Susan Taraskiewicz /// Part 1 /// 702 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man whose reality is realer than yours here is the captain
that's right I've had cameras on me since birth it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening
thanks for telling a friend thank you [Music] this week we were extremely excited to
be featuring Brew crime from our good friends down at tactical Brewing Company in Orlando Florida this is a New England
IPA brewed with four different kinds of hops and you know here in the garage we love beer can art and this beer can art
is most certainly five out of five bottle caps shout out to sleds for the awesome artwork and Brew crime beer is
five out of five bottle caps and let's give some thanks and praise to our friends for helping us fill up this old
garage fridge this week first up a shout out to Liz from Plymouth Massachusetts and a big we like your jib goes out to
Alyssa V and Conroe Texas and last but certainly not least we have a shout to Mary McLean from Fountain Colorado
everyone we mentioned they went to True Crime garage.com clicked on the Pint glass and helped us out with this week's
Beer Run yeah BW are you in beer run if you need more True Crime garage for your
ear balls ear balls you can subscribe through Apple podcast subscription right on the Main feed of our show or head on
over to patreon we are now officially on patreon for all you Android users so you
want to check out that bonus content check out our show off the Record and that's enough of the Bizness all right
everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
oh [Music] a hard-working pious honest and kind woman battles pervasive harassment at her
workplace she deals with it handling a difficult situation in a sophisticated manner
her intelligence and hard work pay off as she Rises up the ranks to a position of superiority
at an outfit dominated by tough men It is believed that these men her tormentors
thought that they could bully her to the point that she would quit her job but Susan taraskowitz
was tougher smarter than they were she kept documentation of the harassment hoping that one day soon these bad
elements that created so much bad blood could be removed scrubbed clean and washed away
but blood is thicker than water even the bad kind and then one night in the middle of a
graveyard shift Susan disappeared was this the case of retaliation revenge or was it something else
who would have wanted her gone how many of these bad elements were involved just what the hell happened here
can this case still be solved we will attempt to answer many of these questions this week
on True Crime garage [Music] Susan taraskowitz was born February 13 1965 in Everett Massachusetts
she grew up in a blue-collar town the blue collar town of Saugus Susan was the middle child of three kids
born to parents Ronald and Marlene to roskowitz Ronald was a tractor-trailer dealer and Marlene worked at the local
grocery store Susan had one sister Deborah and one brother Ronald Jr the family home was known in the
neighborhood because it was a pink Ranch Little Pink Houses there captain now to
neighbors and those who knew Susan's family they all Rave about how sweet generous
and friendly Susan was or as everyone called her Sue was athletic and active she enjoyed
running roller skating and soccer in 1983 she graduated from Saugus High School while there she had a reputation
for being quiet but also reputation for being sweet helpful and nice both to her
teachers and classmates Not only was Sue athletic but she had an artsy side and she was known for making crafts she
enjoyed sewing and creating holiday decorations she was very active in the Catholic Parish church that her family
attended even teaching Sunday school and serving as a Eucharist minister she went to a community college for a
bit she aspired to be a cartoonist but that didn't really seem to pay the bills so she sidelined her dream for a more
regular job more regular work and she ended up taking a job at the same place that many other locals did back then
this is the Boston International Airport or Logan International Airport and we all know how this goes you get a new job
you're thinking that life is on the up and up but her life Sue's life becomes more
turmoil than happiness that's exactly right and that's what we will find when we go through the events leading up to
the the time in question that her life was filled with turmoil now we mentioned some of the problems she faced at work
in today's trailer and we will get into her work stuff very shortly but in her personal life
it was also in major flux leading up to the timing question she had just broken up with a long-term
boyfriend who was an employee of an airplane fuel company and she left the Catholic church in which she had been
raised to join a fundamentalist Christian Church Susan was clearly seeking something at that time in her
life she typically worked the night shift and then went straight to Boston Church of Christ services in Danvers on
Sunday morning after leaving the airport she also attended a Thursday night bible
