Show full transcript 1:21 keep the weeds from spreading so I was mulling along and I noticed something 1:29 there was some brush in the way that I had cut out of the way I went down and 1:34 it turned out to be a suitcase so I grabbed it was pretty heavy I just 1:38 assumed it was some wet clothes and I drug it up to the edge of the road 1:41 put it right on the road to start with and then I saw a second one behind that 1:46 so I went back and grabbed that one same thing I drug it up to the road set it 1:53 right on the road because it was so close to the end of the day I didn't call 1:57 anybody finished mowing and then when I got in I said hey we're a couple 2:01 suitcases out there we should go pick up. My name is Eric Anderson we're 2:09 really pulling up to the area where the suitcases were on North 2:12 Comal Road. I was a second shift patrol officer for the town of Geneva 2:17 Police Department. On June 5, 2014, I was contacted for someone that called in 2:23 regarding suitcases on the side of the road. When I approached the suitcases, I 2:29 saw a lot of flies. I took the black suitcase, I ended up taking it by the 2:33 handle, laid it down and unzipped it from the top and opened it up and I 2:39 saw the remains of a decomposing human body, 2:42 which appeared to be a female. 2:45 Nothing can prepare you by really seeing 2:48 what I'm seeing right now. 2:49 It's not normal opening a suitcase 2:51 and seeing body inside. 2:55 Then I went to the second suitcase, 2:57 the purple one, grabbed the handle, lifted it up 2:59 and felt the weight inside of that. 3:02 So we proceeded to lay down the suitcase 3:04 and open that one and where we found another 3:06 appear to be human body inside, who could possibly do this to another human being. 3:15 I determined that I needed to take step back, close this off as a crime scene, and I needed 3:20 to call my dispatch and let them know what was happening. 3:23 We had to figure out, first off, who the victims were, then to try to figure out how 3:29 they had lost their lives, and then to try to figure out who was the person responsible 3:34 for that. 3:46 Geneva is just a small community. A lot of Chicago land individuals come here to relax. 3:52 It's a real quiet town. Population is around 5,400 people. 3:56 But during the summer times it doubles even triples with vacationers. 4:00 They come here for a place to relax. 4:03 Succeses fell on the side of the road with two young ladies deceased in there. 4:07 It just flipped this town upside down. 4:09 It became national news for the wrong reasons. 4:12 Law enforcement was out on Como Road for about five hours yesterday evening 4:15 and when those two bodies were discovered. 4:19 Nothing can prepare you for what you can see 4:22 upon opening a suitcase and finding a corpse inside of it. 4:26 Does it affect you? 4:27 Of course, because police are not robots. 4:34 I had to let other people know to get down there, 4:37 so I had to get ahold of the 4:38 Allworth County Sheriff's Department 4:39 to send detectives down to help me out with the scene. 4:45 Jeff Ragnoggo was one of the first responding 4:47 detectives from Allworth County Sheriff's Department. 4:52 When I pulled up, Eric Anderson came up to me and you could tell like there was 4:56 something really important that happened because he had that certain stare in his 5:00 eyes and he said that he had opened one of the suitcases and it contained a 5:03 dead human being. So one of the suitcases that was on the side of the 5:13 road, this is terrible stuff and when we open this up and you smell what you 5:20 smell, I mean it takes me back in time to the same day when we discovered 5:24 these things on the side of the road. And from the suitcase what could you 5:29 There was no name identification on either of the suitcases, so it was pretty tough at first to try to figure out who they were. 5:35 Both of the victims' bodies were severely decomposed. 5:39 Yes, they were so decomposed that we weren't able to get any DNA from their bodies. 5:43 And the bodies were not dismembered? 5:45 No, they were still all intact. 5:47 Both of the women were about five foot tall, weighed right around 100 pounds. 5:53 We're trying to figure out the cause of death, the manner of death. 5:56 We noticed that both of the victims had tattoos, so we were trying to figure out from their 6:00 tattoos who the people were. 6:02 We had anthropologists come in, take a look at one of our victims, and so what she did 6:08 was she tried to do a drawing of her, a composite drawing. 6:12 What could you gather from this? 6:14 Not a whole lot. 6:15 The big thing obviously is that the victim had larger sized teeth, but not much luck 6:20 really came from that composite drawing. 6:24 Cops made a couple more observations. 6:26 One is that one of the bodies, the one in the purple suitcase, 6:30 seemed far more preserved, almost in a state of mummification. 6:35 They also noted that both bodies were bound with rope. 6:39 This is a knotted piece of rope that was around one of our victims' wrists. 6:45 What kind of person would do this? 6:47 That's what I asked myself when I first arrived at the scene. 6:54 The town of Geneva Police Chief providing few details. 6:57 He is calling this a death investigation that they are treating as criminal. 7:01 There really is not much more I can tell you at this time. 7:04 But this quiet town is now buzzing with questions about safety. 7:08 Everybody's just shocked and scared. 7:11 I can't even imagine what the people were thinking in this community. 7:15 It hit like a Midwestern tornado and probably brought back some memories of Jeffrey Dahmer, 7:22 or that human predator who murdered 17 men, 7:26 16 of them in nearby Milwaukee. 7:30 Definitely came to my mind thinking, 7:31 is there are there more bodies somewhere else 7:33 that some of this might be a serial killer, 7:35 and what did I just get myself into? 7:38 How many more people could there be, 7:40 or could this still be going on? 7:46 We were unaware of these two people missing 7:48 from our immediate area, 7:50 and we needed to go statewide, 7:52 because I thought that this was something 7:54 not from our immediate area. 7:58 After casting a wider net, investigators 8:00 are alerted about another case in neighboring Minnesota. 8:04 It involves a woman who disappeared several months 8:07 earlier under extremely suspicious circumstances. 8:12 When I received the call that two bodies were in two suitcases 8:16 down in Geneva, Wisconsin, I was wondering, 8:19 is this connected with Laura? 8:33 Along this rural Walworth Highway 8:35 near the town of Geneva, a one-cutting crew found 8:39 abandoned suitcases containing the bodies of two women. 8:42 It's a horrible, horrible crime that we're 8:45 going to work real hard, and I have a lot of confidence 8:47 in the investigators that they're 8:49 going to be able to put some of these pieces together. 8:52 I felt like we needed to have a bigger net to talk 8:54 to people from a bigger area from the whole Midwest 8:57 to try to find out who these victims were. 9:02 By widening that target area of investigation, 9:05 cops learned that state authorities in Wisconsin 9:08 are teaming up with nearby Minnesota police 9:10 to investigate the disappearance of a woman several months earlier. 9:16 Hey, just to let you know, one of our agents was helping out 9:19 a detective from Minnesota in trying to find a missing woman. 9:23 Maybe you should communicate with that detective. 9:27 They then connected with detectively howlits 9:30 from Farmington, Minnesota. 9:32 So tell me about Farmington, Minnesota, what kind of people live here? 9:39 Totally a bedroom community, so it's kind of the last ring of the Minneapolis, St. Paul suburbs. 