Welcome back to the path Wind Chili for part two of our coverage on the
murder of Sue Trascowitz. Robin, do you want to catch us up on
what we were talking about last week? Well, Sue Trascowitz was twenty seven
years old and was employed Logan International Airport for Northwest Airlines as a baggage handler,
and she was pretty much a trailblazer in her mail dominated industry because she
was the first woman to every promoted to her current position of ramp supervisor.
One night, she was working the grave yard shift and told the employees that
she was going out to buy sandwiches for all of them, but for some
reason, she never came back, and the employees did not contact the police
and actually punched her time card for in order to cover for and she was
a missing person for the next thirty six hours. But then they found her
stabbed to death inside the trunk of her own car, which was parked outside
an auto shop located away from the airport. They had no leads on the
case for over a year, but then Sue's mother, Marlene, looked inside
her daughter's diary and discovered that she had written a whole bunch of entries about
dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace for years by a bunch of mail co
workers who did not like the idea of having a woman in such a prominent
position, And even though Sue complained to her union and to the higher ups,
they never did anything about it, and she wound up receiving death threats
and they figured that there was a connection between this and her murder. But
as the years went on, they uncovered another potential motive for Sue's murder,
as it turned out that a credit card theft ring had been going on at
the airport during that time period, and that some of the baggage handlers who
worked under Sue were involved and wound up getting arrested and doing prison time.
One of them was a man named Joseph Nuzo, who had been harassing Sue
for years and was the ring leader behind this credit card scam, and the
other was a guy named Bobby Brooks, who she had had a brief affair
with but became increasingly hostile towards Sue when their relationship didn't go anywhere. And
even though it was determined that Sue had no knowledge or involvement in this credit
card ring, it seemed that Joseph Nuzo believed that she did and may have
snitched her out to the authorities. So this has been looked at as a
potential motive for her murder, but they've never been able to uncover any conclusive
evidence of who actually killed Sue, so the case remains unsolved over thirty years
later. So this is a pretty horrible story about a good person who did
not deserve all the horrible things which happened to her. Out of all the
victims we featured on the Path when Chili, Sue to Asqwitz is definitely one
of the strongest and most admirable. This is a woman who decided to enter
an industry where females were not welcome and had to suffer through years of brutal
harassment. But in spite of this, she persevered and still managed to climb
the ladder and get promoted to a position which no woman had ever held in
the history of that company. I think that says a lot about the quality
of Sue's work, considering how many people there were looking to undermine her at
every opportunity. When she was wrongfully passed over for the promotion, Sue decided
to file a grievance in order to obtain it, even though she must have
known there would be a tremendous backlash to this, and after everything Sue went
through, no one would have blamed her if she decided to quit, but
she held her ground because she believed that walking away would only make things more
difficult for other women who doubt with the same trauma. I think that says
an awful lot about her character. Oh, it speaks volumes. It's also
incredibly crazy because that type of discipline, that type of willingness to fight for
her career, for fellow women, and her play of employment, like she
had a lot of respect for what she was doing and expected everyone around her
to work equally as hard and held them accountable for their behaviors. And so
I think that painted a massive target on her back. But for anyone who
cared about Sue, that discipline, that character that she presented with on a
daily basis, wouldn't that be the reason why when she goes for a food
run two hours into her shift for her crew and never comes back. Wouldn't
that be enough for people to go what happened? And instead they quietly clogged
her out six hours later, went about their business, and it would be
thirty six hours until somebody said, what happened to Sue? Oh wait,
we found her body? Right? Like? What in the heck was going
through these people's heads. It's very hard to think that that entire crew was
involved with this. It just doesn't seem plausible. But not a single soul
said, hey, let's say we clock her out and we save her.
We're in because this is out of her character. I don't want her to
get in trouble. Wouldn't You would follow up, You'd call her family,
you would go to her house, you would call some coworkers and be like,
hey man, anybody heard from Sue. It seems like no one cared
enough about her, so why would they cover for her? Just said a
weird thing, like I think these people, probably, even if they weren't
directly involved in the murder, may have had a good idea what happened to
her and knew that something was going down, and they probably feared that if
we interfere with this or contact the police, there's going to be retaliation against
us. Or maybe they were just all lousy people who just did not care
about her and were just going about their business and had no concern for a
well being, and who knows, it could have been like new Zo or
Brooks or something spoke up and was like, don't worry, like I'll take
care of it. I'll talk about it with supervisors or whatever to the people
that maybe weren't directly involved or didn't have direct knowledge. But it still does
seem confounding that nobody would follow up after all that time, when we know
that she's ever missed a shift. It's just mind blowing the fact that so
much time went by before authorities were notified and that the family were like when
they called police, oh yeah, we found her body. Cool? Did
anybody try to contact us? Right? Was that your next port of call?