group her friends and family described what the Boston Globe referred to as a fervent commitment to the extremist
Church whose fundamentalist teachings and demands were thought to be by some controversial
this church was even termed a cult by several people now two of Susan's friends who spoke
with the Boston Globe this is Vicky Boone and an unnamed woman both said that her recent breakup with her
boyfriend it was Mutual it was amicable and there didn't seem to be any problems
there but she replaced that part of her life with a new profound passion for this
fundamentalist church that she had joined and she tried to recruit co-workers and family members and
Friends into its ranks she often brought Candy to work to sweetly bribe people to listen to her
about her new church and her experiences there she was so dedicated to this church that
she missed out on sleep to help elderly church members when they were ill driving members to church and to Bible
study and even babysitting members children so that they could attend services this to me and I think you will agree
with me Captain what I see here when we take a glimpse of Susan's life I see a person that once she decides to
commit to something she's incredibly dedicated incredibly dedicated to that and we see
that with her church and I say unfortunately because I believe this is all tied up in this case but I
think we see this with her workplace as well well like you're saying Sue is very
dedicated to her church and she's dedicated to this job that makes her Inner Circle a little larger than I
think most people in her early 20s Susan got a job working for Northwest Airlines
at Logan Airport she started in May of 1987 working as a plane cleaner someone that cleans the planes at that time this
is a job largely held mostly by women but she worked her way up to equipment Service employee by December of that
same year by 1989 she was hired as a member of the ground crew now at that time Captain
this meant that Susan was only the second woman ever to work the ramp for Northwest Airlines which at the time was
the fourth largest airline in the U.S of a Sue was a tough young woman and told others that she enjoyed the physicality
the work required slinging bags on and off the planes using the light sticks to direct the Jets in and out of their Bays
driving the loaders and Hauling equipment and supplies she told her family that she was happy
and that they had no reason to doubt her in fact her mother Marlene told The Wall Street Journal quote she truly
loved working the ramp the thing she liked most was de-icing the planes she just felt it was very important end
quote Susan's friend and co-worker Deb mazikas said quote the ramp was always known to
be a man's job Sue wanted to show she could do it just as well as any man well if I know most men most men are
[ __ ] so they're probably going to give her a pretty hard time that seems to be the case here Captain because
much later in our timeline unfortunately it's going to take until later for her family to discover
what was likely the truth here that sure Susan seemed to have loved her job in the beginning
but at some point her job became a source of stress and not just regular work stress stuff
this is elevated stress which would include humiliation and an actual struggle sometimes day to day
now in February of 1992 Susan was up for a promotion to ramp crew chief again this is at Northwest Airlines the
airline awarded the position to a male co-worker instead this is despite Union rules at the time
about seniority so the union rules Captain would require that the job be awarded to someone like
Sue who was in a position of holding seniority over the person who was awarded the job so sue petitioned
the airline for a redress and ends up winning and so the ramp chief job became her job
she was the first woman to hold that title at that Airline this put her in a position of superiority over the Rough
Around the Edges baggage handlers and ground crew that she worked among and had a supervise
Men passed over for the promotion were irate and unfortunately some of these men were
rude enough dumb enough for both to let it be known that they felt it because she was a woman that Susan did not
deserve to get the job well let's go through this slowly she applies for a job that she should
have got because she had seniority she doesn't get that job so one person maybe multiple people make
this decision she then says this isn't right so she then sues the company so then
those individuals that made the decision if they didn't lose their jobs they're I'm sure they were reprimanded
and then you have all the people well you have the one individual that they gave the job to that they have to take
away now he's butt hurt instead of being butt hurt at the guys that made the decision he's going to be butt hurt at
Sue well and the the other thing we need to keep in mind too this is this is the
Union that is telling the airlines hey this is what what our Union has decided is right and
fair the what is right and what is most fair is that the person with the most seniority who applies for the job should
have first crack at it and that person is Susan the individual that that got the job and
