LOWELL, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts man is charged with murder after investigators say they found a body buried in a shallow grave beneath his garage floor.
Shawn Sullivan, 40, is charged with murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and improper disposal of human remains, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced on Monday.
Undated photo of Jill Kloppenburg. (FBI)
Ryan said detectives in New Hampshire got a call on March 10, tipping them off that Shawn Sullivan told a friend that he killed a woman named Jill at his home in 2025. Sullivan allegedly claimed to have shot the victim before burying her beneath the floor of the garage at his Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, home.
Jill Kloppenburg was reported missing in neighboring Tewksbury, Massachusetts in February 2025 by friends who hadn’t seen her since August of 2024. The last people who reported seeing Kloppenburg saw her leaving her Lowell home on Jan. 2, 2025, according to the FBI.
Ryan said that when detectives arrived at Sullivan’s Tyngsborough home, they observed a “large, patched area” approximately 5 feet by 3 feet in the garage. Ground-penetrating radar confirmed that something had been buried.
Working with the medical examiner’s office, investigators cut through the floor and recovered a plastic bag containing human remains. While the medical examiner was able to confirm that the remains are human, they have not been identified yet. Sullivan is charged with the murder of “Jane Doe” as investigators work to confirm that the remains belong to Kloppenburg.
Ryan said Monday that Kloppenburg and Sullivan were friends at the time of her disappearance.
Sullivan is expected to make his first court appearance on Tuesday in Lowell District Court.
