LOWELL — A Tyngsboro man was arraigned in Lowell District Court Tuesday afternoon on charges related to the alleged killing of Jill Kloppenburg, which his attorney called “a tragic accident.”
Shawn Sullivan, 40, is charged with murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, and improper disposal of human remains. He is being accused of fatally shooting Kloppenburg, 47, last year and burying her remains under the garage of his home on Audrey Avenue in Tyngsboro.
In the arraignment Tuesday, which was overseen by Judge John Coffey, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Ceara Mahoney said the incident took place in February 2025, and that the shooting took place in Shawn Sullivan’s bedroom. Mahoney said Shawn Sullivan told police that he accidentally shot Kloppenburg when he was holding the handgun.
Mahoney said Shawn Sullivan then kept Kloppenburg’s body in the room for a day or two before burying her under the floor of his garage in a bag and covering the hole in the ground with concrete and epoxy.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a press conference Monday that the remains had not yet been identified as Kloppenburg, but Mahoney said by the time of the arraignment it was confirmed to be Kloppenburg through dental records.
Shawn Sullivan’s defense attorney, Ryan Sullivan, with whom he has no relation, acknowledged in the courtroom Tuesday that his client had fired the gun and killed Kloppenburg, but said it amounted to “a tragic accident.”
“All the evidence points suggests a tragic accident followed by inexcusable panic,” Ryan Sullivan said.
Ryan Sullivan told the courtroom he believes the evidence points to a case of accidental manslaughter rather than a planned homicide, and that his client was cooperative with police.
Shawn Sullivan is being held without bail pending an April 17 probable cause hearing, in which he will appear via Zoom.
Outside the court building after the arraignment, friends of Kloppenburg spoke to reporters.
“Just be a man and do your time. You did a bad thing, and you tried to bury it,” said one of her friends when asked by reporters if she had anything she would want to say to Shawn Sullivan.
Later outside the court, Ryan Sullivan reiterated his claims that the shooting was “a real unfortunate tragic accident.”
“I think it is important to know that this was a situation that was really guided by the panic and impulsivity of a young man who has his own demons,” said Ryan Sullivan. “From my client, and the whole defense team, we can’t say enough about how much our hearts go out to the Kloppenburg family. I think that this is just measured by the fact that this is a real tragic mistake, but not with malice.”
The defense attorney said Shawn Sullivan never told anyone in his household about the shooting.
“This was something that was weighing on him. I can’t speculate why he decided on this moment, other than the weight on his shoulders trying to live with these horrible actions,” said Ryan Sullivan.
According to the police narrative included in court documents, police in Nashua, New Hampshire got a call on March 10 concerning a possible homicide. The caller, a longtime friend of Shawn Sullivan, told police Shawn had confided in him that he had killed a woman named Jill in February of last year and buried her body in his garage.
The FBI missing persons page on Kloppenburg said she had last been seen leaving her temporary residence on Broadway Street in Lowell on Jan. 2, 2025. She was reported missing on Feb. 26, 2025 by friends in Tewksbury, where she had an address according to the police report.
Massachusetts State Police interviewed Shawn Sullivan last week at the Tyngsboro Police Department. During that March 11 interview, he allegedly disclosed that he had firearms at his Audrey Avenue home. The two firearms were taken by Tyngsboro Police due to an expired license to carry.
On Sunday morning, police arrived at Shawn Sullivan’s home with a search warrant specific to the house’s garage area. After moving the vehicles parked in the garage, police noticed a square section of concrete that appeared to have been previously cut and covered back up. After using ground-penetrating radar and detecting an anomaly approximately two feet below the floor, police requested the Tyngsboro Highway Department to respond to the scene to assist in cutting into the floor. A forensic anthropologist from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also responded.
According to the police report, while the process of cutting into the floor was underway, Shawn Sullivan requested to speak with officers, and he was brought to the Tyngsboro Police Department to do so. When asked why he wanted to speak, Shawn Sullivan said, “I just want to tell you the [expletive] truth,” according to the report.
In the report, Shawn Sullivan is said to have told police he and Kloppenburg had been consuming alcohol and cocaine for several hours, when Kloppenburg asked to see his gun, a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver. Having been awake for “several days,” Shawn Sullivan told police he fell asleep or nodded off while holding the gun, accidentally pulled the trigger and shot Kloppenburg in the chest, according to the police report.
Officials said Shawn Sullivan was living in the home with multiple family members, but according to the police report he said his sick and elderly grandfather, who has since died, was the only one home at the time of the shooting and likely did not know what happened.
The police report said Shawn Sullivan admitted to replacing the bloodstained carpet in his room, disposing of Kloppenburg’s belongings and destroying a camera and SD memory card that had been recording in his room at the time of the incident.
A person who knew Shawn Sullivan and wished to remain anonymous told The Sun Tuesday he remembers Shawn as a kind person, and “a perfectly reasonable guy.” He said Shawn Sullivan originally went to school for criminal justice with aspirations of being a cop.
“But he had some addiction problems that made that untenable,” he said.
He said he had not seen Shawn Sullivan for possibly more than a year, and due to addiction and poor choices “he was not the young man I knew anymore.” Still, he said Shawn Sullivan was always friendly.
“It’s tough to wrap my head around. I didn’t know he even had a gun … I would like to believe there wasn’t true intent there,” he said.
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