then they had to take it from them the individuals that gave him the job instead of Susan
it would only make sense that they're a part of the same Union right right it's so it's it's this is a weird situation
like and you do see this like you have these groups that are supposed to be individuals banded together for one
common good but when things don't work out for them individually all of a sudden they want to break the rules or
they don't think that they were treated Fair no you decided on those rules together
you decided on what was most Fair together as a union so you should stand up for your union
brothers and sisters but because we're talking about 30 years ago more than 30 years ago that
people people just didn't see things that way especially when you're you're talking about a line of work that was
predominantly held by men and had been for so many years yeah and it's a little bit of human nature you
can't go after the collective so you can go after the individual her co-worker Deb who we've already referenced before
and then another co-worker his name is Joseph snow both of them told the media that Sue faced challenges
from those that she supervised um because you keep it keep in mind the way that these things typically work in a
workplace is people tend to choose sides right when when there's something going on when
they're when there's a dust up that's going on people tend to choose sides and some of the people that chose the other
side and not suicide were people that she had to manage she's the boss now of many people
and so these two people would later tell the media Deb and Joseph snow would tell
the media that Sue faced challenges from the people that she supervised she button heads against people that work
for her but that she continued to hold her head high and perform at a high level on the job yeah I've actually seen
this scenario go both ways I I was I was part of a bank that was closing branches
so we got moved to another branch immediately the manager said didn't ask for you guys to be here
I don't care about you guys keeping jobs here I am going to try to manage you out
and she did she micromanaged to the point where people couldn't take it anymore so they quit and then there was
other employees that were like you're not going to be thorn in my side I'm going to be a thorn in your side and
made it completely difficult and became a very very hostile work environment and
things like pay and having jobs affect everyone's livelihood and it affects people's families and it makes sense
that people get could even get to the level of of hostile uh regarding these situations but it's
also like let's try to keep level heads here and and make sense and again here in this situation we're talking
about a unionized job and in unionized situation where they're supposed to be voting on
things collectively and deciding as a group and it's like if you're really going to
be a part of the Union wouldn't you back up those decisions that were made by the union even if it
weren't in your best interest or even if it weren't what was your idea you got outvoted now sadly Captain it
was shortly after this promotion that Sue would go missing [Music] all right cheers mates onward and upward
and cheers to you Colonel good to have you back in the good old state of Ohio thank you Captain cheers to you thanks
everybody for hanging out with me at crimecon and hope to see you again next year
so now we're going to have to jump forward here Captain to September of 1992. so just a little quick math here
Susan now with the title of ramp chief has now been an official employee of Northwest Airlines for five years and
five months so let's go to Saturday night this is September 12 1992. Susan is the overnight shift supervisor
working the 11 PM to 7 A.M third shift that night Susan left Logan airport or planned to
leave Logan Airport I want everybody to underline that and keep keep that in their mind make mental note of that
statement Susan left Logan airport or planned to leave Logan Airport in the middle of her shift so by now
technically it is really Sunday morning the 13th Susan was going to go and grab lunch
for the crew that night so she had went around collected sandwich orders from everybody on the
crew she now has a list of Sandwich orders from her crew for a Revere sandwich shop that she was
going to go and pick up the orders from and she told the crew that she was driving to the deli to pick up the food
and she was going to bring it back this was a fairly big undertaking from my understanding here Captain anyone who
has navigated Logan Airport knows that it's not easy to get in and out of there it's a maze of off and on ramps with
complicated freeway exchanges so it's reported that Susan left or planned to leave around 1am
as far as anyone knows we can't find anybody who actually says that they saw that they witnessed her getting into
her car that night and this I think is is some key details of this timeline because she never came back to work that
night and was her car found at her work no her car is later found but not at work and and here's something that I
