Chapter 106: Without A Trace-The Disappearance of Suzanne Lyall

On March 2, 1998, 19-year-old college student Suzanne Lyall vanished just steps from her dorm at SUNY Albany. Despite a seemingly normal night and a confirmed sighting as she stepped off a city bus, Suzanne was never seen again. Today, I walk you through one of New York’s most haunting missing persons cases.I'll retrace her final known movements, go over the limited amount of suspects, and explain just how her parents’ fight for justice changed state law. What happened to Suzanne Lyall — and why has no one been held accountable?

If you have any information about Suzanne’s case, contact the New York State Police or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

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Beyond the Rainbow Podcast a.k.a. Rainbow Crimes is a show about crimes committed by and against the LGBTQ plus community. Join host C.J. for an array of true crime stories from all over the world, especially lesser-known cases. Remember, it's not a crime to be gay...unless you're a murderer...

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About us - the Center for Hope. (n.d.). https://www.hope4themissing.org/page.php?4Armas, G. (1998, March 16). Search for missing student draws few clues. The Post-Star, B10.Associated Press. (1998a, March 16). Search for missing student draws few clues. Staten Island Advance, A12.Associated Press. (1998b, March 18). Few leads in disappearance of student. Daily Sentinel, 10.Associated Press. (1998c, May 20). Police find ID card of missing student. The Republican, A7.Campus Maps and Directions | University at Albany. (n.d.). https://www.albany.edu/campus-maps-and-directionsFritze, J. (1999, March 10). Proposed bill targets campus predators. The Ithaca Journal, 2B.Jennifer. (2024, November 13). The disappearance of Suzanne ‘Suzy’ Lyall - Jennifer - medium. Medium. https://medium.com/@wherearetheypodcast/the-disappearance-of-suzanne-suzy-lyall-9f3af7072992Larkin Announces Passage Of &qout;suzanne’s Law. (2015, October 5). NY State Senate. https://web.archive.org/web/20180223171654/https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/william-j-larkin-jr/larkin-announces-passage-suzannes-lawMcCloy, A. (2022, March 3). Suzanne Lyall, 24 years later: Mom still hoping and fighting for answers. WRGB. https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/suzanne-lyall-cold-case-missing-woman-unsolved-24-years-later-university-at-albany-student-new-york-capital-regionMissing: Suzanne G. Lyall. (n.d.). New York State Police. https://troopers.ny.gov/missing-suzanne-g-lyallOmr. (2021, February 5). The Missing Persons case of Suzanne Lyall. https://sites.psu.edu/onyxpassion/2021/02/05/hello-world/O’Neil, A. (2000, May 29). For Suzanne. People.com. https://people.com/archive/for-suzanne-vol-53-no-21/Roberts, C. (1998, November 24). Cal Poly has unhappy distinction. Telegram-Tribune, A1–A5.Shapiro, E. (2023, July 21). Where is Suzanne Lyall? 25 years after college student vanished, her mom isn’t giving up. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/suzanne-lyall-25-years-after-college-student-vanished/story?id=96922994Short, M. (2024, July 8). Suzanne “Suzy” Lyall: Vanished From a Bus Stop. HubPages. https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/suzanne-suzy-lyall-vanished-from-a-bus-stopStaff, W. (2018, January 9). State Police: Cold case Tuesday- Suzanne Lyall. WRGB. https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/state-police-cold-case-tuesday-suzanne-lyallSuzanne Lyall. (2021, November 13). L.R. Gordan’s Crime Writing. https://lrgordan.com/2021/11/13/suzanne-lyall/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.
In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay
the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten,
waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This
is the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast

(00:21):
where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases,
re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath
the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and
every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery,

(00:43):
one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkass
Network in Deep Podcasts with a twist.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh they're sparkle farts, my trust the Unicorn. I've got
to tell these good people about our show. Hey there,
I'm CJ host to be on the Rainbow True Crimes
of the LGBTQ Plus. While I do have episodes on
some of the more well known cases from the LGBTQ communities,
such as Matthew Shepherd, Brandon Tina and the Orlando Pulse

(01:42):
nightclub massacre, I cover world cases like the London nail
bombing murders, Australia's Snowtown murders in South Africa's corrective rape
and murder of lesbians. I cover lesser known cases like
the murder of twenty one year old trans man Alex
Van Dolson in Indiana. Police called his death a suicide.

