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Su taraskiewicz1

Su Taraskiewicz

Real Name: Susan Taraskiewicz
Nicknames: Su
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Date: September 13, 1992

Case

Details: In the airline industry, twenty-seven-year-old Su Taraskiewicz of Saugus, Massachusetts, was something of a trailblazer. In 1989, she became only the second woman hired by Northwest Airlines as a ground services employee on the ramp at Logan Airport in Boston. Her job included loading and unloading baggage and de-icing planes. It was just the kind of challenge she thrived on. According to her mother, Marlene, she loved being on the ramp and doing her job. She would often joke about moving “a million bags” in one day. She would almost never complain about her job to Marlene.
At Northwest, Su had worked her way up from cleaning the interiors of jets to landing the new job. Three years later in 1992, she was promoted to ramp supervisor, the first woman ever to hold that position. Although she enjoyed her job, she hoped to one day become a firefighter or cartoonist. At around 7:30am on the morning of September 14, 1992, her car, a blue Toyota Tercel, was discovered parked in front of the Bravo Auto & Tire Service Co. on Route 1A (also known as Lee Burbank Highway) in Revere, not far from the airport. Blood was found next to it and on the trunk. Inside the trunk was her body. She had been bludgeoned and then stabbed multiple times. Police believe she was killed elsewhere and then driven to the auto shop.
Even though Su had been neither robbed nor sexually molested, her family assumed she had been targeted at random. But who? Who could have wanted her dead? For more than a year, her family grieved and pondered that disturbing question. Then at Christmastime 1993, Marlene finally ventured into Su’s room for the first time since the murder. She had tried many times before, but the grief was too much. When she finally went in, she decided she would get something that was special to Su and put it out for the holidays.
When Marlene went into Su’s closet, she saw her briefcase on the floor. Inside it was a diary, and its contents were shocking. In wrenching detail, Su had documented accounts of sexual harassment she had endured at Northwest, ugly incidents she had never mentioned to her family. The journal included quotes of graffiti – insulting, demeaning, and lurid – that had been etched in the men’s rooms at the airport and even in the cargo holds of jets. Marlene was shocked at the things people had written about Su. She knew that Su had had issues with her male coworkers (reportedly because they did not want a female boss), but she did not realize how serious the problems really were. She wondered if the harassment was the reason why Su was murdered.
In numerous passages, Su described what appeared to be blatant acts of hostility. Typical was the following entry: “April 12, 1989. Bobby came into the break room…” she proceeded to describe how Bobby picked up and dropped her radio onto a table. When asked why he did that, he said, “because the Bruins lost.” She continued: “He left the room and one of my coworkers picked up the radio and plugged it in to see if it still worked. Bobby came back into the room…” He then picked up the radio and threw it against the wall, breaking it.
Su’s boyfriend at the time, who also worked at the airport, spoke to Bobby and demanded that he replace the radio. Su confronted Bobby later that day. She was upset because Marlene had gotten the radio for her for Christmas. He said to her, “What are you going to do, send your punk boyfriend over here again? Is he going to beat me up? He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”
Su filed numerous formal complaints with the management of Northwest Airlines and her union, but little was done to curb the harassment. Instead, management allegedly told her things like "let it go" and "don’t let these people know it bothers you, just sit back and ignore it." Shockingly, it was alleged that her superiors even ordered her to empty airplane toilets in response to her complaints about harassment.
In time, the abuse escalated to torrents of anonymous graffiti, all of it targeted: "Su T." According to Laura Brown, reporter for the Boston Herald, it was not just one or two pieces of graffiti that made their way up and then were washed away. It was repeated cases of graffiti of varying kinds. On one occasion, there was a giant drawing of Su naked in a sexual position inside the cargo hold of a plane. In some cases, the graffiti amounted to death threats against other workers who were supporting Su.
Su also mentioned in her diary about getting anonymous phone calls all hours of the night. She recorded some of the times the calls happened. In one instance, a caller said: “Get off our backs, Su T baby.” When she asked who was calling, the caller would not respond. She also had instances where her car was vandalized, her boyfriend’s car was vandalized, and friends who were supporting her had their cars vandalized.