Were you going to do that? Ever? And the other thing that
you got to think about too, It's like, it's one of two things
that could have happened with our coworkers. It's this idea that you know,
maybe everyone thought someone else was gonna speak up. Everyone thought someone else was
going to do the follow up. That's possible because it's easier to put responsibility
on other people are assume something's going to be handled, But it also could
be this idea of like I've seen this and I've lived this, where people
who you put your neck out for, people that really you think would be
standing next to you on the front lines, are the ones who turned their
back the quickest because they're trying to protect their own career, they're trying to
protect their own reputation, they're trying to protect the target on their own back.
And so it's sad because, like it's impossible to know what was going
on inside the department, but we know that Sue was enduring so much.
She had not only been sexually harassed, but now she was being physically threatened.
And then Robin, you started to tell us about this credit card scheme
that went down, and that's adds another layer where everyone thought she was a
snitch. So there's so many directions you could almost go with this that it
becomes very complicated. But there's so many directions in this tiny social group,
this tiny employment group. How are we talking about an unsolved murder here?
It's it's very complex. This was just a coincidence, but Robin's original Trailink
cold episode came out over a month before the hashtag me too movement started,
in which many people publicized their own personal experiences with sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
That movement is certainly relevant to Sue's case, and unfortunately, back in
the late nineteen eighties in early nineteen nineties, the misogynistic culture at Northwest Airlines
was so toxic that Sue really didn't have many options. Unfortunately, Northwest dropped
the ball in a huge way when it came to dealing with this whole situation.
We mentioned in our last episode that one of Sue's worst tormentors was a
baggage handler named Joseph Nuzo, whom Sue filed the complaint against even though he
was initially fired. What does it say about Northwest that they would allow him
to come back six months later under the so called last chance policy and he
wound up masterminding a credit card ring right under their noses. Things never should
have gotten to this point. No, definitely not. I mean this idea
that you can continuously cause a problem, right, you can harass somebody,
you can physically fight somebody, you can call people derogatory terms, and guess
what, you can also run a federal credit card ring and we're just going
to keep giving you you that that last chance the last chance policy. No,
baby, when you mess up, you know, one, two,
three strikes, you're out. What is last chanceman Like people become too much
of a liability for the safety of others at some point. And that's the
thing with Sue is that she was in the opposite position where she felt she
had to be walking on eggshells her entire tenure there because she had this mentality,
if I make one mistake, there are people who hate me here so
much that they will use it as an excuse to get rid of me.
So that's why she always had to do like a perfect job, never miss
shifts, never make any serious errors, because she knew that people just wandered
her out of there so badly, whereas someone like Joseph Nuzo could screw up
so many times and get a last chance policy because he was a male.
I think the most unsettling thing about this murder is that it seems like there
are quite a few people who knew the full truth about what happened, but
if states silent. When Marlene Tarascoitz was interviewed during the Unsawved Mystery segment back
in nineteen ninety five, she said, quote, it's been three years now
and i'll we need is for someone to come forward. So it's awfully said
that during the last several years, Marley has appeared in numerous YouTube videos in
order to issue public please for information, and it's pretty much kept stating the
exact same thing, except that instead of saying it's been three years, the
number keeps increasing to twenty five years and now thirty years. Oh, it's
pitiful. You have this poor mom who's sitting there saying, I'm going to
continue to fight. I'm a fighter, Sue. As a fighter, we're
going to continue to fight. You would think after thirty one years now at
this point that whatever obligation you felt, whatever career you felt you were defending,
whatever person you thought you were protecting, is it really worth it.
Like a lot of these people would be aging out of their careers, they'd
be retired, they'd be living their life, and they probably don't have the
same connections to some odd coworker that they worked with, like no one has
any information thirty one years later. Maybe they're worried about their own complicity in
the crime and perhaps how it would make them look to come forward, or
if there could be some type of charges it could be levied against them for
coming forward. I mean, there could be a multitude of reasons, but
you would think that if somebody wasn't directly involved, that their guilt would get
the best of them, especially knowing how tirelessly the Tuascoit's family, Marlene in
particular, has been really pushing to find out what happened to her daughter.
But just nobody coming forward is kind of shicking because it feels like multiple people
know what happened here. Well, you know how you could avoid getting in
trouble on this case. You go and you create a federal you commit a
federal crime, you turn on your co collaborator, and you make a plea
deal that says, oh, yeah, all the people I murdered and helped
murder, if you could just knock those off and not charge me with those
or ask me any more questions because it hurts my feelings, that'd be fantastic.
And then this prosecutor would be like, that sounds great, let me
go ahead and excuse you or any questioning for future murderers, right. That's
I mean, that's what they did in this case. Bobby had contact with
new Zo the night or the month before Sue's murdered. The night that she's
murdered, he's talking to new Zo. He lies about where he was,
he lies about his phone records, and then when he gets caught up in
that credit card ring, he makes a plea deal that says, hey,
i'll talk to you and i'll turn on new Zo, but don't ever ask
me any more questions about this murder. Okay, But no, he'd already
done the plea deal prior to that. This was thrown in after the fact
when he violated his parole from that original plea What yes, why they didn't
have They didn't have to do it. That's why it's so confusing. No,
you said this is the most rage inducing. Now I'm really mad.