find and I believe everybody else out there will find rather curious so according to every report out there
not a single person at Northwest Airlines reported the fact that Susan had reportedly said she'd be right back
think about this she takes lunch orders from everyone sandwich orders from everyone says I'm going to go out pick
to pick up lunch for everyone I'll be right back nobody at her work reports her missing
she's not officially reported missing until about a day and a half later how does nobody notice that she didn't
return to work one but then on top of that didn't bring back my lunch my my sandwich that I ordered like it would be
pretty obvious to everybody there that she didn't return yeah big deal sitting around waiting for
my lunch where's Susan at and keep in mind we talked about the the hours of her shift right her shift
reportedly is 11 P.M to 7 A.M that night the reports are that she left at approximate or planned to leave at
approximately 1am that's relatively early in the shift for her for it to go unnoticed that she never returned so one
nobody I'm not saying that it went totally unnoticed what I'm pointing out is that it went totally unreported
so nobody reports that she didn't return one which she should have been back maybe 30 minutes at the most 40 minutes
at the most let's say there's still five hours plus of that shift left so you mean to tell me that a whole crew of
people who were waiting on their lunches and who would be working and supervised
by this individual for five hours five and a half hours right additional hours never no notice to the point of telling
anybody that she was missing or didn't return very bizarre stuff there well we don't
know what their work schedules were like and how often they they saw her you know I've worked in warehouses
before where it's you might see the boss a couple hours in the morning but maybe
once it hit sludge time you don't see the boss around lunchtime but but here it's it's
significantly different because you have again a set of a set of people that are waiting for their lunches
they're waiting for her return you think that one of those individuals would have
said this is a little strange that she hasn't made it back yet uh we should we should let security know
this we should let somebody know this I'll give you a very similar scenario that I'm sure almost everybody's
experienced because not everybody's boss brings them lunch I don't know the setup
did they hand in money was she willing to buy was this a regular thing or irregular thing I don't know that setup
I'm not going to pretend to know but I do know this setup and understand this setup which I think most people will how
many times at a job has somebody said hey man I want to take a lunch uh uh boss lady boss person I'm gonna take a
break I'd like to take a break or I need to make a phone call and the boss tells you no problem you
can go to lunch as soon as I get back from this or as soon as I get back from my break
we've all been there and what happens after like 20 minutes 30 minutes 40 minutes go by you start checking your
watch you start checking the clock because you hey I'm expecting that break and then you would think after five
hours people are starting to would have some concern to tell somebody now let's flip
it to to somebody else who obviously would have concern Susan's parents now they were of course worried when their
daughter never came home from her shift but let's go back to what we know was going on in her life at that time
and cross exam and cross-reference all of the material that we have all of the information that we have right so her
parents they're thinking look we know how busy our daughter is with her work we know how dedicated and how much time
she's devoting to her church and so they made some assumptions maybe she went to the church to help out
after her shift and that's why she didn't come home or maybe she picked up an overtime shift which wasn't uncommon
but then her parents catch wind that Sue had not been at work on Monday the 14th
so Marlene her mother reports her missing reports her daughter missing at that point so that's why you
have that roughly day and a half timeline between the time it's believed that Susan was last seen by her
co-workers in the middle of her shift to when she's officially reported missing but she's reported missing by
her family mind you now meanwhile that same day that Monday morning at 7 30 a.m there's a worker an employee at Bravo
Tire and Auto Service this individual he pulls into work at the mechanic shop this business is
located at Lee Burbank Highway Route 1 in Revere as he Parks his vehicle note that that's
the same town that she's going to go pick up the sandwiches from the deli right as he Parks his car he's shown up for
work that day he notices that there's a vehicle in the Shop's driveway that was not on the appointment list
that morning right so he sees this car he goes in he checks the appointment list wait a second this car's not on our
appointment list now mechanic shop we know how this all works there's emergencies there's breakdowns that
happen it's probably not uncommon that someone would drop their car or have a vehicle towed
