A former Wisconsin police officer was charged Thursday with two felonies for hiding two women’s bodies — one for more than a year — that were found in suitcases along a road in the state, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Although Steven M. Zelich, 52, has not been charged with homicide, he admitted to meeting both women online, killing them during their first meetings and hiding their bodies in suitcases, according to the criminal complaint. He eventually tossed the suitcases in high grass alongside a roadside this month. A highway worker found them on June 5.
Zelich, who has been linked to a sadomasochist web forum, 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, seeing her in person in late 2012 or early 2013, the complaint says. Zelich told investigators he caused the woman’s death, put her in a suitcase and hid her body at his home. He also admitted to meeting Laura Simonson online, arranging to meet her in Rochester, Minn., in November 2013 and killing her during that encounter, the complaint says. Simonson, 37, of Farmington, Minn., was reported missing Nov. 22.