Authorities said Jill Kloppenburg was friends with the suspect, and had been in his home
Credit: FBI
NEED TO KNOW
- Massachusetts authorities believe they have found the remains of a woman who was reported missing more than a year ago
- Shawn Sullivan, 40, of Tyngsborough was arrested and charged with murder after a friend allegedly told police Sullivan confessed to killing a woman
- Jill Kloppenburg was friends with Sullivan and was seen with him just before her disappearance, police said
A Massachusetts man has been arrested after human remains were found in his home — and authorities believe those remains could belong to a woman who has been missing for more than a year.
On Monday, March 16, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Tyngsborough Chief of Police Shaun Woods shared an update regarding the disappearance of Jill Kloppenburg, who was last seen leaving her Lowell, Mass., home on Jan. 2, 2025.
Shawn Sullivan, 40, of Tyngsborough, Mass., has been charged with murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury and improper disposal of human remains, according to a press release from the D.A.
Kloppenburg, who was 47 years old at the time of her disappearance, has not been confirmed as the deceased.
However, Ryan said during a press conference that on March 10, a person who identified himself as a friend of Sullivan's told officers with New Hampshire’s Nashua Police Department that the 40-year-old “called and told him that he allegedly killed a woman named Jill.”
According to police, Sullivan claimed to the friend that the crime took place at his home in or around January 2025, and that he allegedly shot her before burying her under the floor in the garage of the home.
Authorities with the Nashua Police Department cross-checked this information in a national database and learned that “there was a woman named Jill Kloppenburg who had been reported missing” to the Tewksbury Police in February 2025.
According to Ryan, prior to filing the missing person’s report, friends of Kloppenburg had not physically seen her since August 2024, and the last time they spoke to her via text message was Nov. 20, 2024.
Further investigation determined that the last known activity from Kloppenburg’s cell phone was on Jan. 14, 2025.
Additionally, police allege that Kloppenberg and Sullivan knew each other and that Kloppenburg had been inside his home. The pair had allegedly been seen together not long before her disappearance.
Ryan said that detectives from the Tyngsborough Police Department, Tewksbury Police Department, and Massachusetts State Police executed a search warrant of Sullivan’s property on Sunday, March 15, and found “what appeared to be a large, patched area in the garage.”
Authorities allege that the area was scanned using ground-penetrating radar and confirmed something was buried there, before cutting through the flooring and recovering a plastic bag containing “what has been confirmed by the medical examiner’s office as human remains.”
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"They could tell me they were 100% positive the remains were hers though they still have to confirm it with DNA and an autopsy has to be done to try to determine a cause of death, she's been missing for 14 months and has probably been out there for the whole time," Kloppenburg's uncle, Steven Kloppenburg, said on Facebook, per CBS News.
Sullivan is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday, March 17, in the Lowell District Court, Ryan said.
The victim is being referred to as Jane Doe until the medical examiner can make an identification. A cause of death has not yet been determined.
Authorities are encouraging anyone with any information about Jill to contact the Massachusetts State Police at 781-897-8300.
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