Ex-cop convicted of murder in Kenosha County and Minnesota
By Jason Arndt and Vicky Wedig
SLN staff
A former West Allis police officer is scheduled to be tried in August for dumping the bodies in Walworth County of two women he killed.
Steven Zelich, 55, is charged in Walworth County Circuit Court with two counts of hiding a corpse. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 4 in the case with a four-day trial to follow from Aug. 14 to 17.
Zelich pleaded guilty Feb. 3 to second-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Laura Simonson of Farmington, Minn., in Olmsted County Circuit Court.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, which cited television station KTTC, reported Zelich was sentenced to 25 years in prison for Simonson’s death.
He also was sentenced to 35 years in Kenosha County, where he was convicted of killing 19-year-old Jenny Gamez of Cottage Grove, Oregon, at a Comfort Inn and Suites on Highway 50 at Interstate 94 in 2012.
Zelich is accused of stashing Gamez’s and Simonson’s remains in separate suitcases on North Como Road in the Town of Geneva in Walworth County in June 2014.
In both murder cases, Zelich admitted to killing the women by accident while choking them during sexual encounters, according to a Kenosha County criminal complaint.
The first case involved Gamez, who reportedly met Zelich through an online sexual bondage website when she was 16 years old, Kenosha County prosecutors stated at his sentencing hearing last year.
After six months of dialogue, Zelich ceased discussions, until she turned 18 years old, when he convinced her to fly to Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee for an August 2012 meeting.
Zelich and Gamez went to the Comfort Inn and Suites on Interstate 94 and Highway 50 in Kenosha, where she died during what Zelich said was “breath play.”
According to the criminal complaint, Zelich stated it was an accident that resulted in her strangulation during consensual sexual relations.
In an effort to conceal the homicide, Zelich stored Gamez’s body in a suitcase and put it in a refrigerator at his West Allis home.
Zelich then came in contact with Simonson, of Farmington, Minn., through a similar online site.
Zelich met Simonson in person in November 2013 in Rochester, Minn. He said she also died accidentally during the sexual encounter, according to the criminal complaint.
He also stored her body in a suitcase and placed it in his West Allis home.
When odor became a problem, Zelich allegedly placed both suitcases in the trunk of his car, until his supervisor at Johnson Controls, where he worked as a security guard, complained about the smell coming from his car.
Then, Zelich allegedly stashed both suitcases on North Como Road in the Town of Geneva in Walworth County in 2014, where a highway worker discovered them while mowing grass June 5, 2014.
Gamez was partially covered in a garbage bag with her hands bound with a rope behind her back, according to the earlier reports.
With no missing persons complaint filed in the Gamez disappearance, it took authorities weeks to identify her using dental records.
In Simonson’s case, the Waukesha County medical examiner found her naked with a rope wrapped around her neck and a ball gag in her mouth.
The plan, according to the Star-Tribune, is to have Zelich complete his 35-year sentence in Wisconsin before he returns to Minnesota.
According to online prison records, Zelich is incarcerated at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun with a release date of June 16, 2049.
