WI WI - LAKE GENEVA SUITCASE MURDERS, Laura Simonson & Jenny Gamez - #1

[snarkymalarkey]

I think he dumped the suitcases in the ditch and the road crew moved them to the road, unless I am completely confused. Which happens a lot.

Not only that, but if memory serves me correctly, the crew simply moved the luggage to the road and went on their merry way. A different individual was passing by, saw the bulging luggage and called the police due to the number of flies swarming the luggage, and requesting they evaluate what was inside.
Please correct me if I am wrong. But I dont think the road crew actually realized what was in the luggage. They never looked.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

I understand your point, but I see it a little differently. Some kind of pressure occurred that caused Zelich to finally dump the victims. Something was going on-for me it is easy to imagine that it was coming from LE. He knew he was the number one suspect, I am certain of it.

jmo.

Are you saying that you think Zelich was on LE's radar before the suitcases were found?
What makes you think that?

On another topic - timeline - I believe Jenny was killed first (late 2012 or early 2013) while Laura was killed later, no? Laura was reported missing in November of 2013 (seven months ago). Is this correct?

Both women, although I consider Jenny a girl at age 19, were on sex related websites. How Jenny traveled/ended up in Wisconsin is the question I haven't seen answered.

I know Bashara went to visit a candidate for his slavedom in Oregon before he was going to fly her out to Michigan. In other words, he conducted an interview to see if they'd be compatible. Not sure if Zelich's operation was that formal or not. Wonder if he was holding either women against their wills?

 

[STANDREID]

Not only that, but if memory serves me correctly, the crew simply moved the luggage to the road and went on their merry way. A different individual was passing by, saw the bulging luggage and called the police due to the number of flies swarming the luggage, and requesting they evaluate what was inside.
Please correct me if I am wrong. But I dont think the road crew actually realized what was in the luggage. They never looked.

The road crew reaction puzzles me also. Are these possibly mentally handicapped people who do this type of work there?

 

[Badlands]

I just saw a story on Milwaukee TMJ4 about the prostitute incident while Zelich was a West Allis police officer. Hopefully, the video will show up online.

They briefly showed the incident report. Pausing the DVR, I can read that it happened on 5/13/2001 at 3:38 AM. The police received a call that a woman, wearing only a bikini, was banging on a door. The police found a black female wearing only a black undergarment and a small white purse, who was crying and very upset. She informed the officer that she had been raped.

The voice over then said that she told police she had met Zelich at a bar and agreed to come to his apartment. Once there, he tried to handcuff her, body slammed her and attempted to choke her prior to having sex. The 22 year old woman told police, "I thought he was going to kill me. I was thinking today you are going to die." The woman had a prostitution warrant and Zelich said she had stolen money from him. Police found the money on her and arrested the woman (they didn't say how they knew the money she had was his). The woman's family now says the police didn't believe her. When she heard about his arrest in the suitcase murders, she was horrified.

 

[snarkymalarkey]

Steven is 53. 2 count for hiding a corpse felony (filed 6-26-24)
Also owes a lot of money over 75000.00 Owed $6941.00 for eviction and his girl owed $142. Wonder hohat happened and where she is?

That individual has already replied on this forum a multitide of times and has also been interviewed on the news.

 

[Badlands]

The TV report also says that the police searched Zelich's house earlier this year in their investigation of Simonson's disappearance.

They also mentioned that they haven't filed murder charges yet because there is currently no evidence of a murder.

 

[STANDREID]

The TV report also says that the police searched Zelich's house earlier this year in their investigation of Simonson's disappearance.

They also mentioned that they haven't filed murder charges yet because there is currently no evidence of a murder.

What? Probably Andy hasn't given Barney his bullet back yet.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

bbm
Yes, Haunts, that's exactly what it is. M-u-r-d-e-r. Rough sex is the prelude to it in many cases. How long can you be strangled without passing out? How long can you be strangled without dying? I don't know, let's find out. Hurt me, daddy, take me to the edge.

Shades of a similar case we just finished, right? Children, don't play with matches. Adults, don't play with rope around someone's neck. Erotic asphyxia.

I mean, really -- when you're in the throes of sexual pleasure -- that "special moment" -- anything can happen. And it does. We've seen it. No excuses. Period. It's dangerous and it can get someone killed... Murdered. Grrrrrr.