9:51 Seven months before those suitcases are found in Wisconsin, 9:55 Detective Lee Hollitz is investigating the disappearance of 37-year-old Laura Simonson. 10:01 Her abandoned van was found at her mother's home. 10:05 And her van was parked right here on the right hand side of the garage and myself and Detective 10:10 Sundgren went searching it. We found her cell phone. We found her purse and medication. So I 10:18 thought that was very odd when we found that in the van. You get an indication that Laura's in 10:23 trouble. You know just reading through on what who Laura was and what she had all gone through 10:29 especially in the past year. 10:31 Ooh, a lot of red flags here. 10:35 Laura was raised in this general area. 10:38 She was raised in Northfield, 10:40 which is about roughly 20 miles south here of Farmington, 10:44 and she was well-known in school and popular in school. 10:48 Is it taping? 10:49 Taping what? 10:51 Taping my... 10:54 Yes, it is! 10:57 I met Laura in elementary school. 11:00 Everybody loved Laura. 11:02 She just would light up the room 11:03 when she walked in. Just the smile on her face always would brighten your day. 11:10 This is the Norfield Middle School. This is where Laura and I first met. 11:18 Laura had blonde hair and she was bubbly. She was fun to hang around with. She was a funny girl. 11:28 Oh, here's a nice one when we were younger. Yikes. Look at those pigtails, but we had 11:33 to have our hair done the same way in the same outfit. She looked up to you though, huh? 11:37 Yeah, she did. 11:40 That's my little sister. 11:43 She was my, you know, little sister who was annoying at some times, 11:48 but then, you know, at the same time I was her protector. 11:52 When we got older, we really connected when we started having kids, 11:56 when we started getting our own family. 12:00 Laura out of high school eventually got married and ended up having, you know, 12:04 my family, actually quite a large family with seven children. 12:10 Their marriage was really ups and downs. 12:13 It was like either it was really good 12:15 and they got along really great 12:17 or it was the other side to where there were fights 12:21 and it was hard to watch. 12:24 Well, ultimately this marriage hits a dead end 12:27 and the couple divorces and the darkness isn't over 12:31 because after that Laura's daughter Alyssa 12:34 has a terrible accident in a pool 12:36 and she is rendered disabled. 12:42 Laura lived this, you know, for 13 years with Alyssa 12:45 and took care of her every day, day in and day out. 12:49 And Laura shut down. 12:52 She didn't want to talk to anybody. 12:54 Having to deal with the whole situation of the kids, 12:56 that all just finally came to a head. 12:58 And that was part of the downward spiral. 13:01 Yes, it was. 13:02 Laura, I think, at that time, had 13:04 admitted that she needed help because she had started 13:08 using drugs. 13:10 The state, they took the kids, they separated the kids, put them in foster care. 13:17 I feel like Laura lost her way, and she didn't know how to recover from that. 13:26 June of 2013, the same daughter that had all the medical conditions ended up passing away. 13:32 And I know that was a devastating blow to Laura. 13:36 and she got an infection in her heart and nobody knew about and just passed away in 13:41 her sleep. And what impact did this have on Laura? It crushed her. And her mental 13:46 well-being in general, you were worried about that? Yes, very worried about her. 13:52 There were periods where we weren't sure where she was staying. We didn't 13:57 know where she was. On November 1st 2013 Laura's mother received a text 14:05 message from Laura and it's quite alarming saying you know hey I'm sorry I'm 14:10 this way it's not you it's me I'm no good for the kids either and you know what 14:15 best thing I can do is stay away love you all always. How concerning was this 14:20 text to her family? It was very concerning but they did not you know 14:25 right when they got that message they didn't act on it as it was quite 14:29 let's say it's quite common that Laura would go missing at times. Very next 14:35 day there's that unsettling discovery of Laura's van and her mother's driveway. 14:40 And inside, another note. 14:43 I'm so sorry to leave the van here. 14:46 Call and have it towed. 14:47 She mentions her food card, take my food card and all that, which to me was kind of a red 14:52 flag. 14:53 But you were trying to find out where might she have gone, right? 14:56 Correct, correct. 14:57 Then I started calling, you know, like local homeless shelters, churches, and things 15:02 like that. 15:02 I called her ex-husband, called 15:06 boyfriends contacts that she had with, 15:09 but I was coming up with nothing. 15:14 Another note. 15:16 And this one is found at the door of Laura's mother's house. 15:20 It comes from some mystery man, a guy the family never heard of. 15:25 And then the case takes a sinister turn. 15:29 Hey, I haven't seen Laura since November 1st. 15:32 And she's without her meds. 15:33 I'm very concerned on her whereabouts she has never disappeared like that. 15:38 We're like, all right, you know, who's this guy, what's this all about? 15:42 And now I'm getting more scared. 16:02 When Laura disappeared, it was a shocker. 16:06 What do you mean Laura's missing? 16:08 Laura would have never ditched her kids. 16:10 That wasn't Laura. 16:11 Her kids were her life. 16:15 We already know about the note that Laura left for her mother instructing her what to do with all her belongings. 16:21 Well, two weeks later, another note appears at Laura's mother's door, and this one is 16:28 from a man named Jeff Madison. 16:31 So Jeff leaves a note and saying, hey, I haven't seen Laura since November 1st, and she's without 16:37 her meds. 16:37 I'm very concerned on her whereabouts. 16:40 She has never disappeared like that. 16:41 None of us know where she's at, and I'm very concerned. 16:45 I had never heard of him, and, you know, we're like, who's this guy? 16:49 Now I'm getting more scared because she's missing her vans here and now a friend of hers is reaching out to say 16:55 Hey, I haven't seen her. You know, what's going on? 17:00 Tell me more about this man Jeff Madison who left that note 17:03 Jeff Madison was a friend of hers that lived up in St. Paul, which is about 20 miles from here and 17:09 they were close friends 17:12 Then something that comes as a big surprise 17:15 Jeff Madison sends an email to Detective Sergeant Hollitz. 17:20 In it, he says that Laura had been 17:24 on an online dating community called Caller Me. 17:29 And it caters to people involved in something called BDSM. 17:35 BDSM stands for bondage and discipline, 17:39 as well as domination and submission, 17:42 as well as sadism and masochism. 17:44 And so, it's really a lifestyle that is largely consensual and related to the dimensions of power and control. 17:52 I was floored. I was very surprised. 17:56 You think she was doing it because she wanted... 17:58 I honestly think she wanted someone to take care of her. 18:03 And, you know, in a submissive role, that's what that other person does, is they take care of everything. 18:09 Not only does Jeff Madison know all about Laura's participation in this online community, 18:16 but he actually knows her username and password. 18:22 Jeff made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. 18:25 The way he would communicate in emails, but also him having her usernames, her passwords. 