Suzanne Gloria Lyall, born on April 6th, 1978, could only be described as nothing less of a genius. From a young age, she was thrilled by computers, deep into her poetry, and growing up in the sleepy town of Ballston Spa, New York, was determined to study computer science and make something of herself. She began her first year of college at SUNY Oneonta, but after a little time spent there, she knew she needed something more when she complained to her parents that she could practically teach the courses she was taking. She begged to transfer to SUNY Albany, where she claimed she might be challenged for once, and would have access to so many more opportunities. While her parents accepted, they knew that in reality, Suzanne wanted to be closer to her long-term boyfriend, Richard Condon. They made a great pair after all, with him being a few years her senior and being brought together by their shared love of computers.
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By March 2nd, 1998, Suzanne had been going to school in Albany for around a year. To make some extra cash in her downtime, she had taken up a job at a department store that was about 2 miles outside of campus located in the local mall. That day at work, her manager remembers everything feeling fairly typical– Suzanne seemed a little bit bummed about an exam she had taken earlier that day, but other than that, all was normal. After the store’s closing, around 9:20 pm, she boarded her usual bus back to her dorm on campus. Around 9:45 that night, an anonymous friend reports seeing her depart the bus and begin walking in the direction of her dorm. That was the last confirmed sighting of Suzanne Lyall.
The next morning, after placing many missed calls, her boyfriend Robert reached out to her parents, asking if they had heard from her. Suzanne rarely went a day without speaking to her family or her partner, and immediately her family went to campus police to report her missing. Like so many cases before hers, authorities made the critical mistake of branding her as yet another forgetful college student, who was probably passed out in a friend’s dorm from a night of drinking. They told her family to just give her a few days and wait for a call back from her. Still, her family knew that this was nothing like Suzanne. She didn’t party, she didn’t drink, and she didn’t do drugs. She wasn’t a risk-taker. She was reliable. Something was terribly wrong.
After 2 days and another missed midterm, the Lyells had the campus police on their side, requesting assistance from the state police. She was officially filed as a missing person on March 4th. Unfortunately, the investigation has never gotten very far. After searching over 300 acres, the most promising lead authorities followed was withdrawals using her card at a series of ATMs, and through CCTV footage, a man wearing a Nike baseball hat was identified as a person of interest, but later released. Nothing else has come of the lead. While police have never fully been able to rule out her boyfriend, Richard, there has been no evidence suggesting his involvement or linking him to the crime. 7 years later, John Regan, a man already facing trial for kidnapping in 1993, was arrested for the attempted abduction of a Saratoga Springs High School student, not far at all from where Suzanne went missing. While it seemed like a promising lead, still, nothing has come from it.
While Suzanne’s father, Doug, passed away in 2015, her mother continues to fight for justice and the investigation into Suzanne’s case remains active. Her story is just as compelling as it is tragic, and her family still hopes to one day find out what happened to the vanished teenager.
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