I get it but I don't get it, if you know what I'm saying. It's sort of like the drug heroin. I pray nobody I love ever touches the stuff even once, right?

 

[Solitaryone]

The TV report also says that the police searched Zelich's house earlier this year in their investigation of Simonson's disappearance.

They also mentioned that they haven't filed murder charges yet because there is currently no evidence of a murder.

WTF! If SZ wasn't a former cop he would have been charged already! What is going on?? This just pi$$es me off! Is SZ going to get away with double murder? Is SZ going to walk??

 

[Just_Simply_Red]

Steven is 53. 2 count for hiding a corpse felony (filed 6-26-24)
Also owes a lot of money over 75000.00 Owed $6941.00 for eviction and his girl owed $142. Wonder how that happened and where she is?

Please, do not call me his girl. I am not.

It was for an eviction for the duplex we had in West Allis. I moved out before all of that so I guess I just owe some fees. I wasn't even aware of it until last week.

 

[ArianeEmory]

The road crew reaction puzzles me also. Are these possibly mentally handicapped people who do this type of work there?

(Delurk): I can think of several reasons why people in that position may a) not want to be subject to LE scrutiny for finding it; b) may just want to do their jobs and move on without complicating their lives; c) may be literally afraid of finding out what was inside.

Not making excuses and I'm not sure we know exactly what the chain of events was. And even though I can put myself in their shoes for the examples above, I would still find a way to anonymously notify LE.


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[believe09]

Are you saying that you think Zelich was on LE's radar before the suitcases were found?
What makes you think that?

On another topic - timeline - I believe Jenny was killed first (late 2012 or early 2013) while Laura was killed later, no? Laura was reported missing in November of 2013 (seven months ago). Is this correct?

Both women, although I consider Jenny a girl at age 19, were on sex related websites. How Jenny traveled/ended up in Wisconsin is the question I haven't seen answered.

I know Bashara went to visit a candidate for his slavedom in Oregon before he was going to fly her out to Michigan. In other words, he conducted an interview to see if they'd be compatible. Not sure if Zelich's operation was that formal or not. Wonder if he was holding either women against their wills?

He was the prime suspect in Laura's disappearance. Number one according to the detective handling it. It is jmo that pressure is what caused him to finally dump his victims. Sure, there may have been a message there too given where he put them. At some point he must have realized that he was going to be caught.

I don't have an issue with the lack of charges because he isn't going anywhere at the moment. It has to be excruciating for the families however. Zelich is someone that LE is going to want to make sure there is nothing anywhere that will cause him to wiggle free.

this is all jmo.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

I have not read anything indicating either victim was seen in Kenosha. Just that SZ told police he met JG in Kenosha. SZ's statement has not been verified.
I'm not buying any of what SZ said until LE confirms they can confirm his story.

Are you saying that you think Zelich was on LE's radar before the suitcases were found?
What makes you think that?

On another topic - timeline - I believe Jenny was killed first (late 2012 or early 2013) while Laura was killed later, no? Laura was reported missing in November of 2013 (seven months ago). Is this correct?

Both women, although I consider Jenny a girl at age 19, were on sex related websites. How Jenny traveled/ended up in Wisconsin is the question I haven't seen answered.

I know Bashara went to visit a candidate for his slavedom in Oregon before he was going to fly her out to Michigan. In other words, he conducted an interview to see if they'd be compatible. Not sure if Zelich's operation was that formal or not. Wonder if he was holding either women against their wills?

Quoting myself to answer my own question.
For the life of me, something is wrong with my brain these days.

Once Laura was reported missing, correct me if I'm wrong, she was linked to Zelich through a website. Therefore LE had questioned him even before anyone knew about the suitcases.

The consenses being that he knew police were on his tail. Wonder when LE first questioned him and does that mean he killed Jenny at a later date?

I believe Jenny left her foster family in late 2011.
"Gamez's former foster mother said she last spoke spoke to her on Mother's Day 2012."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...sin-suitcase-second-body-identified/11812099/

The foster mother could not explain what brought Jenny to Wisconsin.

Zelich claims he met Jenny in late 2012 or early 2013 but doesn't know the date she died (he killed her).

I'm sorry if I've caused any confusion. We do know LE has social media correspondence between Zelich and both women. Maybe there are answers contained therein.

 

[believe09]

I think for sure that LE has a wealth of information on the condition of these women's remains and whether or not there is any indication of when they might have died.