(02:06):
Spoiler alert, it wasn't I tell you about wrongful conviction cases,
serial killers, and school shooters. My unicorn and I cover
all sorts of crimes against the LGBTQ and crimes by
members of the LGBTQ. You don't have to be part
of the community to listen. All walks of life are

(02:27):
welcome to become Rainbow Warriors because you matter. And remember
it's not a crime to be gay. I'm not you're
a murderer.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book
of the Dead. On March second, nineteen ninety eight, a
nineteen year old computer science major at Sunny Albany clocked
out of her part time job at a mall just
a few miles from campus. She boarded a city bus
like she always did, and she was seen getting off
at her usual stop, but she never made it back

(03:01):
to her dorm. No one saw what happened next. No
signs of a struggle, no definitive leads, just silence and
a family left searching for answers that never came. Today,
I will tell you the story about a missing woman
where from the very beginning everyone was at a loss

(03:24):
as to what happened to her, and how her parents
have fought relentlessly to get answers and to advocate for
other victims like their daughter. They have created a legacy
that has changed a state's entire response to campus crimes.
This is the disappearance of Susanne Lyle. Susanne Lyle was

(03:47):
born on April sixth, nineteen seventy eight, to Doug and
Mary Lyle in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was the
baby of the family. Her sister Sandy was nine years
older and her brother, Steve was twelve years old. Suzanne,
growing up in Boston, SPA, was doted on by her
brother and sister. According to ABC News, Mary said quote,

(04:09):
they fought over who was going to have her sleep
in their room when she was an infant. When Susie
started kindergarten, Steve started his first year in college, and
he would come back almost every weekend and take Susie
to all sorts of places he couldn't stand being without her.
As she got older, Suzanne developed a love of poetry

(04:30):
and sewing, but her greatest passion was computers. This love
of all things computer related started when her father brought
home a Commodore computer when Suzanne was ten years old.
According to Mary Quote, nobody knew what a computer was
and the Commodore's back then. All they did was ad

(04:51):
and subtract really slowly at that, but she was really
curious about the computer. By the time she was twelve
years old, she was taking the computer apart and rebuilding it.
Suzanne figured out that she could access different bulletin boards
and have conversations with all sorts of people on the Internet,
which she loved because she always felt like she was

(05:13):
on the shy side. This gave her an outlet to
make connections with people. Suzanne also did incredibly well in
school and continued chatting with her online friends in her
free time, even allegedly joining a computer club where she
met Richard Condon. He was a year so older than her,
and they would go on to date for the rest

(05:35):
of her high school career and into college. According to
a blog post that deep dives into this case, written
by L. R. Gordon. Suzanne and Richard were inseparable throughout
their relationship, but they had broken up briefly due to
Richard being possessive. While Doug seemed to have a positive

(05:56):
opinion about his daughter's boyfriend, Mary was allegedly not incredibly
fond of him and had reservations due to this apparent
possessiveness and controlling behavior he was displaying. After graduating from
Boston High School with honors in nineteen ninety six, Suzanne
enrolled at Sunny Oneonta to study computer science, but after

(06:21):
finding that the professors had a minimal working knowledge of
computers and that she had nothing more she could learn
from them, Suzanne transferred to Sunny at Albany in nineteen
ninety seven, where she hoped the courses would give her
more to learn about. Transferring to Albany would also allow
her to be closer to Richard, who was enrolled at

(06:41):
a school nearby. As her sophomore year started, Suzanne maintained
a very busy schedule, dividing her time between classes a
part time job at Babbage's computer software store at the
Crossgates Mall in nearby Guilderland. As well as another job
at a computer firm in Troy, which was about ten
miles away. Even with her days filled with work in school,

(07:04):
Suzanne always made time to talk to her family. According
to an article for The Post Star, she emailed and
called her parents and siblings almost every single day, as
well as staying in constant communication with Richard. In nineteen
ninety eight, Suzanne was nineteen years old and midterm week
at SUNNI was the week of March second, and Suzanne

(07:25):
was studying a lot to prepare. On March first, according
to ABC, she called her mom and wished Mary a
happy birthday, apologizing for her exams keeping her away this year.
After the phone call, Suzanne gets on the bus and
heads to Crossgates Mall for her shift at Babbage's. During

(07:45):
this shift, she confides to her manager that she's really
nervous about her exam the next day on the second.
Her manager tells her not to worry and the exam
will go well. On March second, Suzanne takes her midterm
and attends class until four pm. When she gets back
on the bus for her closing shift at Babbage's. Her
manager asked her how the test went, and she confirms