Now I'm going on. What it wasn't even the original plea deal to get
information? No, No, it wasn't like they only got it for the
credit card ring. And then a couple of years later he was caught lying
and he got it. He didn't even need to get a plea deal.
They had him dead to rights, yet he still got this deal where he
didn't have to be questioned about Sue's murder. Un freaking believable. Okay,
I just imagine you're someone else who has information about this case, and you
hear about that that he gets to like this free ride where he doesn't have
to talk about the crime. You're going to be more reluctant to come forward
knowing that the that the cops are pretty much giving like a free pass to
someone who may have direct knowledge and complicity in the murder. WHOA, what
would happen? What would happen if someone came forward with evidence against him?
I'm assuming at that point that plea deal's off the table because now I have
physical evidence or eyewitness evidence or something that you were involved. Oh, bring
charges against him, but they can't ask him any questions. Yeah, maybe
that's it. Yes, where it's like they can charge him, they just
can't question them. So yeah, I think if there was evidence which implicated
them, they could charge him, but they just can't ask him anything.
But oh, my lord, will that all makes perfect sense? Okay?
Keep going. Quite simply, the wall of silence surrounding Sue's murder is pretty
disturbing, given that she was killed while going on a food run in the
middle of the night. I guess it's not completely impossible that after leaving the
airport. She could have crossed paths with a random stranger who killed her,
and her death had nothing to do with anything going on at her workplace.
But given the circumstances, I find that highly doubtful. It's quite unsettling that
Sue could disappear while in the midst of working a shift, get nobody made
any attempt to report her missing for thirty six hours. It would be one
thing if Sue told her co workers that she was leaving for a while to
take care of some personal business and then didn't return, but she was going
up to buy sandwiches and took orders from everyone. Did none of them find
it suspicious that Sue did not return with their food? Like? Were they
not hungry? Like I'm hungry. I waited six hours, and then I
clocked her out because you didn't show back up with my food. I'd be
so mad I wouldn't help you at that point. It's weird because, like
you said, there's such a different circumstance. If Sue quietly slipped out,
no one noticed she was gone. She's a supervisor. She ran off to
me with her boyfriend. She ran off to go do something else, right,
and she just wasn't there when you clocked out. This is someone going,
hi, everyone, Sue here, I'm going to run that favorite sandwich
shop. Everybody has right down your order. I'll be back shortly. And
she leaves announcing that not only is she going somewhere and we'll be back,
but she's bringing things back that people are waiting for. So how did you
sit there for six hours and wonder where this twenty seven year old kid was?
You know, you know there's grown fifty year old people sitting there waiting
for their sandwich. No one wondered where she was. The highlight of their
day is probably their meatball, hogi or whatever they're getting. And so the
idea that they're having to go without food for a meal, they would all
be talking about Sue and where she was if they didn't already know what was
happening. So the idea that nobody pushed this further because you could imagine that
they would be irritated too if they didn't know that student been murdered or that
like harm had befallen her. They'd be like, oh that you know,
b word, she hasn't brought our food back. I'm starving. She promised
this to us, you know, it would be like a huge topic of
conversation. So the fact that the higher ups weren't made aware of this and
that somebody then after she's decided not to feed you, she hasn't returned with
your food, but you're then going to try to cover for her by punching
her time card right when everyone has a problem with her anyway. Yeah,
all right, guys. And not only did Sue's co workers downplay the fact
that she failed to return with her food orders, but they also responded by
punching her time card in her absence to make it look like she worked the
rest of her shift, And when she failed to show up for her next
shift, they did the exact same thing. I know. They claimed this
was done to cover for Sue so she wouldn't get into trouble, but I
don't buy this at all. By all accounts, this was very uncare hecteristic
behavior for her, and she had never slacked off from work like that before,
so the whole situation should erased some red flags immediately. In addition,
Sue had been scheduled to attend a baby shower with some co workers that took
place between her two shifts on September the thirteenth, but even though Sue never
showed up for that, no one made any attempt to report her missing.
Oh my gosh, I mean this is the second time. I'm like,
hi, Sue here, going to get our sandwiches and oh yeah, remember
hey it's Sue. I'm going to be at the baby shower later and then
I gotta go back to work. No one is looking around saying, hey,
guys, anyone seeing Sue. Hey, you know, Sue wasn't at
work last night either. She didn't come back. Oh yeah, she's also
not at this baby shower with us. Like it just keeps getting to this
point and again, remember mom shows up at the police station to eventually report
her missing, and they're like, oh, yeah, I know, we
found her body. It's like, wait, what where's the communication here?