Curiously, Su’s diary covered only her first eight and a half months in her new job. But apparently the discrimination continued. Despite the abuse, her ambition did not flag. She told friends and supportive coworkers that she would "stand up" to her harassers by showing up to work every day and continuing to do her job. She did not want "them" to win and knew that if she left, it would be harder for other women to work and get jobs there.
In February 1992, Su was promoted to ramp supervisor and put in charge of the employees she once worked with on the tarmac. Initially, she had been passed over for the promotion when a man in her union had illegally bid for the job. She filed a grievance and won, becoming the first woman to hold the position. But the victory was not without its detractors.
According to Su’s coworker, Joseph Snow, a lot of their coworkers felt that they did not want a woman being their boss. They felt that it should be "a man’s job." However, according to Joseph, that did not stop her from coming to work or standing up to things that she thought were wrong. Another coworker, Deborah Mazeikus, notes that some men resent women in a position of authority, while others like it and deal with it. But, according to her, at Northwest, there were definitely certain people that had a problem with it.
Deborah believes that Su was very conscientious about her job and always tried to make it a better place to work. Su really believed that she could make a difference for minorities and women that worked there. However, a few months after her promotion, the graffiti became more sinister. It may have been the beginning of the end. One day, she found a drawing of a coffin with her name on it on the inside of her locker.
On another occasion, Su and Deborah had a meeting at Northwest that did not go well. During it, Su started to cry. She was crying so hard she could not control herself. She continued crying when she went into the women’s room. When Deborah went to console her, she found her sobbing. Deborah was concerned about the ongoing emotional toll that it was taking on Su. She told Deborah that she was afraid. Although she did not specifically say she was afraid for her life, Deborah now believes that is what she meant.
During a graveyard shift from 11pm to 7am on September 12, 1992, Su volunteered to go to a Revere restaurant to pick up sandwiches for her crew. She left at around 1am on September 13 and never returned. No one reported her missing for a day and a half. Marlene had thought she was working overtime when she was not home on the 13th. When she learned she did not show up for work on the 14th, she went to report her missing. She then learned that Su was dead. When her body was found, the money she was going to use to buy the sandwiches was with her, indicating that she never made it to the restaurant.
Incredibly, instead of reporting her missing, Su's coworkers marked her timecard to indicate that she returned from the sandwich run, left at the end of her shift, and returned to work the next day. They said that they were "covering" for her, but Marlene is skeptical. When Su's family first found out that she was murdered, the very first question they asked was, did she ever do this before? Did she ever leave work and not come back? They were told that she had never done that. Marlene does not understand why no one at work reported her missing. She wonders if there was a cover-up of some sort involved.
Authorities now believe that Su’s death may have been connected to a federal investigation of Northwest that took place in Summer 1992. Evidently, some baggage handlers at the Boston facility had been operating a stolen credit card ring. When shipments of new credit cards were transported on Northwest jets, a group of workers were stealing them, using them, and selling them. The scam netted over $7 million. Ten Northwest employees were eventually indicted and given various sentences. To Marlene, some of the names were very familiar: they were in Su’s diary as people who had sexually harassed her from day one.
Marlene believes that Su was set up by her coworkers. For whatever reason, they were afraid that Su was going to “squeal” about something. Former chief trial counsel and Assistant D.A. Jack Cinquegrana stated that as far as the airport is concerned, a lot of people there knew her. A lot of people knew what was going on around her. Cinquegrana has talked to several of them, and they have given him information. However, he and others believe that someone at the airport has more information.
Northwest Airlines declined to be interviewed for this story. The authorities are currently investigating more than one suspect but lack the evidence to file charges. In the meantime, Su’s family continues to seek justice in her memory. Each year on the anniversary of her death, they hold a candlelight vigil at the site where her body was found. Marlene asks the people who know about the murder: how much longer can you go carrying this guilt? She is asking those people to bring peace to themselves, bring peace to her and her family, and get the killer(s) off the street.