to a mechanics lot and then phone it in the next day hey need some help think broke down on
the side of the highway but he checks his appointment list it's not on their schedule so he goes out to further
investigate and what he notices we should point out this vehicle it's a Toyota torsell and
it's blue in color but he quickly notices blood smeared on the trunk of the vehicle
and in fact the way that this was reported Captain is that there's so much blood
on the trunk of this vehicle that at some point it had not just smeared across the trunk but the blood had
dripped onto the ground near the back of the vehicle so of course the mechanic calls the
Revere Police now police arrive on the scene and they have the unfortunate duty of opening up
the car in the trunk and unfortunately inside they find Susan's body they find Susan Tarasco it's his body in
the trunk of the vehicle she's only 27 years old at this time and she's dead like you mentioned before we have no
eyewitness seeing her get into her vehicle to take that lunch break now you say she was found in her trunk
what else do we know about that scene well and this is really tragic too it's one of those extra sad parts of the
story that we come across regularly think of how this is all playing out she's she's technically been found
shortly before her her mother her parents are going to report her as missing but you know police have to have to
process the scene they have to do a little bit of work they hadn't got around to telling the mother yet what we
do learn though Captain is that the victim Susan she's found fully dressed later it was determined that she had not
been sexually assaulted but she had been violently beaten and stabbed her cause of death was multiple
stab wounds to the back and blunt force trauma to the head and neck and I have some suspicions about that
and I think that that there's some other aspects of this case that play into some
of those injuries and we'll get into that in a bit but we probably don't need to tell you
that this was very quickly ruled a homicide the money for the sandwiches was found in the vehicle
she never made it to the deli that night to pick anything up there were some missing items the only
reported known to the public missing items and this is what Sue's family alerted
police after they identified the body and after they identified her her clothing
and belongings and such the family told police that Susan always wore a 16-inch gold chain that had two
charms on it one was a Christ head Medallion and the other was a crucifix this item these items were missing from
her body when she was found dead in the trunk of the car and none of these items
have ever been found they've never been located police checked the surveillance camera
footage from the coastal oil New England facility this is a business across the street right from the parking lot where
her vehicle and body were found so across the street from the Bravo auto shop whether they saw Susan's car arrive at
Bravo and if so who was driving it is unknown we know they checked the footage we don't know exactly what they've seen
but what we do know is police have stated that they believe that Susan was actually killed elsewhere and her car
just ditched at the Bravo shop the Bravo car repair place was noted to be very near the Esquire Club which is a
bar known to be frequented by employees of Northwest Airlines yeah when you start breaking down this
timeline and you hear that she collected money to go get sandwiches my first thought well I don't know if she
collected remember I had said I don't know that's one thing that I'm interested in finding out I don't know
if she collected money or if she was buying them or if the company was paying right that part I don't know but the
money the money that is believed to be for the purchase of the lunches was found in the vehicle we do know that so
still found in the vehicle but if co-workers are saying whether they she collected money or whether they're
saying that she was going to buy the sandwiches that part of the story seems to check out
then she leaves but nobody sees her get into her vehicle so we don't know if there was a confrontation
at that parking lot or where that where the conflict first started taking place exactly and what we do the only thing we
really do know is police saying that we believe she was killed elsewhere and the vehicle was just ditched there
which I think is really interesting when you check that against the idea that we
know that they check the surveillance camera footage across the street but we don't know what they they were able to
view on that if anything we don't know if if they could see the car pulling into the
lot across the street Susan's car or do they have any idea if one person got out or two people got out right
because you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to piece together that if police are
telling you we believe she was killed elsewhere then she wasn't the one driving the vehicle when it was dropped
off at that parking lot yeah and were they able to see somebody leave the vehicle was there another vehicle that