18:33 He knew too much. 18:35 Exactly. Yeah, it was a little bit on the creepy side. 18:38 You must have asked yourself, who is this guy? 18:41 Oh, I very much did. 18:43 When I'm looking at his emails, I'm like going, 18:46 is there a possibility there is some jealousy here? 18:50 Is he hiding her out? 18:52 Does he know something else? 18:54 I didn't know, but it was still kind of, 18:58 it was just odd. 18:59 But he was just that individual that actually cared a lot 19:03 and knew his way around computers and all that. 19:07 Detective Haulett says he decides not to bring Jeff Madison in for questioning at this time 19:12 because there are still no signs of foul play. 19:16 But Haulett says Madison maintains constant email contact with him. 19:24 And that's good news because he keeps delivering information that's helpful to the police such 19:29 as the actual profile name of the main person Laura has been communicating with on that 19:37 Caller Me site. 19:38 Mr. Hancoffs. 19:39 Yeah, Mr. Hancoffs himself. 19:42 Looking at Mr. Hancoff's profile, 19:43 there is a picture of this guy sitting back on the couch. 19:46 Mr. Hancoffs basically looked like a, 19:49 probably somebody in there like young 50s, 19:51 white Caucasian man, dark hair, well groomed. 19:54 You know, say in seeking a long term, 19:56 permanent 24-7 slave for absolute ownership and slavery. 20:04 Jeff Madison continues to deliver the goods. 20:07 This time he hands over a series of emails 20:11 dating back a couple of months 20:12 of communication between Laura and Mr. Handcuffs. 20:17 She's constantly, you know, calling him sir and master. 20:21 And he's kind of given her marching orders. 20:23 Here's how we're going to do it. 20:24 Here's how we're going to meet and all that. 20:27 One of these emails that was sent to Mr. Handcuffs 20:29 was quite haunting. 20:31 She says in the middle of the message, 20:33 I have no self-esteem, no trust in myself, no judgment, no faith, no hope, no direction, 20:44 no desire, no confidence, no will basically. 20:49 The kids gave me the only thing to live for. 20:54 Reading these emails, it starts putting pieces of the puzzle together. 20:58 I think Laura was still grieving and you know turned to these online sites might 21:06 have been looking for you know a relief into distracting her from the death of 21:13 her daughter. I would say that you know all those emotions created this you know 21:18 perfect storm that created this person that nobody recognized. 21:23 Is it possible that Mr. Hancoves has something to do with the disappearance of Laura? 21:31 Then investigators uncover some startling video that really heats up this investigation. 21:38 And I'm like, holy moly. 21:43 This show is sponsored by Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID. 21:49 On June 25, 2011, 31-year-old Angel Harris was found murdered in Gainesville, Florida. 21:54 More than 15 years later, her case remains unsolved. 21:58 But on the new podcast, Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID, host Sarah Kalin travels 22:04 to Florida to uncover what happened to Angel and who may be responsible. 22:09 Retired Gainesville police detective Courtney Roberts joined Sarah to review evidence. 22:14 That includes surveillance footage showing Angel with an unidentified man shortly before 22:18 her death and then the same man walking away alone. 22:21 soon the search for answers in one murder turns into an investigation of five unsolved homicides. 22:29 Who killed Angel Harris? 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I'm like 26:48 Holy moly 26:50 We got Laura down in Rochester. I talked to the hotel manager and I said you got anything else that shows that was there 26:58 Okay. Yeah, we have a registration card as a signature on it says Laura Simonson this 27:03 correct 27:04 You see so many guests. What do you remember about Laura, what struck you about her? 27:15 I seen her a couple of times at the hotel. My aunt Hannah was up with her. 27:22 Laura looked sad. Like, um, I guess like a beaten horse. 27:28 The guy she was with was always standing right behind her. 27:33 Like, she was controlled. That's what I felt. 27:36 What did he look like physically? 27:42 Kind of a pot-marked face, pale, I'd say medium height. 27:49 You know that certain people you meet where the hair's on the back of your neck stand up? 27:53 Yeah. 27:53 He was one of those. 27:57 Because Christie was paying attention, we now have Laura at this time in Rochester, Minnesota, 28:04 one hour away with this unknown mail. 28:07 What evidence was the motel then able to give you guys? 28:11 from there I asked for the video surveillance of the hotel I spoke with 28:16 the manager he says okay we got it but he goes good news and bad news good 28:20 news is I got a Sunday when they checked out the Saturday when they checked in 28:26 they lost because of the like a 30-day time timeframe just by a day you missed 28:31 it correct I never got to see Laura on the hotel video never saw her 28:37 checking in. There's this bombshell of surveillance, the check out video. Correct. 28:44 Let's play it. What do you see here? You'll see this unknown white male pushing a 29:00 luggage rack full of suitcases. Okay and he goes out the door, then he comes on 29:06 back goes up here he checks out we know that Laura checked in do we ever see her 29:22 checking out we we did not see her check out she's nowhere on the video any 29:27 idea who he is this man I had no clue your mind must have been racing when you 29:34 see this video you got to find this guy correct because he has information on 29:39 my missing person. He was with Laura. Everything's pointing that he was with 29:43 Laura. At that time I sent out another Minnesota crime alert with a still photo 29:49 of him and asking again police departments. I'm hitting the Rochester area 29:54 hard. Who knows this guy? Somebody must know him, right? For you it's a race 29:59 against time. It is because every day that she is missing she doesn't have 30:05 any money. She's vulnerable. She could be in danger. Correct. Once that man is 30:11 spotted in that hotel video, Laura's friend, Jeff Madison, is cleared as a 30:17 person of interest in this case. In the meantime, there's one person that she had 30:21 been interacting with online. Correct. Mr. Handcuffs. Is Mr. Handcuffs the man in 30:30 the video? What do you see? And when his identity is revealed, it has law 30:35 enforcement stunned whoa now what do I got I ran into my detective I go you will 30:42 not believe this by the time that I got the video back so I have this unknown 30:59 you know middle-aged white male so I'm like all right who's this guy that is 31:05 involved with Warren Simonson okay I don't know Jeff Madison has become quite 31:12 the citizen sleuth. Two months later, he sends this email to Detective Hollins, and he says he has 31:19 new and very important information. This is huge news. He says he's identified Mr. Hancoff's. 31:31 Jeff Madison digging into all of Laura's profiles and her emails and all that, 31:36 But he somehow figures out that this Steve is Steven Zelich. 31:42 Mr. Hancoff? 31:43 Yeah, Mr. Hancoff himself. 31:47 So the next thing I did is I put it into a database that we have access to and eventually 31:53 it comes back to a Steven Zelich from West Alice, Wisconsin. 31:58 West Alice is basically going to be like a suburb of Milwaukee. 32:03 So I contact West Alice Police Department. 32:06 And I said, hey, I'm, you know, I'm looking, you know, for the Steven Zellich that lives 32:11 at, you know, this apartment in your town. 32:14 And then he tells me that Zellich used to be a police officer. 32:17 A police officer. 32:18 A police officer with that department. 32:20 Now, you're not just dealing with any suspect. 32:22 This is a trained law enforcement officer. 32:25 Correct. 32:25 So that changes your approach. 32:27 Oh, it absolutely does. 32:30 Steven Zellich was from this area. 32:32 He went to high school at St. Thomas Moor, which is a Catholic school. 