A Wisconsin judge set bail at $1 million on Friday for a former police officer suspected of stashing the bodies of two women in suitcases and dumping them along North Como Road in the Town of Geneva in Walworth County, Wisconsin. A female body was found in each suitcase on June 5, 2014.
According to the critical complaint, Zelich told authorities he met the unidentified woman in late 2012 or early 2013 in Kenosha County in southeastern Wisconsin, and caused her death in that time period. Zelich told investigators he stashed the women’s bodies in the suitcases, which he initially hid in his apartment and in the trunk of his car. He put the woman’s body in a suitcase and hid it in his apartment first, then he moved the body to his vehicle.
Steven Zelich Named as Suspect in Murder of Two Women Left in Suitcases in Walworth County
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Steven Zelich, 52, was charged with two felony counts of hiding a corpse in Walworth County, where the suitcases were found by workers in roadside grassy ditch on June 5.
Judge David Reddy stated he considered the nature and gravity of the case and the character and strength of the evidence in setting the $1 million bond for Zelich, a security guard and a former police officer from Allis, Wisconsin.
Homicide charges are being considered in Kenosha County, Wisconsin and in Olmsted County, Minnesota, where police say the deaths occurred.
One woman has been identified as Laura Simonson, 37, of Farmington, Minnesota. Police believe the Simonson, reported missing in Minnesota on Nov. 22, was killed in a Microtel Inn and Suites room in Rochester, Minnesota, where she stayed with Zelich earlier that month.
Zelich told investigators he met Simonson online and caused her death while he visited her in November in Rochester, Minnesota. Simonson was found naked with a rope around her neck and a ball gag strapped in her mouth with a collar. Police believe Zelich a meeting with Simonson communicating on a bondage website.
Police sources have told WISN 12 News that Zelich resigned in 2001 after a prostitute was found naked and handcuffed running away from Zelich’s apartment near 112th Street and National Avenue in West Allis.
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