came and picked up an individual after the car was dropped off this could be some stuff that law
enforcement knows they're just not releasing it to the public and the interesting thing too is if
there were other people involved right people that work together we we have nobody saying that they saw her get into
her Toyota Tercel to drive off if she's attacked killed prior to leaving you know airport security is pretty good
so I put the the percentage rate that she was attacked at the airport a little lower on the scale I don't know what the
surveillance was like or security was like at the time or in the employee lot if there was one
but I think that it's important to note that it is close to that Esquire Club a bar
known to be frequented by Northwest employees and there's at least one source that says that Susan had gone
there on more than one occasion and the only reason why I'm going out of my way to point that out again is if
you were planning to do something or somebody did do something in the moment and then needed some help you don't
necessarily need to have both individuals having been at work with her that night on that shift
if you could walk over to that club and catch a ride with somebody that you work with who happens to be off that
night to me if if cops are saying that she was killed elsewhere and that vehicle was
just ditched there then you have two choices either that was a random choice to ditch the car there that night or it
was premeditated that that location was predetermined to ditch the vehicle and like you said there's Conflict at
work there's people that she's arguing with I'm guessing some higher ups and maybe some people that work under her
some lower Downs yeah the the who's lower down well we're going to get into some some of those lowdowns here in a
little bit here Captain well see what I wanted to know is the day of the day in question yeah is there anybody that says
hey an hour into work fireworks were were going off and and it was uh that there was some conflict that's
taking place that people were witness of right and look I don't think that there
was one and I don't have a lot to base that off of but let's go back to one thing we do know
one thing we do know is nobody at her work reports her is missing and they have to work an additional five
hours with her once she were to return with those sandwiches at minimum five more hours
so I think it would be if there was some kind of conflict the pushing a shoving people shouting at one another if if
that was something that took place that that one happened at all but two happened out in the open it would seem
to me that somebody then would really pick up on the fact that hey Sue went out to pick up those sandwiches
three hours ago and I've not seen her since where's my tuna fish you know what I
mean it's it seems so bizarre to me that nobody at work reports her missing and let's let's take this one step further
we've already said that there's Conflict at work with people that don't seem to like her and people choosing sides right
and imagine if you're one of those people that don't like her doesn't that give you even more reason
to report that she's not at work like all I've been trying to tell you she sucks
that she shouldn't have that job here it is 5 a.m and what she went out for lunch four hours ago
that's the kind of thing that people babysit and Report when they don't like people that they work with or work for
now well and I just want to go on record to say that if my tuna fish sandwich didn't show up
I'm shutting down the whole facility I will not be working I will not be working I will not help you work I will
be shutting the place down until we know what happened to my sandwich I don't want to get too far sidetracked but one
of my favorite shows I think you should leave says that there should be a rule against
working through lunch should not be allowed now back to more serious stuff though here
captain and I want to touch on a couple things before we get into some of Susan's workplace
yeah disagreements situation harassment you could call it all kinds of different
things within days of Susan's murder Suffolk District Attorney Ralph Martin said to the papers
they had quote no particular suspect end quote now this might have been true at that point in time this is just days
after but I'm telling you that is going to change as time went on and as this investigation went on now let's talk
about one of our favorite shows from Pastime Unsolved Mysteries 35 years ago yes this show started
of the more than 1 300 mysteries profiled in over 230 episodes half of the cases featuring wanted fugitives
have been solved more than 100 family members have been reunited with lost loved ones and seven individuals who
were wrongly convicted of crimes have been exonerated and released that's according to unsolved mystery's website
cases involving missing persons missing heirs murder fraud and Amnesia have also
been solved following Unsolved Mysteries broadcasts and according to their website that adds up to over
260 solved cases so good job by you Unsolved Mysteries this case was featured on that great show season 8 episode 10.