32:35 His dad was a Milwaukee police sergeant, so I suppose that was always something he thought 32:41 about doing and started as a police officer in Mekwan, which is a suburb northwest of Milwaukee. 32:50 Zelich resigned from that department after five years and applied for a new post at 32:54 the West Alice PD. 32:56 Now, of course, they're going to do a background check. 32:59 Here's what came back. 33:00 Not any negative information. 33:03 And Zellich was a very good officer. 33:08 He was an upstanding guy, everybody liked him, very popular. 33:13 This woman who asked us not to reveal her face or name dated Zellich while he was at the West Alice Police Department. 33:21 He was like the perfect boyfriend. I was a police officer for a different jurisdiction and he was also a police officer so we all hung out in the same crowd. 33:29 What did his apartment look like? 33:30 His apartment was meticulously clean, very much a clean freak. 33:35 But she says that after several years together, something changed with this seemingly buttoned-down cop, and a darker side emerged. 33:46 We had gotten home from a night of drinking and he was pretty intoxicated, and he starts coming at me and he had handcuffs in his hand. 33:53 What did he do? 33:54 He basically overpowered me, handcuffed me. 33:57 She says the incident left her deeply shaken but says she didn't report it at the time because of Zellich's position in the police department. 34:07 And you wind up breaking up. 34:09 After what he had done to me and I couldn't trust him anymore, in the years that I knew him and years later something changed. 34:20 So I get a call from Barry Waddle, the captain of the West Allis Police Department. 34:25 He says, why are you asking about Steven Zellich? 34:30 And so I kind of start telling him what I have and, you know, my case. 34:34 And he pauses and he goes, let me tell you about Steven Zellich. 34:39 He would get constantly women calling departments and he's harassing me. 34:44 He had a habit of visiting people during his shift, 34:49 stopping in at strip clubs, talking to the dancers, 34:53 is intimidating them in a way that trying to get them to go out on dates and not taking 34:58 no for an answer. 35:00 The West Atlas Police Chief decided it is time to confront Zalic about these allegations. 35:09 You're asking intimidating, pressuring young women to go out with you? 35:14 How long has it been going on? 35:16 I have not been any of those things chief at all. 35:19 I have politely asked, was I a single woman? 35:27 I'm more than likely to be relunciated. 35:30 There has been no harassment, pressure. 35:33 In addition to hanging out at strip clubs while on duty, 35:36 Zelich was accused of harassing a woman who worked at this local hair salon. 35:42 He was showing up here in the parking lot and waiting for her to leave work. 35:48 Wouldn't take no for an answer. 35:49 He certainly wouldn't. 35:53 What is this? 35:54 So this is the fire escape. 35:56 She would park right there where that white car is. 35:59 And Steven Zelich was parked over there, 36:02 and he pulled his car around, 36:03 and he had parked behind her. 36:05 She was trapped. 36:06 It was very dangerous, 36:07 and she was very scared. 36:09 Have you ever blocked her with your squad 36:11 so she could not leave? 36:13 No. 36:14 Not in any way blocking her in 36:17 or intentionally blocking her in. 36:18 Do you think it's proper, Steve, 36:20 for an officer on duty in uniform to be approaching a woman and continually 36:25 asking her for lunch. My behavior was never badgering. Never was I pushy or lying. I'm 36:31 always professional and gentlemanly. Even though you're in uniform, on duty, carrying a gun? 36:39 Well, I don't know if the uniform or the profession itself 36:43 It runs to pressure, but it was a casual, very low-key contact with her. 36:51 Perhaps the most serious accusation against Zelich occurred one night when he was off 36:58 duty and he took a woman home to his apartment. 37:01 Was she alleges he attacked her? 37:05 She said she was scared and was in some state of undress at that point and still 37:11 ran out of the apartment to try to get help. 37:14 When confronted by his chief about the incident, Zellich maintained that he was just trying 37:19 to stop the woman from stealing money from him. 37:24 She immediately goes right to my wallet, I grabbed her neck and hand area, I certainly 37:31 don't want to hurt her. 37:33 And so I stopped and she then immediately goes out the door. 37:38 I think I acted very appropriately. 37:41 You were restrained. 37:43 You don't need anything wrong. 37:44 No, absolutely not. 37:45 I did nothing wrong. 37:46 Still, we seem to have a pattern developed in the last few months. 37:50 All of these women have felt intimidated by you. 37:55 I don't know. 37:56 I'm going to be drafting up charges with the police and fire commission. 38:00 After findings of multiple conduct violations, 38:03 he's placed on administrative leave 38:05 and eventually gets a 20-day suspension. 38:10 So rather than face being fired, he resigned, 38:14 and they did not pursue any criminal charges. 38:18 That was the end of his law enforcement career. 38:21 Now the question. 38:23 Did this former police officer have anything to do 38:27 with the disappearance of Laura Simonson? 38:32 And then I told Captain Waddell, I go, 38:34 So, hey, I have a still picture from the video surveillance 38:38 from a hotel in Rochester, Minnesota. 38:40 He gets it, he calls me right back. 38:42 He goes, that's Zellich. 38:44 So now I know that we have somebody that was with Laura 38:48 when Laura went missing. 38:50 Now it's time for cops to pay a visit to Zellich. 38:54 They only have one thing on their mind. 38:57 Is Laura being held captive in his apartment? 39:01 So the reason why we're here, we're regarding law, she's missing. 39:07 What we're here for is to ask you when you last saw her. 39:22 After Stephen Zelich resigned from the West Alice Police Department, he became a security guard 39:28 working for some corporations as a contractor in the greater Milwaukee area. 39:37 As I'm digging around on this case more and more and more, 39:41 I'm kind of getting frustrated because everything is pointing to zealots. 39:47 So the captain of the West Dallas Police Department asked him to go talk to zealots. 39:52 Remember, I'm working a missing persons case and I'm hoping that they knock on the door 40:00 and Laura's there. 40:05 The officers are allowed in to look around and all that. 40:08 They don't see Laura, they don't see any, you know, female clothes, nothing. 40:14 Unfortunately, Detective Hollitz has reached a dead end and two months have now gone 40:19 by since Laura disappeared. There are really no other investigative avenues for him to pursue. 40:26 And then a phone call. Help is on the way. 40:31 I get a call from an FBI agent right at the end of February. Can you tell me about this 40:35 case? So it's sure. I'll take anybody that has a big badge that, you know, cares about 40:41 this case. 40:43 My name is Carrie Gibson. In 2014, I was a special agent for the FBI assigned to the 40:49 FBI field office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The missing person cases would have come in to our 40:55 unit specifically. Detective Hollitz had shared that he hadn't interviewed Stephen Zellich yet, 41:00 and we needed to know what was he saying about his relationship with Laura. 