Hearing for ex-police officer accused in suitcase deaths

Published 9:53 am Friday, April 24, 2015

KENOSHA, Wis. — A former police officer is due in court for a hearing on accusations he killed a woman whose body was found in a suitcase discarded along a rural Wisconsin highway.

Steven Zelich is also a suspect in the death of another woman whose remains were found in a second suitcase at the same location in Walworth County.

The 53-year-old Zelich is expected to appear in Kenosha County Circuit Court today for a final hearing before his May trial on first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. Zelich is accused in the 2012 death of 19-year-old Jenny Gamez, a college student from Cottage Grove, Oregon.

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He’s also suspected of killing 37-year-old Laura Simonson at a Rochester, Minnesota, hotel.

Court records say Zelich told investigators he killed them accidentally during sex and hid their bodies.