The body of a young woman found inside a dumpster behind a Long Island glass factory in 1982 has been identified as Susan Mann of Queens.
Suzy, as her family called her, was just 15 years old when she left her house in the Hollis neighborhood to get her sister’s purse back for her. She was never seen again. That was May of 1980.
For decades, Suzy’s family wondered what happened to her. Her parents, burdened by their loss, passed away before detectives made the connection. It was in March 2025 when the family was contacted by Nassau County police.
Police exhumed a Jane Doe in 2023 to obtain a DNA sample. They gave that sample to the FBI’s New York Investigative Genealogy Program. Agents were able to find a match to familial DNA and they contacted the Mann family to confirm the connection.
“There are no cold cases, they are open cases, we never give up on any of our cases,” said Detective Captain Stephen Fitzpatrick. “This technology, in my 40 years in the department, has been extraordinary. How they are coming up with these families is amazing.”
While Suzy disappeared in 1980, the body was discovered in Nov. 1982. It had been moved to a dumpster, which was located behind Cantor Glassworks on North Main Street in Freeport.
“Our investigation believes that she was moved,” said Fitzpatrick. “That she was possibly buried, her body was decomposed. The M.E. put the timeline of her death shortly after 1980 and moved to this location in 1982.”
The Mann family issued a statement saying while grateful Suzy has been identified, “We only wish the original detectives could have made this discovery back when she was discovered. Our parents could have had the closure they so desperately needed.”
“For years, years, years, nobody knew what happened to her,” said neighbor and family friend Daniel Little. “Then when it came out it was like wow! Oh my god!”
Nassau police said Suzy was found wearing the same clothes she wore when she disappeared, a striped top, blue jeans, and sandals. She had been riding a bike that was never recovered. They don’t believe robbery was a motive because she was still wearing her jewelry when her body was found.
By releasing the new information, police hope it might jog someone’s memory and reveal new clues to Suzy’s murder. They are offering a $25,000 Crime Stoppers reward.
“The case is 45 years old, many people have passed. If we can’t charge anyone with the murder, at least the family will have some closure,” said Fitzpatrick.
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