Where is anyone really prioritizing the fact that poor Sue's missing? And then Sue's
discovered Like this almost seems like a really bad beaut level film. It seems
like no one raised any concern at all until one of Sue's coworkers called her
sister, Debbie on the morning of September fourteenth, but by that point,
Sue had been missing for thirty six hours, and it doesn't look like any
of the co workers wanted to take the initiative to contact the police themselves,
which is why they contacted her family instead. Sue did have some supporters at
Northwest, and not all of the employees there hated her, But the problem
is that the employees who did hate her really hated her. Given all the
hostility which was caused by Sue's promotion to ramp supervisor and the amount of men
who were just appalled by the idea of having to take orders from a woman,
I'm sure some of them would have jumped on any opportunity to report her
insubordination to management. So if Sue just left in the middle of a shift
and didn't come back, and then proceeded to no show her next shift without
explanation, there's no way anyone would have attempted to cover for her by punishing
her time card, or at least one of them would have taken that opportunity
to be like, oh, yeah, let's cover for her. Hey,
boss, By the way, that Sue the you promoted over me, Oh
that Sue that demands us around the sioux that makes all these false claims against
us and harasses us and mistreats us. She didn't come back to work tonight.
Like I just feel like one of them would have said, hey,
let me, I'm gonna rat her out. Everyone covered for her. Everyone
just went along with the fact that she didn't show up. No one was
concerned that she wasn't in the baby shower. I mean, like you said,
Jules, I think not even just to help her. I think someone
would want to actively hurt her because Sue doesn't hesitate to go to authorities to
say, hey, we have a problem, So why wouldn't they take this
one chance to say, this is our chance to make a report against Sue.
Ha. No one did. Yes, it definitely sounds like there was
a calculated cover up amongst Sue's co workers to explain raps. And while I'm
willing to believe that not all of them were actually complicit in the cover up,
they were probably frightened his staying silence. This is the main reason why
it's shocking that Sue's murder has remained unsaw for thirty years. There have to
be multiple people who know exactly what happened to her, and some of them
probably do feel guilt or remorse about it, but they are still afraid to
come forward. Absolutely, I mean it has to be that there's a very
very very small chance Sue walked out to her car and was apprehended by a
stranger who wanted to just kill her and put her in the trunk. It
seems like there's got to be so much more to the case. Was her
car ever moved from where she parked for work, it was because she was
found in the trunk of her own car, So I don't know if she
was confronted in the parking lot or if she drove somewhere to be killed.
But whoever did it put her inside her own trunk, And was she in
the parking lot where she normally parks, or she had actually her car was
moved, We don't have that information, Like we don't know what Sue did
when she took everyone's order and left the ramps, so I don't know if
she got into her car and drove away. But the car was found in
the parking lot and auto body shops, so even if she was killed in
the parking lot, someone went to the trouble of moving it there. Okay,
So the car was definitely moved and do we know like was she assaulted,
do we know anything to that extent or how she was murdered like she
was stabbed. She was stabbed several times. No sexual assault, but it
looked like a crime of rage from someone who hated her. Yeah, stabbed
multiple times, definitely screamed. It's intimate, it's personal, it's revenge,
and it's so up close and personal with her. It would make a lot
of sense that as somebody that not only knew her, but that had this
idea of I want you to hurt, like I want to make sure I
see the control I have over you at this point, so, it seems
pretty clear that Sue's murder was somehow connected to issues at her workplace. But
the big question is was the motive related to her sexual harassment or the stolen
credit card ring. Well, both of them are distinct possibilities, But Sue
had already been harassed NonStop for years and had her life threatened on several occasions.
Well, I'm sure it was a personal hell for her. It doesn't
look like anyone actually followed through on their death threats yet, only one month
after subpoenas are handed down, in the credit card investigation, Sue wound up
being murdered. I just don't think that's a coincidence, not to mention that
the crime took place shortly after Joseph Nuzo had his employment at Northwest terminated for
good, and after Bobby Brooks transferred to a new job in Minneapolis. As
you'll recall, in exchange for testifying against Neuzo about his role in the credit
card ring, Brooks received a limited immunity agreement and got to avoid jail time
with a sentence of three years probation. But I think it's pretty damning the
Brooks still decided to perjure himself while testifying about Sue's murder, which eventually led
to him receiving a prison sentence. Why lie about that under oath unless you
have something to hide exactly. And the reality is is that remember new Zo's
going around telling people that he got this subpoena and he's he's having to come
and testify, and he says, Sue that rat I know she's the snitch.
I know Susan one's that told on us. And there were thirty sum
on individuals eventually indicted in this credit card scam, so thirty five people and
Newso's part of it, and he's the one saying, you know who told
on us, it's that snitch Sue. And remember this is during the grand
jury and they're getting these subpoenas to come in and talk about the case.
So they're scared Sue's going to somehow become a very viable witness against them.
She had to go. So whether it's Neuzo and Brooks, someone they were
working with in this quite large credit card ring, would also have the potential
of seeing Sue as a kind of lynchpin or problem when she's in toted as
the big snitch. Oh yeah, Like, even those thirty seven people were
indicted, only ten of them were actually baggage chandlers at that airport. So
I have to assume that there were other people who involved who may have been
career criminals and may have been the ones who put this in motion, who
realized that, hey, if this woman is going to testify against us,
she has to go. So we can't even be certain that one of the
bagga chandlers committed the murder. It could have been someone that was hired by
them to kill Sue on their behalf. Wouldn't they have had to be involved
somehow and give them information about who Sue was and why she's this big problem.