I want to get a handle on him though-I am curious about whether his searching for a master or masters was deception?

 

[Claudette]

The road crew reaction puzzles me also. Are these possibly mentally handicapped people who do this type of work there?

Around the time the suitcases were found, there was an article that stated this was SOP and that they find weird things all the time (weird meaning, random large or heavy objects, things you wouldn't expect to find) so the heavy suitcases didn't phase them. What they always do is move garbage to the side of the road and then the next day someone comes and picks it all up. They did not open the suitcases. Now that we know the girls had been deceased for quite some time, realistically the suitcases didn't weigh 100 lbs.

 

[believe09]

Following Ms Simonson's disappearance, an ad was placed on the site SecondCityClassifieds.com claiming that the divorced mother of seven...had been enslaved and tortured by Steven Zelich.

The ad titled 'Steven Zelich is a predator' described the former law enforcement officer as a 'sadist' who had enslaved Simonson, keeping her 'naked, handcuffed, shackled, and caged.'
'He has no intention of ever releasing this poor woman who suffers from various mental disabilities. She has been whipped and tortured by Steven Mark Zelich since November 2, 2013,' the ad read.

The writer provided Zelich's cell phone number and email address, urging online users to harass the man and flood his inbox with messages.

Who placed the ad? Was it Zelich himself? An accomplice? A victim?

Link here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2670693/Man-arrested-bodies-suitcases.html

 

[danzn16]

My big question is why did this psycho leave the suitcases along the road where they would be found? He could have easily thrown them in a dumpster at some point.



Could it have been just a tiny bit of humanity that he wanted them to be identified to have closure for the families?

Nope. There is no humanity in that man

Even if it was rough sex gone wrong. Anyone who disposes of a human being in a suit case in a ditch, after keeping them frozen deserves nothing less than conviction for murder. You never do that to another human being. Rough sex my arse. It was murder.


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[carbuff]

Not only that, but if memory serves me correctly, the crew simply moved the luggage to the road and went on their merry way. A different individual was passing by, saw the bulging luggage and called the police due to the number of flies swarming the luggage, and requesting they evaluate what was inside.
Please correct me if I am wrong. But I dont think the road crew actually realized what was in the luggage. They never looked.

Likely not. I've done roadside cleanup a time or two for Earth Day projects, and it is incredible the stinking putrid awful stuff you find in the weeds and underbrush. We were explicitly told not to open anything we found, to do exactly what these guys did: drag it up to the side of the road and leave it for the professionals to pick up.

We found a number of putrid stinking garbage bags crawling with flies. I presume most of them contained garbage and not bodies. A couple of suitcases, though I don't think any of them had garbage. Some of them we had to put a new bag over because the plastic was rotting. We left them all beside the road for the trash pickup.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

The road crew reaction puzzles me also. Are these possibly mentally handicapped people who do this type of work there?

Before the bodies were identified, I read that the way the road crew handled the suitcases is standard procedure. They are to remove any debris/garbage from their path and set it on the curb area where the collectors will come along and pick it up. Makes sense - like they may find old furniture or whatever.

The fact that these were suitcases with bodies inside them is the only thing weird. We don't know at what point of decomp the women were placed inside, how much each suitcase weighed, if the contents moved within, etc.
I don't think the road crew was supposed to open them. If someone else hadn't called LE, the suitcases may have been picked up by another type of road crew or garbage men later the same day or the next day.

Had much time passed from when they were set on the side of the road until they were called in to LE? Good thing they were called in though or they may have ended up in the dump if the collection guy didn't open them either. Maybe that's what Zelich was counting on.

Is anyone familiar with the system described? It makes sense the grass cutters aren't responsible for collecting stuff people discard along the road (as long as someone is scheduled to come along behind them).

 

[Claudette]

Likely not. I've done roadside cleanup a time or two for Earth Day projects, and it is incredible the stinking putrid awful stuff you find in the weeds and underbrush. We were explicitly told not to open anything we found, to do exactly what these guys did: drag it up to the side of the road and leave it for the professionals to pick up.

We found a number of putrid stinking garbage bags crawling with flies. I presume most of them contained garbage and not bodies. A couple of suitcases, though I don't think any of them had garbage. Some of them we had to put a new bag over because the plastic was rotting. We left them all beside the road for the trash pickup.

I once volunteered to help clean up a forest preserve area right on a very busy road. We found a rusted queen sized metal bed frame.