41:04 Well, when Agent Gibson heard that, she goes, can I send one of my Milwaukee agents, 41:10 you know with the Wisconsin State Police and I said yeah two big badges better 41:16 than one so I said let's do it. Steve? Hi. How are you? I'm Gilbert and I'm with the 41:26 Department of Justice. How are you doing? Good. He says do you want to come in happy 41:30 to have a conversation come into my residence? When they're speaking with 41:33 him they notice that he is like very nervous and sweating profusely. Did you 41:40 ever want to meet and she said no. Well I think there was some insinuation of meeting. I had 41:48 no intention to actually meet. You had no intention to meet? No. Why? Just because it was really 41:57 just interesting, fun, recreation, conversation, online. That's really what it is. Okay. 42:07 Did you even know what state she was in? 42:09 No. 42:10 Or at least I don't recall. 42:13 He said that they had met online, that he had never seen Laura, 42:18 his all fantasy-based conversations that he had had, 42:21 and really tried to distance himself from her. 42:25 He lied. 42:26 We already knew that he had had a lot of contact with her, 42:29 so we knew we were in the right direction with him. 42:32 Thank God, Agent Hernandez and the FBI agent asked, 42:36 If I ask you for a sample of your DNA, would you be willing to offer it to me? 42:44 Yes. 42:44 Just because I want to, as you know, eliminate anybody, because I'm very worried about her. 42:50 Yes. 42:51 But keep in mind that this is still a missing person's case, and with no evidence of a crime 42:57 being committed, investigators say there's not enough to move against Zellage. 43:03 But from there we have no other information. 43:06 But that is basically when the case went really cold. 43:12 No more leads. 43:14 We don't know where Laura is. 43:15 We have no contact. We have nothing. 43:17 I know the family was getting frustrated. 43:20 What was it like waiting for answers? 43:24 Horrible. But I wanted to know where she was. 43:27 Why wasn't she here? 43:29 Why wasn't she at Thanksgiving? 43:30 She never would have missed a holiday. 43:32 day. It just didn't make sense. 43:37 The one thing that always ran through my mind is that she's going to be home. Today we're 43:41 going to hear from her. It was I think a few months after I was told that she was missing 43:48 that, you know, I started to think, is she okay? Is she going to be back? 43:57 It's now April, five months since Laura vanished. And Detective Holland says his 44:01 The supervisor tells them to move on. 44:06 There was really no more leads in all that. 44:09 And the supervisor came in and he says, you need to close that case out. 44:14 You have other things to do. 44:16 Oh boy. 44:18 At that time he walked into his office and I went, no way am I dropping this case. 44:24 You just couldn't put this case aside. 44:27 I wasn't going to put this case aside. 44:30 Then a couple months go by and I remember receiving a phone call. 44:37 I didn't get to the phone in time so it's on a voice message and it's from Agent Gibson. 44:46 Two bodies. 44:47 Two suitcases. 44:48 Correct. 44:52 I rushed in to work and I'm like okay let's see what's going on here. 45:07 I've lived in Walworth County for 25 years. 45:11 Where's your mark? 45:12 Right there. 45:13 Good. 45:13 Watch. 45:15 Watch. 45:17 It's kind of a quiet, rural area. 45:25 It's a very home, town, tight-knit community. 45:38 The dogs are always happy to see us. 45:40 So what's nice about that is you have such a stressful environment at work, 45:43 and then when you come home, now you have a friend who's happy to see you every day when you come home. 45:48 To me, that's a great stress relief. 45:52 In June of 2014, I was a detective with Walworth County Sheriff's Office. 45:57 This was a very big investigation for our entire agency. 46:00 I've worked for a number of years at the Sheriff's Department, and during my time here, 46:05 I mean, we did have homicides, but nothing to the severity of this kind of a homicide. 46:15 On June 5th, when I first got to the scene, I walked over to the black suitcase with Officer 46:20 Anderson, unzipped it, and we saw an adult woman that was inside the suitcase that was 46:30 deceased. 46:31 I could see that there was a tattoo on her ankle, and it had words and numbers. 46:38 Then I walked over to the Purples suitcase, opened it, and saw that it also contained a deceased adult woman. 46:50 The next day we started to do the autopsies right away so we could try to figure out who the victims were. 46:55 We decided that we wanted to communicate with all the local police agencies and several states in our area. 47:02 we shared information about the height of the people, 47:06 how much they weighed, their hair color, 47:08 hoping that someone had reported these people missing. 47:21 The next morning I rushed in to work 47:24 and I'm like, okay, let's see what's going on here. 47:26 I speak with the local authorities 47:27 down in Southern Wisconsin. 47:29 They asked me, what tattoos did she have? 47:31 And I knew she had tattoos. 47:33 I contact Laura's sister, Nikki. 47:35 Nikki tells me that she has like a outline of a heart 47:38 on her ankle with her daughter, Alyssa, 47:41 and that's the one who had passed away earlier in the year. 47:46 Now you're convinced it's Laura. 47:48 It's Laura. 47:49 It's Laura. 47:50 We knew it was Laura. 47:53 The tattoo had her daughter's name. 47:56 Who had died? 47:57 Alyssa, none must have been devastating for you. 48:02 Yeah, I didn't want to believe it. 48:04 And I remember thinking, I can't tell my parents. 48:07 How do you tell your parents that their daughter's gone? 48:14 It's not supposed to be that way. 48:17 Could you ever imagine that the sister that you grew up with could have met her end in 48:23 this manner? 48:24 No. 48:26 Not at all. 48:27 She didn't deserve it. 48:31 When I found out that they had phoned Laura, it was on the news. 48:42 That's how I phoned out. 48:47 She was phoned in a suitcase. 48:48 It's gut-wrenching. I mean, your worst nightmare comes true. You know, that's what that is. 49:02 So the victim inside of this also had a rope that was wrapped around part of her body. 49:07 We removed the rope from her body and then we had that rope analyzed. 49:16 So in thinking about how someone might handle a rope and particularly tying a knot, 49:22 the parts that you're going to come in contact with your hands are going to be 49:25 the portions of the rope going into the knot, so I swabbed the inside of the knots 49:30 and sent those for DNA processing. On June 13th, we developed DNA profiles from the 49:40 rope. By now, Stephen Zelich is the prime suspect in the disappearance of 49:47 Laura Simonson. Remember, he willingly gave up some DNA a while back. Well now 49:51 cops are eager to try to match that to the DNA found on the ropes. 49:57 The DNA sample that the agents got from Zelich was a perfect match. 50:03 Right there is a slam dunk we had Zelich involved with Laura Simonson's death. 50:10 I met with all the detectives, explained that she found Steven Zelich's DNA inside 50:18 the rope and you could have heard a pin drop. 50:21 I was elated, everybody was elated. 50:26 Now Wisconsin investigators reach out to Detective Travis Rigott of the Rochester, Minnesota 50:32 PD. 50:33 Remember the micro-tell is the place in Rochester where Laura is believed to have had that encounter 50:40 with Stephen Zelich. 50:42 Steve Zelich was seen on camera checking out of the micro-tell where him and Laura 50:47 had checked into the day before. 50:49 We did believe that Laura was probably in one of them suitcases that were pushed out 50:53 of that lobby. 50:56 That led to doing a search warrant there. 51:00 Knowing that how old the crime scene was when we arrived here and the information we had 51:05 coming into this investigation, we were just hoping to find some sort of forensic 51:08 evidence that may have been left behind. 51:10 Forensics teams come through there and just swab the room looking for DNA samples. 