Oh exactly Like, even if new Zo or Brooks didn't kill Sue herself,
I'm sure they fed like information whoever did kill her to know when she'd
be leaving and where she would be, so that they would know how to
attack her. So as a recap, when Brooks was called upon to testify
in front of a grand jury related to Sue's murder, he still maintained that
he was working in Minneapolis on the night she was killed and had no contact
with new Zo that weekend. He it's even given the chance to recant or
change his testimony while under oath, but still stuck to his original story,
and when concrete evidence was produced to show that Brooks was lying, he wound
up going to prison for fifteen months. I see no reason for Brooks to
have purgeing himself like this unless he knew something really incriminating. The investigation produced
time cards which showed that Brooke wasn't at work on the night of Sue's murder,
but it doesn't look like they uncovered any evidence that he was in Boston,
which is a long way from Minneapolis. So I'm not sure Brooks would
have participated in the actual murder, but at the very least I think he
spoke to news about it and knows what happened. Unfortunately, as part of
this plea deal, Brooks did not have to answer any further questions about Sue's
death, so that was a major blow for the investigation. It is so
infuriating. Just fine, you don't like talking about it. I don't want
to upset you. Here's a plea deal that seems really really contradictory to what
you should be doing in this case. Once you prove he had lied to
you about where he was and who he was talking to, and a girl
ends up dead, it's weak. It's so weak. Like Robin pointed out,
they held all the cards. Why did they have to make any kind
of plea deal At that point, it was like, here's the information that
you've violated the terms of your agreement, and so we should be handing down
this sentence to you type of a thing. But yet they're like, oh
no, obviously this is a pain. You don't like talking about Sue to
ask a wis so you know, just played out to this and you'll never
get asked a question about her again. Like the motivation on their part that
underlie that decision. I would love to know now Joseph Nuzo had a bigger
motive than anyone to murder Sue, as he'd held a grudge against her since
she played a role in getting him fired for six months in nineteen eighty nine,
and he was the source of some of the worst harassment that she received.
And most importantly, he seemed to think that Sue was working as an
informant for the authorities and the credit card investigation and could potentially send him to
prison. Nuso definitely sounds like the number one suspect, But what isn't so
clear is how many other people might have been involved in this murder. I
think there has to be multiple people involved. I don't think there had to
be multiple people to stab Sue. But I'm still there is a gut feeling
inside me that Sue was told by somebody, Hey, I'm really hungry.
I really wish I had Jimmy John's you know, I really wish I had
Subway right now. And She's like, I could go get everybody subway,
Like if that happened and then you picked up the phone and you called somebody
else who's waiting to see who Sue is and where she's going to be.
I could see this having multiple players waiting to figure out a way to get
Sue alone and to get rid of her so that she didn't testify as the
quote snitch, and then poor Sue's innocently functioning like, oh, the worst
problem I have is my ex boyfriend through a walkie talkie at work and people
are making dirty jokes and things like that. Well, behind her back,
everyone's saying she's a snitch, turning on you being the start witness for a
federal crime. So I think Sue has no idea, and I think that
makes her even more easy to manipulate and get her alone. So part of
me thinks it's this orchestrated plan to say, get out of here during your
shift. We're going to key people off that you're on your way to this
sandwich shop, and then we don't have to worry about you anymore. That
would make sense because Newso and Brooks were not actually working at Northwest by that
point, because Newzo have been fired and Brooks have been transferred so how would
they have known when she was going to leave the airport at what time.
So it definitely makes sense that maybe someone planted the seas that she would go
out and get sandwiches and then tip someone off to let them know she's off
the airport premises right now and you can go after her. Let's not forget
that this credit card. Let's not forget that this credit card scheme was not
just limited to ten baggage handlers at Northwest Airlines. Altogether, there were no
less than thirty five people involved, and a lot of them seemed like pretty
shady characters. As an example, there's a man named Arthur Rizzo who served
five years in prison for his involvement in this scam. In two thousand and
six, Rizzo made the news again after he was busted as part of an
identity theft ring, which involved him and his accomplices impersonating Homeland security officials and
calling up immigrants to obtain their personal information such as their credit card or social
security numbers. And while I can't one percent confirm their authenticity, I've also
read rumors online that the mob might have been involved in the stolen credit card
ring. If that was true, and Nuzzo told some higher ups and organized
crime that Sue was a quote unquote rat and responsible for the indictments which which
were about to be handed down. Then I can see a contract being put
out on her life, absolutely, and that's what you know. It's possible
that maybe no one did tip someone off, right, Maybe it was more
of like, hey, it's you know, we just got called for the
subpoenas and people are starting to testify, and rumor has it that there's some
girl named Sue here. We have a picture of her, we know who
she is. And it's possible they're waiting in the parking lot because they know
she's at work and they're just waiting for her to leave. It. It
just so happens to be one am and not the seven am clock out.
