The body of a Massachusetts woman who was missing for more than a year was discovered by police buried under a garage after a tipster revealed to authorities a chilling confession his friend allegedly made, the district attorney said.
Jill Kloppenburg, 47, was reported missing on Feb. 26, 2025.
‘At some point, he made a jerking motion, which caused him to pull the trigger, discharging a firearm and shooting Jill in the chest.’
According to the FBI, Kloppenburg was last seen leaving her residence in Lowell on Jan. 2, 2025. The FBI said Kloppenburg was living in temporary housing with roommates.
While there had not been any promising leads regarding the location or status of the missing woman, authorities received a tip last week that broke the case wide open.
On March 10, 2026, a tipster reported a possible homicide to the Nashua Police Department in New Hampshire, according to a press release by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.
The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office revealed:
The reporting party told police that his friend, a man named Shawn Sullivan, had allegedly told him that he had killed a woman named “Jill” at this home in or around January 2025, and that he had allegedly shot her and buried her under the floor in the garage of the Audrey Avenue home in Tyngsborough where he was living.
On March 15, officers from the Tyngsborough Police Department, Tewksbury Police Department, and Massachusetts State Police executed a search warrant at the home.
Officers saw what appeared to be a “large, patched area in the garage,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Investigators utilized ground-penetrating radar technology to scan the entire garage floor and confirmed an “area that appeared to be cut and patched.”
WCVB-TV reported that the patched area in the garage measured approximately five feet long and three feet wide.
Police discovered human remains in a bag buried under the garage floor of the home. The DA said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has identified the remains as Jill Kloppenburg.
The preliminary findings by the medical examiner also indicate that Kloppenburg sustained a gunshot wound.
Officers with the Tyngsborough Police Department arrested 40-year-old Shawn Sullivan on March 15.
On Tuesday, Sullivan was arraigned in Lowell District Court on charges of murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and improper disposal of human remains in connection with the shooting of Kloppenburg.
Sullivan was ordered held without bail.
Prosecutors claimed Sullivan said he shot the woman while showing her a gun in his bedroom, WCVB reported.
“The defendant said he was with Jill and holding a firearm while falling asleep. At some point, he made a jerking motion, which caused him to pull the trigger, discharging a firearm and shooting Jill in the chest,” prosecutor Ceara Mahoney said.
Mahoney added, “He stated that Jill soon died, and if there was a chance for her survival, he would have called for help. Instead, the defendant kept Jill’s body in his room for a couple of days.”
“He then brought Jill’s body to the garage, where he dug a hole in the concrete, placed her body in the hole, and then filled the hole,” Mahoney stated.
The Boston Globe reported that Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a press conference on Monday, “Police were able to learn that the last record of any communication from Ms. Kloppenburg’s cell phone was on Jan. 14, 2025.
Ryan added, “Police were able to learn that Ms. Kloppenburg was someone known to Mr. Sullivan, that she had been in his home, and that he had allegedly been with her around the time of her disappearance.”
Sullivan’s attorney, Ryan Sullivan, described his client’s actions as “inexcusable,” but said they still warranted a charge of involuntary manslaughter rather than murder.
“He’s been emotional in speaking to the police and speaking with me,” the attorney said. “This has been something that’s been greatly weighing on him. His decisions in the aftermath, although regretful, don’t equate to him having malice of committing any sort of act designed to do this. It’s a tragic, tragic accident.”
Teresa Brink, a friend of Kloppenburg, told reporters outside the courthouse, “She didn’t deserve that, no. Absolutely not. She didn’t deserve that. Nobody does. Nobody. She’s a human. She’s a mother, a friend, a sister, a daughter.”
Sullivan is scheduled to appear in court on April 17.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with any information about the case is urged to contact the Massachusetts State Police at 781-897-8300.
The Massachusetts State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Murder, True crime, True crime news, True crime update, Cold case, Massachusetts, Missing woman, Crime