(08:08):
that she thought she did okay. Suzanne worked with another
coworker until the store closed at nine pm. The bus
driver claims to have seen Suzanne board the Capitol District
Transit Authority bus back to Sunni at nine twenty pm,
getting off at the Collins Circle stop at nine forty
five pm. From there, she would have headed to her

(08:31):
dorm room at the Colonial Quad building, which was about
nine hundred and fifty feet away, except Suzanne never made
it to her room that night. The next day, after
all of his calls to Suzanne go unanswered, Richard calls
the Liles and informs them that he believes Susan never
made it back home after work. Marian Zog called the

(08:53):
campus police to do a welfare check, but they are unconcerned,
telling the Liles that students disappeared for a couple of
hours or a day all the time, it was nothing
to worry about. However, the Lyles disagreed. According to people,
Doug said quote, I knew something awful had happened. Susie

(09:15):
was not a risk taker. She didn't party or use
alcohol or drugs now In. Campus police checked her room
and her class schedule on the fourth, which was a Wednesday,
and there was still no sign of her. They called
in the New York State Police to officially report Suzanne missing.
According to ABC News, Doug immediately drove up to Albany

(09:38):
and had to look around Suzanne's storm room, but nothing
was a miss. Her glasses were in her room and
her hair dryer was on the bed as if she
had just put it down after getting ready. Noticeably missing, though,
was her wallet, id and keys. As the investigation got underway,
there weren't any leads that could point police in a

(10:00):
solid direction. They knew after speaking to mall security, her manager,
and the bus driver her movements at the time of
her disappearance, and they believed Suzanne disappeared from Colin's Circle
as her key card had not been used to enter
her dorm, but otherwise they had no idea as to
where she would have gone. Marian Dog requested her bank

(10:23):
statements and saw that Suzanne had withdrawn money three times.
She withdrew twenty dollars on March second on campus, and
then another twenty dollars was withdrawn at the mall. Oddly enough, though,
twenty dollars was withdrawn on March third from a Stewart's
Convenience store, a couple of miles from campus, the day

(10:44):
that Suzanne was already confirmed to had been missing. Unfortunately,
there weren't any cameras in the ATM to see who
had used the card, but there were security cameras inside
the store. Now, while Suzanne was not spotted on these cameras,
a man in a Nike he had at the time
the card was used was, and police were interested in

(11:07):
speaking to him as a potential witness. Now this man
was questioned a few times, and according to the blog
post I mentioned, he was confirmed to work at Sunni
in the cafeteria and had also had a prior conviction
for sexual assault, but was ultimately cleared of any involvement
due to having a very solid alibi. Also questioned concerning

(11:31):
Suzanne's disappearance is Richard, who allegedly claimed to have proposed
to Suzanne, although this was unable to be verified by
her parents. As far as they knew, the two were
not engaged. Richard explained he knew something was wrong because
he and Suzanne had a nightly routine. They would chat

(11:52):
on the phone or email every night when Suzanne got
off of work, but she never answered any of his
calls or emails. Richard also had an alibi, claiming that
he was playing an online game with a friend at
the time Suzanne disappeared. Now his friend did corroborate this,
saying that he knew he was playing with Richard based

(12:13):
on the way that the character was moving, although admittedly
this is a very shaky alibi at best to make
a frustrating investigation even worse. Though one the investigation was
only a few days old, a snowstorm swept through Albany,
covering up any potential evidence the police may have been
able to find and hindering things even further. By the

(12:37):
end of the second week, according to the Post Star,
the police had searched over three hundred acres of land,
including the mall, bike trails and a lake near the
Albany campus, but nothing helpful turned up. They also tracked
down two hundred and seventy leads looking for anything that
could help them locate Suzanne. Additionally, they also compared Suzanne's

(13:01):
disappearance to another missing person's case from thirteen years prior,
that of twenty two year old SUNNI student Karen Wilson,
who disappeared after getting off of a bus a mile
from the campus. State investigator James Horton told the Post Star, quote,
we rehashed a lot of old leads, but right now
there are no glaring similarities that lead us to believe

(13:24):
it's the same perpetrator. The Lyles worked with Sunny to
offer a fifteen thousand dollars reward in the hopes of
garnering more leads that would aid in the investigation. Mary
and Doug were relentless in their search for answers, calling
everyone they could think of who knew Suzanne, hoping that
someone somewhere knew something about what happened to their daughter,

(13:48):
even friends she had who lived out of state. They also,
due to the sheer volume of calls they were receiving
from the police and the media, got a second phone
line so that their main number would be available if
Suzanne ever called. Doug said, quote, it's been a really difficult,
exasperating experience for us. It's our belief she's not running

(14:09):
away from home. A potential lead came briefly when Claude
Wildsey from Albany was arrested in Springfield, Illinois after violating
his parole. He was convicted rapist in the area when
Suzanne disappeared, but after questioning him, he was not considered
to be a suspect. According to the Staten Island Advance.