51:16 And at some point we did get a return that, yes, there was any evidence there from Laura. 51:21 I told everyone that we were now going to move forward to the next step of the investigation 51:26 of actually confronting Stephen. 51:28 You've got to strategize because this isn't just any suspect. 51:31 This is a former law enforcement officer. 51:34 Absolutely. 51:35 He knows what we're going to ask him. 51:37 Investigators want to question Zellich about what happened to Laura. 51:41 But then, out of the blue, he says something that takes them by surprise. 51:48 She was like 16 or 16 and a half years old. 51:51 And as he was going on, I didn't know who he was talking about. 51:55 Steve, can I talk to you? Will you say the first one? Which one? Which name? 51:59 We had no idea who our second victim was. 52:03 Hey, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. 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Which one? Which name? 57:43 I only know my names. I don't know which one is first one and second one. 57:49 Jenny. 57:49 Jenny? Okay, thank you. 57:51 When he mentions that name, Jenny, how big of a moment is that for you? 57:55 Oh, that was huge. Again, we didn't know who she was. 58:00 And so you just let him continue to talk and talk, and you don't want to interrupt him. 58:04 You didn't see her last name? Gomez? 58:06 No. 58:07 Well, something similar to that, something similar to Romans. 58:12 She contacted us, was interested in coming out here. 58:19 She was from West Coast, let me think a moment. 58:31 He doesn't give you many more details. 58:34 So how do you figure out exactly who Jenny was? 58:38 So in the other room, we had FBI agents. 58:41 Carrie Gibson was there and then she started networking with her computer 58:45 system. Do you have any passwords or anything in your cell phone? 58:51 No, it should be. Ultimately he agreed to show us his phone where it had her 58:56 screenshot from her Caller Me profile. It said that she was from Cottage Grove, 59:01 Oregon. So then we call Cottage Grove, Oregon police and we ask if they can 59:09 run Jenny Gomez in their system. 59:13 I called the police department in Oregon 59:15 and I had asked, can you please send me 59:17 a copy of her driver's license picture? 59:20 I showed that picture to Stephen, 59:22 and he said that that was Jenny. 59:25 What was it like to finally have the identity 59:27 of both of these victims? 59:29 It was relieving, very relieving. 59:32 We arrested him for hiding the corpses 59:35 on the side of the road. 59:35 For investigators, that's one huge mystery solved. 59:40 But now the question is, who exactly is Jenny Gomez? 59:45 And how did she become entangled with Mr. Handcuffs? 59:50 I think maybe she thought that Stephen Zelich actually cared about her and loved her. 60:09 Oak Ridge, Oregon is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. 60:15 People don't lock their houses here. 60:21 There's one stoplight. There's not much to it. One high school, one elementary school. 60:29 Jenny Gomez is my sister. Yes she was my foster sister, but I mean we were like siblings. 60:37 Jenny had a very difficult childhood and a very rough home life which eventually put her in the foster care system. 60:46 my relationship to Jenny is I'm her sister we were in the same foster home 60:51 together but we never said foster sister the three of us were inseparable the 60:57 three of us were the three of me goes Jenny was very funny she was very kind 61:03 she had it in the biggest heart she cared about everybody Jenny was a very 61:09 genuine soul. She was very giving, very trusting, almost too trusting. 61:17 But underneath Jenny's bright and cheerful exterior, was someone struggling to cope with 61:23 past trauma. Growing up, she had some minor brushes with the law and had given birth 61:29 at a young age. 61:35 Jenny had been exposed to trauma, had lost custody of her child and found herself 61:43 in the BDSM community as probably a way to cope with some of that and to find again a 61:49 place for her identity. 61:51 So I think it was very shocking when we eventually discovered that she had a very, you know, 61:57 big secret life. 62:00 Steven Zelich first interacted with Jenny when she was 16 years old and he interacted 62:06 with her on the BDSM webpage on ColorMe.com. 62:10 They ceased contact for several years. 62:14 She reaches back out to him when she turns 18. 62:17 I think maybe she thought that Steven Zelich actually cared about her and loved her. 62:24 He had asked Jenny to get rid of all of her belongings, to play this what I would call 62:30 disappear game, where it's her purposely getting rid of different belongings and changing 62:35 her life. 62:36 Selich told her that he would take care of her for the rest of her life, so he 62:42 made arrangements to fly her from Oregon to Milwaukee. 62:48 If Jenny would have told one of us, 62:53 I'm gonna go meet some guy in another state that I've never, like, that would never happen. 62:59 We would have never happened. We would, both of us would have found a way to shut that down. 63:04 When police officers searched Steven Zelich's home, 63:09 one of the pieces of luggage had an identification tag on it. 63:13 And the phone number led them to Bradley Tenner. 63:17 He had been friends with Jenny Gomez. 63:20 He was present when she was packing for her trip. 63:23 And we are speaking with Mr. Bradley Tenner. 63:27 When was the last time you saw her? 63:29 Probably that August when she flew out that morning. 63:32 I drove her to the airport you're also pointing to a suitcase on a photograph on your personal computer 63:38 You're showing me that is a female with this same suitcase 63:43 Who do you know that female in the picture you're showing me to be as? 63:47 Jenny at that point it seemed like she was trying to cut everything away 63:51 You know channel off and she suddenly seemed a little different 63:55 She traveled from Kajago, Oregon to Kenosha, Wisconsin August 26 64:02 of 2012. But he doesn't take her to his apartment. He takes her to a motel that is in Kenosha 64:09 after picking her up from the airport. 64:13 Zelic knew in the back of his mind he was not bringing her home. Now how is he going 64:18 to deal with that problem? 64:19 So Stephen Zelic is describing a pretty horrific scene inside that motel room. And he's 64:27 He's talking about this BDSM encounter he's having with Jenny when he starts to strangle 64:34 her with a rope. 64:37 Basically, I had the rope around her neck and pulled it hard enough and long enough 64:45 without releasing it and resulting in her death. 64:56 He says this was an accident. 64:57 You know, this is absolutely an accident. 65:00 I got caught up in the moment. 65:02 It was, you know, it was so enjoyable to me. 65:05 I'm sorry, I got way out of hand. 65:07 Way in, and obviously, my fault, 65:10 and I'm gonna pay a price for that. 65:13 But Zelich's deadly narrative isn't over. 65:17 In his flat, emotionless voice, 65:20 he goes on to reveal something. 65:21 Even these seasoned detectives cannot begin to imagine. 65:26 Oh that's the moment of truth, that's the moment I have to decide. 65:41 In a steady procession, investigators appear from an apartment building near 80th and Lincoln 65:46 in West Alice. 65:49 I was in West Alice and we were doing the search warrant and I saw helicopters flying 65:54 over and news cameras everywhere. 65:57 At a certain point and I was standing right over there, they bring out this full-size 66:03 kitchen refrigerator. 66:05 You figured that was somehow critical to the investigation and what happened here. 66:14 It was Zelic himself who explains the significance of that refrigerator. 