Talk:Murder of Suzanne Marie Collins

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Is this person of sufficient fame to warrant a wikipedia article? Should there be a wikipedia article on every murder victim in the U.S., regardless of how heinous the crime is?

Only US murder victims? How NPOV.67.164.212.239 05:44, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I created the page because I felt that she did warrant an article. I also created an article on her murderer. The story has been in the news for over twenty years. There was a significant portion of a best-selling book dedicated to the story. I don't think every murder victim should have a article, but this case is particularly heinous and newsworthy. If this person doesn't warrant an article, about half of the biographical articles on Wiki should be removed, also. Martylunsford 12:59, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

QuizzicalBee 17:22, 5 January 2007 (UTC)Well, I'm glad there's an article. I was led here a short time ago when I was looking her up after reading Journey Into Darkness. I'm sure many other readers have done the same. This case was a factor in changing habeus corpus laws, and for that alone, should stay. Might as well err on the side of caution, anyway.

I was a Legal Specialist assigned to MATSS902, MATSG90, NAS Memphis, Millington, Tn at the time of LCpl Collin's murder. I was an acquaintance of her and her roommate and had received a phone call from her roommate early in the evening of her abduction telling me that LCpl Collins was missing from an evening muster at the barracks. I lived off base in Memphis at the time and immediately drove up to the base to begin a drive around search. Her roommate said that it was not like LCpl Collins to go missing. She was as squared away a Marine as you could hope for. She was set to graduate from her class the next day. Her roommate told me she might have gotten into an argument with a young Marine she had been dating so we started there contacting him. He stated that he didn't know where she was either. Her roommate knew only that LCpl Collins had gone jogging. The base was separated into two parts, the North side was less populated and included miles of open land with running trails, horse trails and was pretty dark. We drove around the entire base looking for any sign of LCpl Collins but were not successful. We decided to wait to see if she returned by the next morning, thinking that maybe she just wanted to be alone. When I arrived at my office, the Squadron headquarters, I was immediately contacted by the Sgt. Major Barnes who inquired about my relationship to LCpl Collins. I told him that we were friends. He informed me that she had been reported UA (unauthorized absence). I told him that this was not like her, that she was a better Marine than that. Just moments latter he told me that the local authorities had found a body just off base and that it had been identified as that of LCpl Collins. He allowed me to leave my duties and immediately go to the barracks where she was assigned to inform the Marines of the developments. I notified her roommate and we shed tears of pain and anger. We immediately felt that if only we had continued to look for her the night before that maybe we could have located her. Due to my being close to LCpl Collins personally, I was not allowed to be a part of the investigation but was kept abreast of the developments. Her death has remained a tragedy in my life and one of the biggest lingering feelings of failure in my lifetime. I will forever wonder if I had one enough. TMcNair LCpl USMC

Less on the murder, more on the girl
I think that we need more on who she was and less on what happened to her.--Daysleeper47 20:30, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, "what happened to her" is exactly what makes her notable enough for Wikipedia.128.172.18.165 (talk) 20:21, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Indeed, the title of this article should actually be "Murder of Suzanne Marie Collins".--Shakehandsman (talk) 03:09, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

Who the girl was...
Suzanne was my roommate and best friend while we were in Memphis. She was wholesome, innocent, sweet, honest, god-fearing, a genuine person and the most giving person I knew. Among other things...she loved her family, jogging, and being a Marine. I knew her for only a short time, but she positively changed my life forever.

Thank you for creating this page. The entire situation is very difficult to comprehend...and the question of "why" can't even begun to be answered.

In the last two years, 'new' information on the case has come to light. This information was found by a private investigator and unfortunately for me, questions, even challenges the basics of some facts in the case. It's planted seeds of doubt for some facts and made me keenly aware of how biased/limited and difficult our judicial system is. It's also interesting that several news sources printed this information (obviously copying other news sources) albeit misinformation.

One case in point...the date of her death. She was abducted on the evening of Thursday, July 11. Her time of death listed by the coronor was the early am, thus putting her date of death as July 12, 1985, reflected by her headstone and death certificate. News sources have dates listed from July 10-12.

Suzanne, we miss and love you. May you rest in Peace.

I was there, too
LCpl Collins didn't really know me, but everyone on the base knew her. Until I read "Journey Into Darkness" I assumed she got promoted and got onto Honor Deck simply because she was pretty. I didn't realize what she had to go through to get to that point. I remembered her because about a week before she was murdered she sat down at my table in the chow hall. We spoke briefly, and shortly thereafter she was murdered. It was strange knowing that one day she was alive and well, and the next day we heard that she had been murdered. About a year ago I was in a plane crash and nearly lost my life. I was out of work for a month. As I laid in bed being thankful to still be alive, my mind wandered to other people I knew who had passed away before their time. I wondered what had happened to Suzanne's murderer, and I did a little internet research. I then created this page and the one on Sedley Alley. Strangely, I had settled in North Carolina, and until a few years ago I lived a couple of miles from Suzanne's parents house.