(14:30):
Police did look into the possibility that the sighting of
Suzanne getting off of the bus on campus was incorrect.
A student had claimed to see Suzanne at the campus
bus stop, but police thought it was possible the student
had not actually seen her there. The bus driver was
spoken with as well to try and determine Suzanne's movements

(14:51):
more definitively, but he could only remember seeing Suzanne boord
his bus, not what stop she got off at. They
even tossed her on the idea yeah that Suzanne never
made it on the bus to begin with, although there
was no evidence of this. Police ultimately started considering the
idea that Suzanne had met with foul play on the
night she went missing. Two months after Suzanne went missing,

(15:15):
the case has already gone cold and they have very
little to go on. A Babbage ID card belonging to
Suzanne was found in the parking lot across campus from
where her dorm room was. The card was in bad condition,
bends and weathered, and appeared to have been on the
ground for a long time university police chief Frank Wiley said,

(15:38):
according to the Republican quote, hopefully this will lead us
in some direction towards the safe return of Suzanne Lyle.
According to a few sources, the most interesting thing about
this ID badge was that it was an older version
than the one currently being used at Babbage's. It's possible
that Suzanne used her old badge on the day she

(15:58):
went missing, but it was also theorized that the badge
was planted where it was found. Even with the discovery
of Suzanne's ID badge, the investigation when colled again very quickly.
There was just no other physical evidence or suspects that
could point police in the right direction. According to people,

(16:19):
the Liles joined a crime victim support group to try
and process their grief. It was in this group that
they learned of a couple in California who had successfully
campaigned for campus security laws to be changed when their
own daughter disappeared. Inspired, the Liles met with state legislator
and Governor George Battaggi to push for a similar change.

(16:41):
Doug said quote, Colleges hesitate to report to other agencies
because they think the students will return. College police must
take missing student reports more seriously. The mindset of colleges
is that students are off having a good time. The
longer you wait, the more chances of a good outcome diminished.

(17:02):
According to the Telegram Tribune, he also wanted to change
federal laws that called for twenty four hours to go
by before a person over eighteen could be reported missing.
This was passed into law on April thirty, two thousand three,
and called Suzanne's Law. In November, eight months after Suzanne disappeared,
her picture was featured along with three other missing students

(17:25):
on the Security on Campus website, which is a nonprofit
dedicated to fighting for better security procedures on campuses when
students go missing, according to the Ithaca Journal, on the
one year anniversary of Suzanne's disappearance, the New York State
Senate approved a bill requiring all public and private colleges
to work out a plan to address reports of missing

(17:46):
students and crimes, as well as providing statistics on crimes
occurring on campus. They also established a law enforcement agency
to lead investigations when jurisdiction is an issue. In January
of two thousand, the New York State Campus Security Act
was passed into law and set longer sentences for a

(18:07):
wide range of misdemeanors and felonies on campuses, including first
degree assault three years to life and first degree kidnapping
fifteen years to life. And in two thousand and seven,
the Suzanne Lyle Campus Security Act was passed, which created
assault free school zones similar to drug free school zones
at various campuses and school grounds. The Lyles also founded

(18:31):
the Center for Hope in two thousand and one to
provide resources and assistance to families suffering from the same
loss and pain that they were. They also implemented a
cold case playing card program in New York State and
had playing cards printed with various cold cases distributed to
fifty seven county jails across the state in the hopes

(18:53):
of garnering leads for various cases, including susants. As the
years passed, there have been very few suspects in Suzanne's
disappearance and little to no evidence to support the idea
that these individuals had anything to do with Suzanne's case.
During the initial investigation, Suzanne's coworkers came forward and allegedly

(19:15):
claimed that Suzanne had mentioned a stalker, but she apparently
was not all that bothered by it. If this were true,
this alleged stalker has never been identified. Some people, including
Mary Lyle, believe Richard is responsible for Suzanne's disappearance. Besides

