Overview

• Police arrested Donald Coffel on April 25, charging him with murder, tampering with evidence, and improper disposal of a body in the death of his roommate, Suzanne Wormser.
• Coffel confessed to striking Wormser with a baseball bat, dismembering her body, and leaving her torso in a suitcase near Colonel Ledyard Cemetery in Groton, Connecticut.
• Investigators linked forensic evidence from the crime scene to the shared apartment, where they recovered a baseball bat, handsaw, blood, and Wormser’s personal belongings.
• Authorities emphasized that the killing was a targeted domestic crime, dispelling earlier fears of a regional serial killer following other unrelated body discoveries in New England.
• Coffel remains in custody on a $1 million bond and appeared virtually in court on April 28 due to health issues, with further legal proceedings scheduled for June.