66:19 Investigators bring him into a more comfortable interview room to keep him talking. 66:24 Now remember, he's already admitted to strangling Jenny to death. 66:31 Oh that's the moment of truth. That's the moment I have to decide. That's either call 66:41 911 or apparently can do what I did. Put her in one of the suitcases. I bought a 66:54 luggage cart, stacked all the luggage including the pink luggage which had 67:01 her in it now and rolled it out to my car. 67:09 He proceeds to drive to his residence in West Alice, Wisconsin. 67:14 When he gets there, he takes Jenny and all of his suitcases right out of the car and 67:21 brings them into his apartment. 67:26 She comes in, the pink suitcase comes into the house. 67:33 I take her out. 67:36 She was put in the refrigerator. 67:41 really my thinking I think was to buy time and figure out what I'm going to do so that is where she 67:48 stayed for quite a while and I can't use the refrigerator so a lot of fast food or eating at 67:58 work or whatever in retrospect it's ridiculous but that's exactly what happened. Authorities say 68:09 body was in a state of mummification. 68:12 She was almost mummified and had mold on her body. 68:19 What was very clear to us is that hands down, 68:22 the only time you ever have mold on a body 68:25 is if the body is kept in a refrigerator, not a freezer. 68:29 It just tells you how sick he was that he puts 68:33 her in his refrigerator and he holds it for months. 68:37 In fact, Zelich kept Jenny's body in his refrigerator from August of 2012, all the way 68:45 until November of 2013. 68:48 That's when he had that encounter with Laura Simonson in that hotel in Rochester, Minnesota. 68:55 And if you can believe it, Zelich says the exact same thing happened again. 69:03 Very similar circumstances, and that was the first incident after Jenny, second girl Laura. 69:15 What does he tell you about Laura's death at that point? 69:18 Essentially the same thing that he told us about Jenny. 69:21 He took a rope, wrapped it around her neck. 69:24 He again pulled on it too hard, too long, and then she died. 69:30 He didn't do anything to help save her life. 69:35 Intensity and duration went too long. 69:38 And at some point it went past the point of the person. 69:44 You know, it cut off breathing too long. 69:47 Zelich told us that he put her suitcase with her body in it on the luggage cart. 69:53 And then he pushed it from the hotel room right out to his car. 69:57 We were able to see that obviously in the video that were recovered from the 70:02 Microtel Hotel. Once he kills Laura, now it's colder so he puts her in the trunk, 70:10 never brings her into the apartment and at some point he takes Jenny's body out 70:16 of the refrigerator and puts her in the trunk of his car along with Laura. You 70:21 would think that if somebody kills somebody they're gonna dispose of the 70:24 body right away. Zalic is sick mind. Those are his possessions. He owned them. 70:30 Can you imagine all winter long? Home door worked home on me. All winter. 70:39 It was both right. Yes. It amazes me and I was living it. It's crazy. 70:46 Once in the trunk, through the winter, into the spring, ultimately it was getting 70:51 warm up, and can't keep both suitcases in the trunk all summer. 70:59 By June, it's warm, he had those bodies in the trunk of his car, and an employee at Johnson 71:06 Controls, who, one of his co-workers, said something about his car stinking. 71:22 He then becomes panicked is what he says and ultimately leaves work, starts driving around 71:29 trying to figure out what he's going to do, didn't know where he was going to put them, 71:33 what he was going to do, didn't know what to do, drove until it was dark out. 71:37 You know where you are? 71:40 No, I have no idea this area whatsoever. 71:43 I just was really looking for a quite dark place off the main freeway. 71:51 Ultimately, where they were left was just dark and quiet. 71:56 I really had no idea where I was. 71:58 I took both cases and put them on the side of the road. 72:04 You would think that as a former cop Steven Zelich would be meticulous about 72:11 covering his tracks, but he wasn't. Yeah he could have done things better but I'm 72:16 glad that he didn't because eventually all these things when they add up 72:19 helped us greatly with the solvent who killed these people. 72:25 Zelich has been saying all along that these two deaths were accidental. 72:30 Now he faces confrontation by a room full of suspicious investigators who 72:35 We want to prove both women were murdered. 72:45 Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. 72:56 Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. 72:59 With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. 73:03 Of course if you enjoy overpaying, no judgements, but that's weird. 73:06 Okay, one judgement. 73:08 Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. 73:12 Up-front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required, intro 73:16 rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, 73:19 see full terms at mintmobile.com. 73:23 Fall never arrives all at once, burst the air, then the light, and slowly the things 73:29 you love begin to find each other. 73:32 A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf, 73:37 Because you don't simply step into the season. 73:41 You create it layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. 73:46 Find fall your way at Ross. 73:51 This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. 73:54 Family time isn't just the big moments, it's weeknight dinners. 73:58 Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. 74:01 So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. 74:04 Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dish 74:10 dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can 74:15 spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com. 74:24 Stephen Zelich has admitted to strangling both Jenny and Laura to death, keeping Jenny 74:31 in a refrigerator for months and then putting both bodies in suitcases and abandoning them 74:37 by the side of a road, but he still insists that both deaths were just accidents. 74:46 I got way out of here, and obviously my fault, and I'm going to pay a price for that. 74:54 He says it was an accident. 74:56 What did you make of that? 74:58 Minimization. 74:59 When people do bad things, a lot of times they don't want to take full responsibility 75:03 for them, so it's easier for them to say softer words to what they did. 75:09 Now a team of investigators from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the FBI are going to confront 75:14 Zalic once again and try to get him to admit this was no accident. 75:19 These were murders. 75:22 My name is Detective Jeff Rock, and I'm meeting with Steve Silic in the soft interview room 75:27 at the Sheriff's Office. 75:31 We had learned all the details in the prior interview the day before and 75:35 transitioned into more of an interrogation. Trying to get him to admit 75:39 what he did. You'd see the word death but he never said that he killed them. 75:44 During the interview I was able to talk about you had the ultimate power and 75:49 control over their life and then making that final decision whether they 75:52 lived or died. This is the perfect crime because from a law enforcement 75:58 perspective. If I go over to a missing person investigation, first I'm going to check their bank account. 76:04 He was directing her to close out every aspect of her life and make it look like it was consensual. 76:11 Close all your bank accounts. Get rid of your vehicle. Donate all your belongings. All of this 76:17 would look like Laura herself had orchestrated this on her own. 76:21 That whole organization, I used to really can't take credit for that myself, that's a very common thing in the media center. 