But it's possible no one else in the airport at the time was the person
tipping them off, which is why no one was really on guard at the
time. But something bigger was happening here. Somebody's waiting to get rid of
Sue. I think for bigger reasons than sexual harassment. See these names Neuzo
and Rizzo. I guess you just can't trust anyone whose last name ends with
two z's in an Oh, It's possible Neuzo did not actually commit the murder
himself, and that a professional was assigned to kill Sue. But then again,
I think a contract killer would have simply shot her and not gone through
the trouble of beating and stabbing her several times. The violent nature sure this
crime suggested a more personal killing. I've always wondered why the killer didn't decide
to murder Sue while she was off duty, because luring her to her death
in the middle of a shift is going to attract a lot of attention.
However, that might have been their intention all along, is having Sue disappear
like that would send a message to her co workers to keep quiet if they
didn't want to suffer the same fate. And if true, that strategy obviously
worked because their absence was covered up, and it seems like everyone from her
crew has kept their mouth shut. It's absolutely true. I mean, that's
the culture at this place anyway. The culture has been keep your mouth shut.
Because remember, Sue actually went forward, and she did have supporters.
Initially they were backing her up, but they started getting threatened, they started
getting their keys card, their car's keyed. They started getting threatening messages for
them, and so if they were to actually come forward, especially thinking about
this in worrying about her physical health, like what would happen into them?
Then they were scared for just reporting the sexual harassment, And now they're worried
that she didn't show up to work, Then what happens. One key piece
of information I've always found curious are some claims that Sue received a phone call
from an unknown person shortly before she left on her food run. Her mother
has always believed this call might have been from someone she trusted who lured her
to her death. Given what she'd been through the past several years, Sue
would have been very cautious about going to meet someone alone in the middle of
the night, so there is some credence to that theory. Remember, Joseph
Neuzo and Bobby Brooks were no longer working at Logan International Airport at this time,
so how would they have known when Sue was leaving to go get food
unless someone told them. It does seem like multiple people besides new Zo and
Brooks were complicit in Sue's murder, so it's possible that at least one of
them was a person she trusted. I'd like to think that the explanation here
is a fairly simple one, and that new Zo and possibly one or two
other people were the sole architects of this crime, and that there's no grand
conspiracy involving the mafia or organized crime. But the fact of the matter is
that Sue just disappeared in the middle of her shift, and none of her
call workers did anything about it. And that's the thing. That's what really
you saw Marlene and Ronald do when they sued the airport and they sued the
Machinists Federation, they're saying she didn't matter to you, Like at no point
did she matter to you or her colleagues because you allowed her to be mistreated
for years. You allowed her to just be this number and check mark and
body holder right at this airport, and no one stepped up and took care
of our daughter the way that you would pray your daughter was taking care of
that you would pray your wife was taking care of. You dropped the ball
for years with our daughter. And here you see, not only is it
like she just didn't matter, it's like she walks off and disappears and everyone
goes along with their life like nothing happened, Like this was not a catastrophic
event. When your coworker not only goes missing, but has found murdered in
the trunk of her cart when she was off to get sandwiches for you,
Like, to me, this seems life changing, life altering where I would
be part of the what happened to her movement. I would step up and
want to know with her mother what happened, because Sue's no different than any
of us who are working there, Like why Sue? Why did her life
end? And no one seemed to care. It's really disturbing. Yeah,
that is a good play because we talked about her in a last episode that
every year Marlene holds a vigil at the airport, like she's always spreading awareness
about her daughter's murder. Yet I never hear anything much about Sue's friends or
former co workers participating, like showing up the airport alongside Marley in order to
try to seek answer. Is it just seems like they wanted to go and
that Marlene is the only one in the Turrascowitz family who's and her sister Debbie
as well, who want to find answers about what happened. I mean,
when a lot of years go by, too, friendships change, or just
people change, people move away. I could see initially friends being involved,
and then as years go by, decades go by, they may kind of
fall by the wayside, or they move on with their lives, they live
somewhere different and they kind of forget about Sue. Not that like she's not
on their mind, I'm sure at some point, but you know, the
family will never forget about her, so they're always going to be there.
But we didn't really hear about that, even from the initial stages, that
a bunch of her friends were concerned or involved in these vigils or anything like
that, did we, Robin, No, not that I've heard of.
Like I usually in a lot of these unsolved missing persons cases and murders,
we see friends of Sue get interviews or speak to the media or spread awareness.
But I can't think of anyone outside the family who has been a public
face or Sue. I mean, it seems like she did spend a ton
of time at work though, because she dated Bobby Brooks and then dated her
boyfriend was the one that stood up to Brooks because he was being a dick,
and then Brooks had threatened the boyfriend and s that he would kill him
or whatever. So it just says to me, the fact that she's dating
in the pool of the men that are at her work, that she probably
doesn't have a lot of free time to be out there socializing, and so
it's just more convenient to meet a partner at work when you're not going to
bars with your friends or you're not doing those things that maybe typical twenty seven
year old is doing because you have a job that requires so much of you
and I don't know how much mental energy you have left at the end of
the day when you're getting constantly threatened and sexually harassed all the time. Yeah,
that does make sense. I haven't heard much about Sue having a social
life because she worked graveyard shifts from like eleven PM to seven eight, so
I can't imagine she went out too much, and that would explain that maybe
like the closest friend she had were people who worked with her. When it
comes down to it, I'm not sure all those employees would have kept their
mouth shut this long if all they had to worry about was Joseph Nuzo,
especially since he went to prison on other charges shortly thereafter. If Sue's murder
was motivated by the credit card ring, then that makes her story even more
tragic. Investigators have always made it clear that Sue was not involved in this
scheme and had never acted as an informant for them, and had not been
subpoena and had not been subpoena to testify. It seems pretty likely that Sue
knew nothing about the scheme at all, though given what we've heard about her
character, she probably would have gone to the authorities if she did find out.
