovin's murder was an empty bottle of Fresca, found near the scene. At that time, there was only one store in the Yale area which sold Fresca, a Wawa's convenience store on York Street: Jovin was living in an apartment directly across from her residential college, Davenport College, which opens on Park and on York Street. As a member of the college she would have had a pass key to allow her to enter the locked gate, so it is entirely possible she crossed through Davenport and exited on York, purchased her Fresca, and then went to the police station ( then located at Phelps Gate ), to turn in the keys to the University vehicle. By happenstance, Davenport College was where George W. Bush '68 lived as an undergraduate.
Van De Velde's association of note here, is with Antonio Lasaga, when he was Master of Saybrook College and Van De Velde the college's dean of students. When attending Yale, James Van De Velde, Jr. '82 was a member of Ezra Stiles College, one of the two residential units built in a modernist style, well after the other ten colleges were constructed.
After considerable research, I could not find any indication of any 'occult signatures' to the location where Jovin was left to die: Van De Velde lived on St. Ronan Street, which changes names and becomes Edgehill. East Rock Road has no particular connotations that I have been able to discover.
What matters, are the seventeen stab wounds inflicted on Jovin, for 17 is the mystical number of Al Qaeda -- as Osama bin Laden was the seventeenth son of Mohammed bin Laden -- and it is worth noting that in February of 1993, the truck bomb detonated under the World Trade Center towers was set to explode at 12:17 PM.
As for the date, December 4th, that is the feast day of Saint Barbara of Nikomedia ( in what is now Turkey ). She is said to be the patron saint of brewers, and venerated by miners and by artillerymen. Maria Von Trapp, in her book "Around The Year With The Von Trapp Family ( 1955 )," described St. Barbara as being one of the fourteen auxiliary saints of Austria.
"One of these Auxiliary Saints is St. Barbara, whose feast is celebrated on December 4th. She can be recognized by her tower (in which she was kept prisoner) and the ciborium surmounted by the Sacred Host. St. Barbara is invoked against lightning and sudden death.
"She is the patron saint of miners and artillery men and she is also invoked by young unmarried girls to pick the right husband for them."
The traditional image of Saint Barbara and her tower is displayed below:
