The Victim

Suzanne Jovin

General Information

Name: Suzanne Nahuela Jovin

Country of Birth: Germany

Date Of Birth: 01/26/1977

Height: 5 feet 5 inches

Weight: 125 pounds

School: Yale University, New Haven

Subject: Political Science, International Studies

Suzanne Nahuela Jovin had not lived in the United States before she arrived at Yale in the fall of 1995. She was born and raised in Göttingen, a beautiful medieval town in the western part of Germany. Her parents, Thomas and Donna Jovin, are American scientists-----molecular and cell biologists-----who work there at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. The elder of the Jovins' two daughters, Suzanne grew up living in a 14th-century castle; by the time she was a teenager, she had traveled extensively throughout Europe and spent vacations in Mexico, where her grandparents lived. She grew up speaking English and Germany fluently. Educated in the rigorous German school system, Suzanne began to study Latin in the fifth grade and French in the seventh. She played the piano and the cello. In high school, at the Theodor- Heuss Gymnasium, she took a double major in Biology and Chemistry, passing her exams with top marks.

It was always assumed that Jovin would go to college in the United States since her mother and half-sisters had studied in Yale and Harvard respectively. Although she started out intending to major in one of the sciences, she switched to a double major in political science and international studies, after doing poorly in an advanced course in cell biology.

After arriving at Yale, Jovin immediately got involved in volunteer work-----something her mother had done when she was at Yale, and had urged her daughter to do. She became the director of "Best Buddies", an international organization that pairs students with mentally disabled adults. She remained a Best Buddy until her final hours, throwing a pizza-making party for the adults at the Trinity Lutheran Church.

Brainy, beautiful, and hugely popular, Jovin was considered extraordinary, even among Yale's overachievers. She gave countless hours to the New Haven community while a student at Yale. But on December 4, 1998, that came to an end when she was found murdered in an upscale New Haven neighborhood. Her killer is still on the loose.

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