But since Nuzo had a major personal vendetta against Sue, I'm sure he
just jumped on the opportunity to label her a rat, even if there was
no reason to believe that it was true. Even if it wasn't true,
every single person that new Zo talked to, he's likely not oversharing information about
this crime with people who also weren't involved. And when he sits there and
he says, hey, Sue, Sue is the one that turn on us,
whether it's true or not, which we now know is not true,
because everyone's going like, I don't know who the Sue character is right when
they're talking about the trial. But everyone that new Zo talked to now becomes
a very, very viable and potential suspect because when he names her and he
says she's a snitch, everyone says, well, that snitch can't make it
to court. We need one less person, right, We've got to make
sure that this person who's the head hauncho sharing information is deleted from the equation.
And so by Neuzo simply saying her name, I think you now have
a whole host of characters who have a vendetta against her. They have a
personal reason to get rid of her, and it's personal, it's intimate,
it's anger driven. And that's exactly the way that her body was discovered when
she stabbed multiple times. Yeah, even if Neuzo did not commit the crime
himself, he may have put Sue's life at serious risk with those false claims,
and if so, that just adds an extra level of tragedy to this
whole story, as a courageous woman had to deal with rampant sexism and harassment
for years and still managed to persevere, but then may have been murdered over
something she had absolutely nothing to do with. I'm really glad that Marline Traskowitz
will not give up it keeps going the extra mile to keep her daughter's story
in the spotlight. Because in spite of all the time which has passed,
this case is still solvable. All it might take is for the right person
to come forward and talk. So if you have any information on the unsolved
murder of Sue Traskowitz, please contact the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at
six one seven seven two seven eight eight one seven. That's six one seven
seven two seven eighty eight one seven. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on
the case. I think this is one of those cases that kind of lights
a fire and makes you stop and think, like, why was Sue in
this situation to start with? And it makes you so grateful for people like
Sue. You know, Julie, I don't know about you, but as
a woman, when I'm listening to this story and I go, wait,
Sue put up with this and documents that she's putting up with it so that
future women don't have to be the next woman that's harassed by these same people.
And there's so many people who have done that for us. There's strong
men and women who have been major voices, so that we struggle a little
less than the women before us. But it's crazy to think it's twenty twenty
three and we still see and feel these same things happening in the workplace.
My begging plea to people is that you have this kind of conviction that you
owe it to not just the people around you, but to future generations,
to our children, to our sisters, to our brothers, people who are
going to stand and shoose where they have the ability to be harassed and teased
and degraded for who they are. And you start to say, it's not
funny anymore. It's not going to be tolerated anymore. And whether you like
the people around you or not, you look at them as fellow human beings
and say, I won't stand by while people are being mistreated. Right.
I don't have to go have a beer with you after work, we don't
have to have coffee in the morning, we don't even have to talk at
work. But I'm not going to watch while people get mistreated. And you
know, I hope that that gets easier and easier for people to do.
I also have to step back and think about Marlene in this case. Remember
Marlene had to go report her daughter missing where she's met with Oh, yeah,
we know she's actually deceased, right, That's how she finds out that
her daughter has been murdered. When she's going to, you know, with
this hope of okay, she's missing, but I just need help and I
can find her. And then Marlene isolates herself away from her daughter's belongings and
says, I can't even fathom walking into that bedroom without my heartbreaking. And
when she finally says, you know what, Sue would want me to move
forward, Sue would want me to understand her more. I'm gonna go be
with her things, she finds that hidden briefcase that has this diary that you
really dissects everything she's been dealing with. And you know that Marlene went into
this whole nother Oh my god, what if I had known? What if
I could have helped? Why didn't she tell me? Were we not that
close? Did I fail her? And so instead of saying I'm going to
shut down with that information, she says, quote, I'm a fighter and
Sue was a fighter, So she's not going to go anywhere. Wow.
Wow, Marlene went through a death of another child. She and port Ronald
got divorced. I'm sure that it wasn't just Sue's death, but a lot
of trauma definitely weighs on a marriage. And Marlene, still thirty one years
later, is fighting and saying, my daughter deserves justice, and boy does
she. I hope and pray that even though it's been when years, someone
says enough times, past cultures have changed. Right, the culture is changing,
and poor Marlene deserves answers, and Sue deserves someone being held accountable for
her murder. Man, You're right, this is one of the most rage
inducing cases I've heard of. How do you walk away and no one cares?
How's your body found thirty six hours later and no one cares? And
how are so many people wrapped up in your abuse and harassment and potential death?
