City homicide victim was strangledPolice, relatives wonder who killed Sue Ann Crossman on New Year's Eve.By Jim Read and Greg MunnoStaff writersSue Ann CrosstnanTs family gathered Monday at the Merri man Avenue home of her father and slepm other and struggled with the same questions Syracuse. police have been trying to answer: Whn killed Grossman, 28, and why?“There are h lot of rumors,about her, about the people she has been hanging with, but itfs all just rumor,” Esther Crossman, Sue Ann’s stepmother, said. “We really don't know what happened. It’s a mystery. Thai’s one ofCrossmanthe tilings that are making this so hard.”Crossman, of 307 ColumbusPolice seek help■ Anyone with information about Sue Ann Crossman's. whereabouts on Saturdaycan reach Syracuse police detectives at 447-5222.■ Inside: Obituary / Page B-5Ave., was found dead in her tipmtoeuL about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, the city’s 19th homicide of 2005.Monday evening, police were still searching for answers about Grossman's death, but they had learned how she was killed. Anautopsy showed that Grossman was strangled, said SgL Tom Connellan, a police spokesman. He declined to say if the killer used hands or some implement.“Wc have interviewed neighbors, friends, family, anybody that might have been with her,’1 Connellan said.She was found by Cluistopher Brown, 20, a friend of Cross-man’s boyfriend. Hector Miranda, 29. “He called 911,” Con-nellan said. Brown had been staying with the couple and Brown also was the last person POLICE, PAGE B-2The Piftloldnd-ird