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Was a College Student’s Murder Solved 40 Years Later?
In 1978, Susan Marie Schmidt was a 21-year-old Glendale, Arizona, resident and honors student at Arizona State University. The former cheerleader was an energetic and passionate tutor described as driven. She hoped to work as a probation officer in the future.
On March 22, Susan drove to the mall near Northern and 59th Avenues in Glendale. It was at 8:30 p.m. that a jogger passing by spotted her body, slumped over the steering wheel of her father’s 1976 Toyota Celica. She’d been shot to death near the Valley West Shopping Center and the car was stopped in the roadway of 55th Avenue.
The Investigation into Susan Schmidt’s Death
Upon investigation, it was determined that Susan had been shot with a .22-caliber weapon, which was not found at the scene of the crime. Investigators ruled out robbery as the motive since her purse and other belongings were still in the car. Only her car keys appeared to have been missing. Detectives gathered some trace evidence, including hair fibers, from the scene.
Authorities figured that Susan must have been killed as the result of a chance encounter, but they also suspected she must have known her killer because she allowed this person to get close enough to shoot her at point-blank range. Initially, she must not have…