which also featured a segment about a wanted fugitive Albert Leon Fletcher a Florida fugitive who was apprehended in
Delaware after the broadcast so that's furthermore proof of that great show shout out to Terry dunmur and John
Cosgrove the creators of that great show according to Unsolved Mysteries it is not known if her former boyfriend
was ever considered a suspect by police we had a couple listeners about a year ago shout out to the beautiful listeners
recommend this case and when I looked it up fired up the old search engine one thing I noticed it was on all Unsolved
Mysteries went back and watched that episode and one thing that I I don't want to gloss over
is the fact that there was a breakup with this former boyfriend from my understanding though Captain this was
months in advance of her going missing from work and then found murdered in the trunk of her car
according to that show it's not known if her former boyfriend was ever considered
to be a suspect at any point in the investigation by police but what we do learn is that Sue's family backed him up
100 in fact saying that there is no way that he killed her in fact photos of him
and photos that he had taken were visible in collages that were displayed at her funeral and he had been he was a
big part of her life so the family doesn't have any suspicions about this guy but it was unclear to me if police
ever did but the way that this investigation goes and the route that it starts to take
about a year after she's killed I think we're going to figure out that police if they they likely looked at the
boyfriend how could you not the ex-boyfriend but they had cause and they had reason to move on from him yeah I
think any of these cases that there's not answers right away you look into individuals like we like we always say
look into the the Inner Circle first and then move to the Outer Circle and when you got
nothing repeat rinse and repeat at Susan's funeral a Snoopy stuffed animal was next to
Susan's casket Snoopy was her favorite character she had a collection of what's reported to
be over 2 000 snoopies wow and a lot of people say that the character kind of sort of summed up her
personality too this according to her friend Vicky and what she told the Boston Globe her friends and family said
that Susan was a kind and loving person now when she died Susan was looking forward to being Made
of Honor at her sister's wedding and unfortunately she never got the chance well while we're on this subject which
one was your favorite peanut character whoever played the piano I don't really know the Peanuts
characters very well old Schroeder on the piano I I was a big fan of Linus Van Pelt a lot of good characters on the
peanuts speaking of characters here Captain we talked briefly about suspects in one
thing that is very interesting to me here is we we have the money that's found in her vehicle so that would point
to the idea that this was not robbery related there was no sexual assault on the victim
she's brutally attacked and killed and then left in the trunk of her car police saying that they believe she was killed
elsewhere I have to believe that they did not have a lot or were not able to pull a lot from the surveillance footage
across the street never been confirmed but we don't know what they know but what we do know is that
her mother and her family for a good period of time believed that Susan was killed by a random individual
that it was a random stranger on Stranger attack which may make sense when you have somebody
that appears to have no enemies but also the vehicles found in this kind of random location that makes a little bit
of sense yeah we've got to keep in mind though that her her family and police are unaware of the problems at work
early in this investigation well one of the reasons why that would make sense is because what we see in a
lot of these cases and what people have studied for years are these patterns and so if you have a
victim where somebody tries to conceal that victim tries to hide that victim from being found that normally
you would lean towards somebody that actually knew the victim in this case it's it's almost the Paul it's almost
the polar opposite because they parked the vehicle in a public place so the vehicle is going to be found
obviously somebody's going to report her missing now we're going to be looking for a vehicle because her vehicle is
also missing from work we're going to find that vehicle and when we search that vehicle we're going to find our
victim so it almost makes you lean towards the idea that is somebody that she didn't even
know well and I bring up from time to time the Killer's getting lucky and I don't know that this was planned I
talked about the location of where her vehicle was found it was found at that the businesses parking lot the the auto
repair shops parking lot in Revere did they know did they purposely put that vehicle there because they look it's
going to be found when you put the vehicle there in that location it's most definitely going to be discovered
there's no way not to discover it but it's almost likely to be found rather quickly and reported rather quickly so
did they put it there knowing that the business didn't operate until Monday morning keep in mind she goes missing
the last reported sighting of her is at approximately 1am on a Sunday did they put it there knowing that that
would buy them some time that the business wouldn't open up again until Monday morning or is this just another
situation where the killer gets lucky because I think that that that that short period of time that expires
