Final chapter in Susan Negersmith homicide case coming this week!

Welcome back to Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles, a Lee Enterprises podcast with host Nat Cardona. On this podcast, you’ll hear true crime stories as told by journalists from regional newspapers across the country.

We're currently producing the final episode of the current season that is looking into the 1990 cold case murder of Susan Negersmith in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Past episodes from this season

• Chapter 1: Susan Negersmith case went from accidental death to suspected homicide 
• Chapter 2: Juggling facts and hearsay in the Susan Negersmith homicide investigation
• Chapter 3: Arrest made in Susan Negersmith homicide case, but there's a twist

More on the case

Susan Negersmith was a 20 year-old woman from Carmel, New York. She was visiting Wildwood, New Jersey, on Memorial Day Weekend with friends in 1990.  She said goodbye to her friends in the evening of Saturday, May 26, and by the early hours of Sunday morning, Susan’s partially clothed body was found behind a dumpster near a Wildwood restaurant. Her death was originally ruled accidental, although there were signs of a struggle.

An important thing to note about Susan Negersmith’s weekend trip with friends to Wildwood: this area is a destination for a debaucherously good time. Tourists flock there in the warm weather months to party hard. There’s a boardwalk packed with restaurants and bars packed with people from all over. Drinking heavily is a main activity. The reputation of the area for all of these things quickly comes into play in the early days of the investigation ... at the expense of solving Susan’s case in a timely fashion.

Our guests this season are Yvette Craig, who initially covered the story for the Press of Atlantic City, and Bill Barrow, a reporter who has largely taken on following the case in recent years following Craig's departure from the paper.

Read more about the case

• Cape May County judge dismisses charges against man accused in Negersmith cold case (April 20, 2023)
• Man charged in Wildwood cold case released following case dismissal (March 30, 2023)
• DNA used to break a 30-year stalemate in Wildwood cold case (April 18, 2022)
• After 32 years, Millville man accused of attacking Susan Negersmith (April 8, 2022)
• Negersmith family finds new champion in pursuit of justice (May 31, 2015)