Killing of Jill-Lyn Euto

Jill-Lyn Euto was an 18-year-old resident of Syracuse, New York, who was found stabbed to death in her apartment in late January 2001. Born on March 20, 1982, she had recently moved out of her mother's home on Butternut Street into a sixth-floor apartment at 600 James Street, in the city's Near Northeast neighborhood. She worked at a store in a local shopping mall and was studying to become a paramedic.

On January 28, 2001 — Super Bowl Sunday — Euto had arranged to watch the game with her mother and sister at the family's Butternut Street home, but she never arrived and did not answer repeated telephone calls. The following day, after she failed to appear for work, her mother, Joanne Browning, and her sister, Jenna Euto, went to the James Street apartment and found her dead. She had suffered multiple stab wounds, including a wound to her neck. Investigators determined that the weapon was a knife taken from Euto's own kitchen.

No one has been arrested or publicly identified as a suspect. Detective Christopher DeJoseph, who was a patrol officer at the time of the killing and later worked the case as a detective, has said investigators believe Euto knew her attacker and admitted the person into her apartment. Her sister has expressed the same belief in interviews. Police have described the resulting case file as one of the largest in the history of the Syracuse Police Department, and have said over the years that several people were examined without any being charged.

Forensic evidence has been a persistent obstacle. Police have said they were unable to recover a usable DNA profile from the knife. In 2016, on the fifteenth anniversary of the killing, investigators said they hoped to use DNA evidence to help build a profile of a possible suspect. A reward of $13,000 was offered in 2001 for information leading to a conviction.

Euto's mother campaigned publicly for years to keep the case active, distributing fliers, funding billboards, and appearing on national television programs before her death in 2007 from injuries sustained in a fall. Her sister has continued to seek answers. On the twenty-fifth anniversary in 2026, Syracuse police said they continued to follow up on leads but that nothing substantial had come in for some time, while stressing that the investigation remains open.

The killing is frequently cited among Syracuse's long-unsolved homicides and is listed on the Syracuse Police Department's cold-case records. As of 2026, no charges have been filed, and the circumstances of Euto's death — including who entered her apartment on the night she was killed — remain undetermined.