Inset: Jill Kloppenburg (FBI). Background: Audrey Avenue in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, where Kloppenburg was found dead under a garage (Google Maps).
Massachusetts officials have discovered a body believed to be that of a woman missing for over a year. The remains were located beneath a garage floor after a suspect reportedly confessed the crime to a friend.
Shawn Sullivan, 40, is facing murder and other charges, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told reporters at a press conference on Monday. Authorities are referring to the victim as “Jane Doe” until the remains — discovered in a shallow grave under a garage in Tyngsborough — are identified, but Ryan indicated that investigators believe they belong to 43-year-old Jill Kloppenburg, who disappeared in January 2025.
The missing woman, Kloppenburg, was last seen on January 2, 2025, departing her residence on the 700 block of Broadway in Lowell. Her phone ceased all activity nearly two weeks afterward, and she was officially declared missing on February 26, 2025.
On March 10 this year, a friend of the suspect, Sullivan, reached out to the Nashua Police Department in New Hampshire. The friend reported that Sullivan confessed to murdering a woman named Jill around January 2025, as revealed by Ryan during a press conference on Monday.
Police cross-referenced missing persons records and deduced that Sullivan’s admission likely referred to Kloppenburg, given their friendship. Investigators then searched a residence on Audrey Avenue in Tyngsborough, where Sullivan had lived previously. Ground-penetrating radar suggested an anomaly under the property’s two-car garage, according to Ryan.
After meticulously excavating a “large patch area” approximately 5 feet long and 3 feet wide beneath the garage, authorities uncovered a body wrapped in plastic, Ryan stated.
The medical examiner is currently working to confirm the identity of the body as Kloppenburg, alongside determining the cause and manner of death, Ryan noted. Sullivan faces charges of murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily harm, and improper disposal of human remains.
He’s slated to be arraigned on Tuesday.
Friends previously told local Fox affiliate WFXT that they contacted cops after they could not get hold of Kloppenburg.
“We’re very concerned because she hasn’t checked in. No matter what is going on in her life, she has always checked in with her friends,” Ann Matlosz told the TV station.
Her uncle, Steven Kloppenburg, wrote on Facebook that cops notified him Sunday evening about finding the remains. He said his niece had a drug addiction problem and had the propensity to associate with “violent men.”
“Though we were not particularly close, I find myself walking around since with eyes watery, on the edge of tears, for her loss, for what could have been,” he wrote. “There will be a resolution.”