Suzanne clearly touched many people's lives, and she is still doing so. Martylunsford 20:23, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

User:'Martylunsford', can you email me?
I'm new to the site and am not sure on how all this works, so I apologize in advance if I post something incorrectly.

I have just received an interesting 11-page affidavt on the case. It might be something that you would find an interesting read. It's from a PI who researched the events of that night, along with ongoing events of the case.

She was hired in 2004 (by the defense team) to make sure the 't's were crossed etc. before Sedley Alley was executed. My initial thought was that it was a last minute ditch effort to save him from the Death Penalty. However, what she uncovered and compliled was some interesting information that had been hidden, ignored, and/or supressed by the DA, including timelines, eyewitness evidence and ultimately the ideas and thoughts that another person COULD HAVE actually done the murder.

The biggest thing is how politics seems to play in this case, and how people are (or are not) doing things that give the appearance of a coverup. Very scary and VERY concerning!

Bottom line is that IF Sedley Alley did this heineous crime, he has finally paid the ultimate price for it. HOWEVER, if he didn't...a murderer is still on the loose and Suzanne has no rest.

For acuracy, I have also posted this info on the Sedley Alley page. --PattiJinCO 19:54, 5 July 2006 (UTC)PattiJinCO

I would...
But I don't know your email. You can email me at my user name at hotmail. Martylunsford 02:44, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Remembering Her Today on the 21st Anniversary...
Martylunsford, I sent you the info. Thanks. --24.9.155.16 14:23, 12 July 2006 (UTC)PattiJinCO

Anti DP activism is usually behind "questions"
All murder cases-every single one of them-have anomalies that can't be easily explained. Death penalty opponents know this, and use it every chance they get, with claims of "new" evidence, innappropriate requests for DNA testing, out-of-context quotes, etc., ad nauseum. The basic facts presented to the jury were plain and simple: Alley took the police to the murder site, correctly identified the site, and correctly identified the tree from which he took the branch he impaled her on. He pleaded not guilty for reasons of insanity at his trial, and maintained this claim for nearly 20 years. It was not until DNA testing began to (1) help free the wrongfully-convicted, and (2) provide endless delays in executing the guilty, that he changed his tune and decided to work the system. DNA testing is not a litmus test for guilt or innocence; it merely provides possible evidence of someone's location at some point in time, perhaps known, perhaps unknown. Results of DNA tests are often irrelevant to a particular situation, and we depend on state attorneys general to protect us from attempted fraudulent use of DNA testing in murder cases.

Everything else, including discrepancies in police investigation timelines, length of taped confessions, etc., simply cannot undo the fact that he identified the murder site and tree, and made an insanity plea.

Consequences2 17:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

QuizzicalBee 17:36, 5 January 2007 (UTC)Yes, I agree. Just because one can make a case that a crime could have happened differently, does not mean it did happen differently. Nor does it explain away the vast amount of evidence that points to Alley, and no one else. The DNA testing requests were a last-ditch effort to delay execution, and they make a mockery of the requests of the genuinely innocent people who would be exonerated with DNA testing. Likewise the sudden claims of insanity were cooked up to create a defense to fit not the facts but what would be least likely to fail as a defense. I'm very anti-death penalty, but let's not support the abuse of the judicial system by giving credence to clearly bogus defense team arguments.


 * How is any of this conversation related to editing this article? Please remember article talk pages are not forums.  momoricks   (make my day)  04:27, 6 December 2008 (UTC)
 * There's plenty. His shoe prints didn't match, nor did the tires. The murder also occurred while he was under surveillance and he didn't match the eyewitness description. In all likelihood they fed him what to say. 2600:8801:C800:50D:11F6:28F6:AC70:6D20 (talk) 23:09, 21 September 2022 (UTC)
 * In all likelihood it was John Borup (he matched the description, thought they were exclusive when she was seeing another man, and was with her that night.) All too often state attorney generals are craven cowards who lie their balls off to protect their careers. 2600:8801:C800:50D:11F6:28F6:AC70:6D20 (talk) 23:12, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Articles for Creation draft about her parents
There was a draft at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Jack and Trudy Collins; the reviewer suggested merging its contents into this article. &mdash; rybec   10:16, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Allegedly
Is it necessary to say 'allegedly' when he was convicted? 216.8.187.209 (talk) 19:12, 8 June 2021 (UTC)