Thursday, October 1, 2026
The decades-old homicide case of 15-year-old Susan Mann, whose body was found in a Freeport dumpster more than 40 years ago, has gained new momentum after advances in DNA technology and a renewed public appeal for information.
At a press briefing on Thursday, Stephen Fitzpatrick, detective captain and commanding officer of the Nassau County homicide squad, described the case’s grim local connection.
Mann, who lived in Hollis, Queens, was last seen on May 17, 1980.
“Susan left the house that day on a bicycle looking to locate her sister’s pocketbook that she had borrowed to take the school,” said Fitzpatrick. “While at school, somebody stole that from her, and on the following day, she was attempting to recover that for a sister.”
Her remains were recovered on Nov. 4, 1982, in a dumpster behind Cantor Glass Works in Freeport.
For decades, she was buried as a Jane Doe — meaning unidentified — until new DNA testing linked her to her family in 2023.
Mann was buried in Holy Rood Cemetery as an unidentified Jane Doe.
In 2023, authorities obtained a court order to exhume her remains for advanced DNA testing.
Through the FBI’s New York investigative genealogy program the program identified possible family connections in March 2025.
Detectives collected DNA samples from relatives, and further analysis confirmed that the women tested were Mann’s sisters — officially identifying the victim as Susan Mann.
Fitzpatrick said investigators are now seeking help from anyone who may have been in Freeport during that period.
“We’re looking for anybody that would have known her would have been in the Freeport area during that time in 80-82,” he said. “Or anybody that thinks they have some kind of information that would lead to a suspect or any investigative leads towards an arrest.”
Investigators believe that after Susan Mann was killed, her body may have been buried in a different location, and then in 1982 it was moved to the dumpster site.
They ask people to remember that she could have been killed and hidden elsewhere for years before her body was relocated.
As for a possible motive regarding the moving of the body, Fitzpatrick suggested that some sort of construction-related excavation could have prompted the killer to move Mann’s body to cover their tracks.
“If you know anybody that recalls a certain area that was getting developed in 1982 or 1981, please get in touch with us and give us a call,” he said. “We can look into that area.”
She was about five feet one inch tall and weighed around 120 pounds.
The last time she was seen, she was wearing a striped top, blue jeans, and sandals, and she was riding a bicycle that was never found.
Mann’s family, who “always were wondering what happened,” experienced “a total spectrum of emotion,” upon the new identification according to Fitzpatrick.
Crime Stoppers is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
