The Murder of Suzanne Marie Collins
The two-decade fight for justice for a murdered marine.
Suzanne
It was Thursday, July 11, 1985 in Millington, Tennessee, a city roughly 15 square miles large, less than ten miles outside of Memphis and home to Memphis Naval Air Station (since renamed Naval Support Activity Mid-South). As a major training center for both the Navy and the Marines, the base covers nearly 4,000 acres and both the active duty and retired military personnel contribute to Millington’s economy.
Around 11 p.m., two marines, Private First Class Michael Howard and Private First Class Mark Shotwell, were jogging on base when they saw a very pretty, tall blonde girl wearing a Marine Corps t-shirt jogging in the opposite direction. Only moments later, they noticed a dark colored 1970s Ford station wagon with wood-grain paneling and its high beams on, traveling in the same direction as the pretty girl.
That girl was Suzanne Marie Collins. In that summer of 1985, 19-year-old Suzanne was a marine, assigned to Naval Air Station Memphis and preparing to graduate. The only daughter and youngest child (brother Stephan was just a bit older) of an American Foreign Service officer and attorney and his wife who adopted both Suzanne and Stephen, the Collins family did stints in Greece and Madison, Wisconsin…