Disappearance of Suzanne Lyall

42°41′18″N 73°49′22″W / 42.6882°N 73.8229°W / 42.6882; -73.8229

On the night of March 2, 1998, Suzanne Gloria Lyall, a 19‑year‑old undergraduate at the State University of New York at Albany, left her job at the Babbage's computer store in Crossgates Mall in the nearby suburb of Westmere after the store had closed. She is believed to have taken a CDTA city bus from the mall back to the university's Uptown Campus, where a classmate later reported seeing her get off the bus at Collins Circle, a short walk from her dorm. She has not been seen since.

The next morning, Lyall was reported missing. That afternoon, her credit card was used at an ATM in a nearby convenience store to withdraw $20. According to her boyfriend, only he and Lyall knew the PIN. He had a verified alibi for the time of her disappearance, but his later refusal to cooperate with investigators has prevented police from fully ruling him out as a suspect. A man who used the ATM around the same time was ruled out. The New York State Police continue to investigate the case, which was later featured in an episode of the Investigation Discovery series Disappeared.

Lyall's parents have become activists on behalf of families of other missing persons, founding an organization called the Center for Hope to support those families. They were present when President George W. Bush signed Suzanne's Law, enacted as part of the PROTECT Act of 2003, which raised from 18 to 21 the age at which local police must notify the National Crime Information Center of a missing person. Five years later, he also signed into law the Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act, part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, based on similar legislation passed by New York State the year after Lyall disappeared. It requires college police departments to have plans for investigating missing‑person cases and serious crimes on campus. Another Suzanne's Law, passed several times by the New York State Senate but not yet voted on in the State Assembly, would increase penalties for violent crimes on and near educational facilities.