In 1995, Su's family sued Northwest for sexual harassment. The parties later reached a settlement which included a payout of $75,000 to her estate, as well as the promise of a $250,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case. Northwest denied any wrongdoing. The settlement is known to be one of the largest discrimination settlements ever granted in Massachusetts. The case is still open and active.
Suspects: Marlene believes that Su was killed by someone she knew. At around 1am on the night she vanished, she received a telephone call from an unidentified person who wanted to meet her. Marlene believes that the call was from someone Su trusted, who "set her up" and lured her to a meeting with her killer.
Police believed that Su may have been tortured for hours with severe beatings to the head and neck before being fatally stabbed in the back. It is possible that the killer(s) were trying to get information from her.
Su's car was found near the Esquire Club, a bar frequented by airline employees. She and her former boyfriend stopped by it occasionally, but she had not been there in the months prior to her murder. It is not known if her car being found near the bar is a coincidence or not. It is also not known if her former boyfriend was ever considered a suspect.
Two suspects identified in the case are two of Su's coworkers: Joseph Nuzzo and Robert "Bobby" Brooks. She and Brooks had briefly been romantically involved. She had several problems with him and Nuzzo; Brooks had broken her radio for no apparent reason and later threatened her and her then-boyfriend.
In April 1989, Su attempted to break up a fistfight between Nuzzo and two other employees. He responded by calling her a sexual slur. Northwest decided to fire him following this incident (he had been disciplined for several other infractions). His dismissal was not permanent as he returned about six months later. However, he repeatedly blamed Su for his predicament. During this time, he keyed her car, slashed her tires, staked out her house, made anonymous telephone calls, and told others (including Brooks) that he would "exact revenge".
Shortly after Nuzzo returned to work, he and several other baggage handlers began to steal credit cards from mail bags air-freighted by Northwest. It was alleged that Nuzzo was the "initiator" of the scheme. Brooks was also involved in it, using the cards with Nuzzo. In August 1992, several baggage handlers were subpoenaed by a grand jury. Nuzzo allegedly believed that Su had either told the police about the scheme or was going to aid them in their investigation (it is not believed that she actually knew anything about the scheme). He told Brooks that he believed she was the "rat." One week later, he was fired. A few weeks after his firing, Su was murdered.
In 1995, Nuzzo was convicted on various charges related to the credit card scheme and was sentenced to three years in prison. Brooks moved out of the area prior to the murder; he cooperated with police and later pleaded guilty to theft and fraud charges in relation to the scheme. He was sentenced to three years' probation. They remain suspects, along with several of Su's other co-workers at Northwest.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the February 9, 1996 episode.
  • It was also featured on Dateline and the "Trace Evidence" and "Trail Went Cold" podcasts.
  • A fictionalized version of it was featured on the show "Law and Order: Criminal Intent".
  • Su was known to love the comic strip "Peanuts" and met the creator, Charles Schulz, in 1992. After her death, he made a drawing of Snoopy that was added to her gravestone.

Results: Unsolved. In September 1996, armed with fresh leads from the FBI, a federal grand jury in Boston began investigating Su's murder and its connection to the credit card scheme. In October, Brooks was subpoenaed. In July 1997, he was arrested and charged with lying to the grand jury. He had told them that he had talked to Nuzzo only once around the time of Su's murder. However, phone records showed that he had spoken to Nuzzo three times following the murder. On September 13, the day Su vanished, they talked on the phone for twenty-two minutes. They also talked to each other on September 18 and 19. He also claimed that he was working in another state on the day of the murder; however, timecard records proved otherwise.
In 1998, Brooks pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in relation to his false grand jury testimony. He was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.
In 2008, Northwest merged with Delta Airlines. Delta stood by the commitment to honor the $250,000 reward that Northwest originally offered. The case is still open and being investigated by law enforcement. Nuzzo and Brooks, along with several of Su's other coworkers, remain suspects in her murder. Each year on the anniversary of Su's death, her family and friends hold a memorial service for her.
Sadly, Su's father, Ronald Sr., passed away in 2011 and her brother, Ronald Jr., passed away in 2007.
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