76:30 The day that Laura disappeared, Zalic had methodically planned everything, telling Laura where and when to meet him in person. 76:42 Laura parked her van and then left it in her mother's driveway where she exited her van, walked a couple of blocks down to elementary school 76:51 and it was picked up. 76:53 Looking through these emails between Laura and Mr. Handcuffs, 76:57 they were all very haunting. 76:59 One of these emails that was sent to Mr. Handcuffs, 77:02 she says in the middle of the message, 77:05 I'll be dead whether it's with you alive as your slave 77:09 or dead murdered by you. 77:12 Do you think she had a premonition? 77:15 I think she had the idea that it might happen. 77:21 When you talk about the inherent risk that's there, what does that mean? 77:28 It's just been the nature of constricting breath. 77:33 It's potentially dangerous. 77:34 Is it potentially deadly? 77:37 Well, it certainly can be, yes. 77:40 You did not buy that. 77:41 No. 77:42 No. 77:42 I felt that there was more to this than the fact that we have two victims that were 77:47 killed almost in identical ways. 77:49 How does it happen twice? 77:52 When you put them up to each other, they're just almost identical. 77:55 When I look at the two of them, they're very similar. 77:59 There's a pattern here where you have young women that are traumatized 78:05 and looking for some type of security through a dominant partner. 78:10 And then you have a predator that's preying upon that. 78:13 And they're mirrored. 78:15 What he does with Jenny, he does with Laura. 78:18 Are you trying to recreate that experience, that feeling from the first one to the second one? 78:27 I can't say consciously that I consciously said to myself, I'm going to recreate. 78:34 I like this so much that I'm going to recreate it exactly. 78:41 I was done listening to him be one of the guys he had killed this girl. 78:46 And I wanted him to admit that. 78:49 I f***ed up once, Shani Monty. 78:54 I still have a dead body in my refrigerator. 78:57 I f*** up again. 78:58 You have to know that what I'm doing is most likely going to kill her. 79:07 It's dangerous and risky. 79:09 I wouldn't say most likely going to kill her. 79:13 He makes no attempt to help her in any way. 79:17 He puts her in a suitcase the same way that she died. 79:21 And that's where I kind of turned it on him saying, 79:24 you knew what you were doing. 79:26 I don't buy that Laura was killed by accident. 79:30 I don't. 79:30 You knew you were going to do a commando mist. 79:35 There's no motivation there. That's not my intent. 79:40 I will not go where Travis is inferring. 79:44 Travis is inferring something different. 79:46 What am I inferring? 79:47 that this is just an intentional homicide and that is inaccurate. 79:55 He kept saying, I don't like what Travis is insinuating. 79:58 I said, what am I insinuating? 80:02 And he still wouldn't say that I murdered her. 80:06 It was the callousness of Zelich during his interviews 80:11 that he took zero responsibility for anything. 80:14 Zellich is ultimately charged with multiple counts of murder and hiding a corpse. 80:23 He pleads not guilty to all counts. 80:26 And as prosecutors gear up for trial, Zellich delivers an 11th hour twist that takes everyone 80:34 by surprise. 80:36 We were convinced that we had what we needed, but then it all changed. 80:52 Four months Steven Zelich was awaiting trial in Kenosha County for the 2012 80:57 murder of 19-year-old Jenny Gomez. I did have a concern that is there going to be 81:03 one jury member or two jury members that would kind of you know maybe give 81:09 them the benefit of the doubt. This case was just about the only thing I was 81:13 thinking about for weeks and we were geared up. The State of Wisconsin had 81:19 a compelling criminal case against Steven Zellich for the murder of Jenny Gammes. 81:25 But then it all changed. 81:27 The weekend before the trial, Steven Zellich decided he wasn't interested in a jury trial. 81:34 He was interested in entering a plea. 81:37 He must have thought that was his only shot of ever seeing daylight again. 81:41 Steven Zellich was originally charged with first degree intentional homicide and 81:46 and he pled guilty to first degree reckless homicide. 81:51 I'm very sorry that this occurred. 81:53 And I'm very sorry Jenny was the victim 81:57 and I wasn't able to protect her the way I was supposed to. 82:00 The judge sentenced Zellich to 35 years in prison 82:03 and 10 years extended supervision. 82:08 Minnesota Stephen Zellich pleaded guilty 82:10 to the second degree murder of Laura Simonson 82:14 and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. 82:17 Later he got 10 more years in prison in Walworth County 82:22 for two counts of hiding a corpse. 82:26 Now added all up, Stephen Zelich will die behind bars. 82:32 I was relieved. It's a devastating case, 82:35 devastating thing that happened to Laura and her family, 82:37 and I saw it as a closure. 82:41 At the end of the day, I'm glad that he played guilty 82:43 and was held accountable for his actions, 82:45 so that way the victims' families could start to heal. 82:50 I think he's pretty lucky to still be alive in prison. 82:55 I felt relieved that they got another monster off the street. 83:00 He can't hurt anybody else for the rest of his life. 83:06 Despite the convictions, investigators say they still have work to do. 83:10 They say they need to determine if there might be other victims of Stephen Zelich 83:18 Now that we had opened Pandora's box, essentially, how many more victims were we going to find? 83:25 I know you're saying that there are no more victims, but I'm scared that there might be something out there. 83:32 There's no future victims, there's no additional victims, not zero. 83:37 The search warrant at his residence, we located 35 millimeter pictures with different women that were in BDSM sessions. 83:47 These are all your pictures? 83:49 These are my pictures. 83:50 These are photographs I took. 83:55 How many different people are in these pictures? 84:02 I've got time that we can search from the local. 84:04 We started trying to identify who these women were. 84:07 trying to see if we can develop anything further as far as other women he may 84:13 have killed. That didn't turn up anything for us at the time. I don't know that he 84:19 killed anybody previously to these two, but I think if left unchecked he would 84:26 have continued to do what he was doing. We had information that he was 84:31 immediately upon dropping off these two bodies making plans through email to try 84:38 and meet another woman where he starts up with this same pitch of you're gonna 84:42 come and live with me and be my slave so I do believe that if Stephen Zelich was 84:48 not arrested when he was that there would have been further victims. It's 85:05 I'm just thankful that that happened the way it did because it easily could have been a whole 85:12 another year before we found the suitcases. 85:16 Any time you lose somebody like that's like so close to you like your sister your life's 85:22 never going to be the same it's never going to be whole there's always going to be like 85:26 that puzzle where you there's always that one missing piece. 85:29 So I figured we could go to Green Waters Park in remembrance of Jenny. 85:48 We'll release some flowers in the water because we have so many memories with her. 85:53 Having to do with water, in water, the pool. 85:57 Always swimming, always swimming somewhere. 86:08 Jenny was a very genuine soul. 86:17 I don't think she had a mean bone in her body. 86:20 She was just a beautiful soul.
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