(19:35):
the shaky alibi, the main argument for this is his
controlling and possessive behavior. Mary claimed that Suzanne attempted to
break up with him multiple times, but he always convinced
her to stay with him. She also claimed that her
daughter always wrote a letter to Richard to break up
with him, and that the month before she disappeared, she

(19:56):
had dropped off a letter to Richard on the way
to visit her grandmother, but no one knows what the
contents of this letter were. There's also the fact that
Richard did not call the police himself when he couldn't
get in contact with Suzanne. He allegedly had remote access
to her computer, and he also, after his initial interview

(20:17):
with the police, hired a lawyer and refused to take
a polygraph. He was also the only other person besides
Suzanne who knew what her pin was for her debit guard. Now,
I do want to reiterate that Richard had an alibi
that police seemed to believe, but from what I can tell,
he has never officially been ruled out as a suspect. However,

(20:39):
there's no evidence to suggest he was involved in any way.
In two thousand and five, a man named Joe Reagan
was arrested for attempting to abduct a teenage girl at
Saratoga Springs High School, very near where Suzanne grew up.
He had also been charged with kidnapping in nineteen ninety
three in Connecticut. The police were suspicious that Reagan was

(21:02):
responsible for Suzanne's disappearance. Joe Reagan allegedly refused to speak
to police about her case, and there has been no
evidence to prove he was involved. The last suspect or
potential suspect is the one and only Israel Keys. Now,
this theory is the most interesting because there is at

(21:23):
least some circumstantial evidence that supports it. One in nineteen
ninety eight, Israel Keys was living about three and a
half hours away from the Senior Albany campus. He was
living in Constable, New York. He had also at least
one time obtained a victim's pin number and used her
debit card to withdraw money at an ATM, and he

(21:46):
looked for victims in parking lots. Additionally, Suzanne's name came
up in NamUs forty five, which was Israel Key's searches
of missing people, although we do know that he looked
a victim that he had nothing to do with. However,
as far as I can tell, there's no solid evidence

(22:08):
linking Israel Keys to Suzanne's disappearance. It's just purely circumstantial.
In twenty fifteen, Doug Lyle passed away without ever having
gotten an answer as to what happened to his daughter.
But Mary is still fighting, hoping and praying that one
day she will get the answers that they have been

(22:29):
waiting for. She said, quote every time we went on
a conference, everywhere we went, I'd be sitting in that
airport looking at every single face, wondering if the next
one that's going to walk up is her. I'm still hoping.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Now.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
While the case is considered cold, it is still open
and police do believe that Suzanne was a victim of
a homicide. There are countless possibilities as to what could
have happened the night she disappeared. It's more than possible
that someone could still come forward and tell police what happened.
At the time of her disappearance, Suzanne was nineteen years old,

(23:07):
five to three and one hundred and seventy five pounds
with light brown, highlighted hair. She has a light brown
birthmark on her left calf, a mole on her left
cheek behind her ear, and a surgical scar on her foot.
She was last seen wearing a long black trench coat,
a black shirt, and blue jeans. She was also carrying

(23:27):
a black toe bag and may have been wearing jewelry.
If anyone out there has any information, please contact your
local FBI office or the New York State Police at
five one eight four five seven six eight one one.
It has been over twenty five years since Suzanne Lyles
stepped off of that bus and disappeared without a trace,

(23:52):
and her family has never stopped looking. They've never stopped hoping,
they have never stopped asking what happened to Suzanne. And
while in the year since her disappearance, new laws in
New York have come about expanding resources and response times
for young adults who vanish without explanation, it hasn't brought

(24:15):
Suzanne back. It's kept new students safe, but it hasn't
brought her back, the tips have dried up, the trail
is cold, and still there's someone out there that could
know something, because Suzanne deserves answers and her family deserves peace.
As always, I thank you so much for listening, and

(24:38):
I hope you have a wonderful week and I will
talk to you again in the next chapter of the
Book of the Dead. Bye, guys, Another page closed. But
the story isn't over for the families left behind. The
pain doesn't end when the headline's fade. And for the victims,

(24:59):
we owe them more than silence. For our on solved cases.
If you have any information, please reach out to local
authorities or visit our show notes for links and resources.
Someone out there knows something, Maybe it's you. Thank you
for listening to the Book of the Dead. If this
story moved or spoke to you in some way, talk

(25:22):
about it, share it, keep their names alive. Until next time.
I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant,
and remember the dead may be gone, but their stories
will not be forgotten.