By Vicky Wedig
Editor
Jenny Gamez, 19, of Cottage Grove, Ore., has been identified through dental records as the second victim of a suspected murderer who dumped her body and another alongside a Town of Geneva road in suitcases earlier this month.
Walworth County and Town of Geneva police announced her identity during a press conference Monday.
Gamez is believed to have died in Kenosha during an encounter with Steven M. Zelich, 52, of West Allis, in late 2012 or early 2013.
Town of Geneva Police Chief Steven Hurley said Gamez had told her family she was moving, and they believed she’d moved on with her life.
“Jenny was not officially reported missing, that’s what took a little while,” Hurley said.
Police revealed the identity of the other victim, found in a separate suitcase in the same location, on June 25. Laura J. Simonson, 37, of Farmington, Minn., was first reported missing by her mother Nov. 22. Police believe Simonson died in a hotel in Rochester, Minn., Nov. 2 during an encounter with Zelich.
Zelich is charged in Walworth County with two counts of hiding a corpse and is expected to be charged with homicide in the jurisdictions where Gamez and Simonson were killed.
For more on this story see this week’s print editions of the Delavan Enterprise, Elkhorn Independent and Lake Geneva Times.
