A former cop from West Allis, Milwaukee, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the deaths of two women whose bodies were found in different suitcases by the roadside in the Town of Geneva earlier this month.
Steven Zelich, 52, confessed to murdering the women, whom he met online. He killed them during the first meetings. The former security officer was charged Thursday with two counts of hiding a corpse.
Zelich met the first woman - police have not released her name and she is referred to as Jane Doe in court documents - through online dating in 2012. He met her in person in late 2012 or early 2013 in Kenosha County, the complaint states, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He said he killed the woman and hid the body in a suitcase at his home in West Allis. Later he moved the body in a vehicle in 2014.
Laura Simonson, 37, was the second woman Zelich met on an online dating site. He admitted to killing her during their first meeting in Rochester, Minn., in November 2013. The body of Simonson was hid and put in his vehicle, the complaint read.
After investigation, authorities found physical evidence that led to Zelich, Wisconsin, Capt. John Sherwin of the Rochester, Minn., Police Department said Thursday, reports Sentinel.
The officials at the Farmington Police Department investigated the missing person case of Simonson. That led them to the Microtel Inn and Suites in Rochester. The employees working there recognized Simonson's photo and told officials she stayed in a room with Zelich Nov. 2 and 3, Sherwin said. Zelich checked out of the Inn alone Nov. 3.
Authorities did not disclose how Simonson was killed.
The investigating team searched Zelich's house Wednesday and removed the bags of evidence and a refrigerator.
According to the Sentinel, Simonson was a mother of seven children. In 2010, they all were under foster care with her father Richard Wierson. Simonson was suffering from mental illness.
Weirson said that his daughter, who suffered mental illness since adolescence, also placed escort ads on Craigslist.
Farmington police detective Sgt. Lee Hollatz told the Associated Press that Zelich had long been his "No. 1 person, by far, of interest" in Simonson's disappearance. "I saw Laura as a vulnerable adult because of things in her life that she was dealing with," Hollatz said.
Police sources told the Sentinel that Zelich was forced to resign from the West Allis Police Department following a row with a prostitute when he was not on duty. He then joined the Securitas Security Services USA in 2007, the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services state.
Zelich is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon in Wisconsin on charges of hiding a corpse. Police said they expect homicide charges to be filed where the women were killed.