And no one's caught the idea that, you know, the women of
the past paved the way for us, and that we stand on the shoulders
of giants. I truly believe that sutu Ascoits was one of those. She
really stood firm and steadfast in her conviction, and she refused to quit.
She excelled at her job amidst an environment that was working against her from every
single angle. You've got people like Bobby Brooks, You've got people like Joseph
Neuzo, and I'm sure a myriad of other individuals that haven't been named,
just likely because they weren't named in that diary. And she persevered not only
for herself. This wasn't like a selfish pursuit. She could have left and
gone to another job and had this excellent resume, and it probably would have
been a lot easier. But she didn't take the path that was easy.
She took the path that was hard. And for that, I think we
should celebrate her. And I truly believe that Marlene and Ronald in taking the
airline to court, Northwest to court and holding their feet to the fire and
saying, look, you failed our daughter. You didn't hold any of these
people accountable. You allowed them to make all of these missteps and screw up
here, there and everywhere, and then you brought back Newzo on this you
know, last Chance initiative or whatever the hell it was. And at the
end of the day, he ended up being the mastermind with this whole credit
card ring, and our daughter was failed. And so the fact that They
really made Northwest say hey, we're going to put up this two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars reward for any information that leads to a conviction, and I
love that Delta Airlines said, hey, if anybody has this information, we
will honor that. So if anybody does have that information, hopefully they will
feel inclined to come forward. Because I just cannot wrap my head around how
much work Marlene has done. In particular, she is such a hero in
this story, and I would love for her to be able to see some
kind of resolution as to what happened to Sue, because I feel like this
is still solvable as long as there's people who are alive that were connected to
this, and there seems to be so many. There has to be somebody
that could give the authorities the information, make a plea deal, and tell
them who did this. I mean, I'm just dumbfounded that this case hasn't
been solved with how many people seem to be privy to information or to have
been involved. Well, I said, this was one of the most reg
inducing cases we're ever going to cover. But I actually do have some good
news by peer coincidence. The day before we recorded this episode. The podcast
The Deck actually released their own new episode about this case, which featured interviews
with Marline Trascowitz as well as the new lead investigator on the case, and
he confirmed something which I didn't know before, which is that there is DNA
evidence which could point to a suspect. And he said that we may solve
this case sometime in the future, which is great news because I didn't know
if they had any DNA evidence. And since this is an example of a
case going on solved for three decades because people will stay silent and not come
forward, it will be pretty amazing if they're able to use this DNA evidence
and act and directly implicate a suspect and make an arrest. So that was
a huge side of relief to hear that, because we've gone on and on
this episode about how the only reason this has managed to stay unsolved for so
many decades is because people have remained silent. But it is solvable because you
just have the sense that more people out there, not just the perpetrators,
have knowledge about what happened and have just never decided to tell the police.
So we'll see where this plays out, but if it does, I'll definitely
be cheering that because I do think that Sue Trascowitz is one of the most
amazing individuals who has ever been a victim on one of our podcasts, because
she was a trailblazer who got a job in an industry where women were not
welcome, but still managed to persevere and held the mentality if I quit,
if I let them beat me, it's going to make it a lot more
difficult for people to follow in my footsteps and other women to break into this
industry. And unfortunately it may have wound up costing her life, but she
does have an amazing legacy going on here because I don't know what it's like
at Logan Internet, National Airport and Northwest Airlines these days, but I'm willing
to bet that it is at least better for women and that more female employees
are able to work there without facing the constant harassment that she had to do.
And I'm sure that was due in large part to her parents of drumming
up so much publicity surrounding this case and filing a lawsuit against the airlines to
put them on the spot and say that you failed our daughter, you did
not step in when she needed you. When she was being harassed and that
may have cost her her life. And overall, I do believe that even
if Joseph Nuzo and Bobby Brooks to not personally kill Sue, that they at
least were involved in the murder plot against her or know who did it.
And I do hope that this DNA evidence does lead somewhere and that when they
arrest a suspect, we'll find out the full truth and that maybe other people
who were complicit actually get arrested as well, and we will find the full
truth about what happened to her, because Sue is definitely a victim who deserves
justice. Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit about the
trailment called Patreon? Yes, the trail called Patreon has been around for three
years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes,
and I also send out stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who
signs up with us on Patreon if you join our five dollar tier Tier two.
We also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are
not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feeds, so they're exclusive to Patreon
and if you join our highest tier, Tier three, the ten dollar Tier.
One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes
of Unsaw Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up
the original Unsaw Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my
audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that
I did a commentary track over was the episode featuring this case. So if
you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smartass remarks about
Juel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three. So I want to
let you know a little bit about the Jewels and Ashley Patreon, so there's
early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Path Went
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but they're just too short to turn into a series, and we're really
enjoying doing those, so we hope you'll check out those. Patreons will link
them in the show notes. So I want to thank you all for listening
and any chance you have to share us on social media with a friend or
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the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold
trails and chili pass call for warm clothing. Music by Paul Rich from the
podcast Cold Callers Comedy