between the time that she is last seen she's never reported missing in fact she's not from the timeline and
all the sources that we have it technically says that she's reported missing after her body is found
so that gives us at about what 7 A.M 7 30 a.m on that Monday back that all the way up to 1am Sunday
morning right over 24 hours so over about 30 to 31 hours expires between the time that she's last
seen and then her vehicle and body are found one thing when we talk about suspects
too we talked about how the family says that for the early part of the investigation they believed that it was
possibly a random individual that had killed their daughter and it was a stranger on Stranger attack
I don't know if they just came up with that on their own or if that's what detectives told them that they they
believed but you're exactly right the thing that would back that up is the manner and how
the vehicle is found and how the killer or Killers chose to conceal the body in a place where it most definitely would
be found in relatively quickly but then on top of that you the reverse of that is well the stranger on Stranger attack
there should be a motive and the obvious motives you can say are not a factor here it wasn't
robbery it wasn't sexually motivated there was no sexual assault so that makes it seem much less likely now we
talked about suspects early on or the lack thereof early on in this investigation but what we learn from
the Unsolved Mysteries episode is that about a year so let's get into this real quick Susan
and other female employees at Northwest Airlines were subject to brutal and Relentless
harassment from some of the male Northwest workers Sue started a secret journal in February
of 1989 this to record the behaviors she had was subjected to now for some reason she only kept
documentation of this for about eight months or so but what she did record was shocking
about a year after her death this is when her mother Marlene finally could bring herself
to to go through Susan's things right she was emotionally physically unable to do this
for about a year and then she decides to go through her daughter's things this is when she finds the journal
that her daughter was journaling about this harassment that she was going through at work and she's horrified by
the entries that the journal contained to me when I hear about this journal to me it's more about the fact that she
works she likes her job she's probably making good money and when there's conflict you need to keep detailed notes
when it happened who it happened by because you work in a situation where you do have a union and if you don't
have detailed reports they're just not as likely to believe you according to the UPI The Diary quote detailed almost
daily incidents of harassment and her efforts to report them to the company end quote now Susan's family was so
Disturbed by the shocking revelations of what Susan endured on a daily basis according
to the diary that the taroskowitz believed that their daughter's death Susan's death was 100
percent connected to her work [Music] I want to thank you so much for joining us here in the garage remember if you
need more True Crime garage or want to check out off the record last week we did a questionnaire The Colbert
questionnaire Nick took the challenge get to know Nick better that's on off the Record through patreon
or through Apple podcast app and until tomorrow be good be kind and don't litter
[Music] foreign

Susan Taraskiewicz /// Part 1 /// 702

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

Susan “Su” Tarasiewicz was the boss of a ramp crew at Northwestern Airlines at Boston Logan International Airport. She worked there for five years. She was last seen on September 13th, 1992 around the same time that she was going to leave work to pick up a lunch order. This is still an open case. Anyone with information should contact Massachusetts State Police at (508) 820-2300.

Beer of the Week - Brew Crime by Tactical Brewing Company

Garage Grade - 5 out of 5 bottle caps

Follow True Crime Garage on X @TrueCrimeGarage / Follow Nic on X @TCGNIC / Follow The Captain on X @TCGCaptain

Listen to True Crime Garage Off The Record where TCG breaks all of the rules and get NASTY, NASTY and sometimes even more NASTY!!! Now available on Apple Podcast Subscriptions and to everyone everywhere on Patreon.

Brief Summary

Susan Taraskowitz faced workplace harassment before her 1992 murder, raising questions about the connection between her job and her death.

Key points

Susan's Struggles at Work. Susan Taraskowitz faces harassment and challenges in a male-dominated workplace, ultimately rising to a position of authority.
The Night Susan Disappeared. On September 12, 1992, Susan leaves for lunch during her shift but never returns, raising alarms.
Discovery of Susan's Body. Susan's body is found in the trunk of a car, leading to a homicide investigation.
Susan's Disappearance. Susan Tarasco goes missing after leaving work to pick up sandwiches, raising alarms.
Unsolved Mysteries Feature. Susan's case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, highlighting its ongoing intrigue.
Susan's Secret Journal. Susan documented relentless harassment at work, revealing shocking details about her experiences.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Susan was tougher, smarter than they were.

Describing Susan's resilience against workplace harassment.

3:43WatchSep 27, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.

Susan Taraskiewicz /// Part 1 /// 702 | Forensic Files