3rd unsolved killing rattles Madison residents
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -April 3, 2008 A college student vanished in June after a night of barhopping;
her body was found in the woods days later. In January, a
31-year-old man was stabbed to death with a paring knife in his
home near the University of Wisconsin-Madison in what police called
an apparently random act.
And a few blocks away, police on Wednesday found the body of
UW-Madison junior Brittany Sue Zimmermann in the apartment she
shared with a boyfriend. Police aren't saying how she died, only
that she was the victim of a homicide.
They say it's too early to tell whether the three cases are
linked. That's little comfort to wary residents.
"I'm extra scared because of the little bit of information
that's been released," said Christian Caflisch, 23, a recent
UW-Madison graduate who lives less than a block from Zimmermann's
apartment. "They are basically telling us, 'A killer is out there.
Be safe.' It's a bit disconcerting."
Madison police on Thursday continued looking for evidence in the
neighborhood - a mix of large old houses packed with students and
new condominiums popular with upscale residents. Several officers
remained in front of Zimmermann's green apartment, interviewing
neighbors and passers-by.
Lori Berquam, UW-Madison dean of students, called Zimmermann's
death "extremely unsettling." She described Zimmermann, who
studied medical microbiology and immunology, as a dedicated student
and employee of the registrar's office who had planned to attend
medical school.
"She was a good-natured, friendly individual who really took
pride in being a student here. That's why it's so hard to make
sense of this," she said. "There's been a great deal of concern
and a whole lot of emotion about the horrific nature of this. ...
This happened in her home. In the middle of the day."
The Dane County coroner's office was conducting an autopsy
Thursday. Her boyfriend, who discovered the body Wednesday
afternoon, was ruled out as a suspect.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain noted several similarities
between the slaying of Zimmermann and the January killing of Joel
Marino, who was found dead outside his home with stab wounds.
Police believe he died trying to crawl to a hospital.
Both were killed in their homes in the middle of the day. Both
were described as good people unlikely to be targeted.
"There's some similarities, but we don't have anything to
suggest definitively at this point that it's the same person or
persons," DeSpain said. "That's one avenue among the many that
will be looked at as both cases are analyzed."
In the Marino case, police released a sketch of a man witnesses
saw in the area. He is a white man in his 20s, between 5 feet 10
and 6 feet 2 with a thin build, wearing a knit cap with a UW logo.
The state crime lab has linked DNA from the paring knife used to
DNA found on a backpack and winter cap police believe the assailant
discarded as he fled the scene.
The June slaying of Kelly Nolan appeared to follow a different
pattern, DeSpain said, but police are not ruling out a link. The
UW-Whitewater student was living in Madison when she disappeared
after a night of drinking with friends. Her decomposing body was
found days later in a rural area about 10 miles south of the city
of about 223,000.
Police do not have a suspect, DeSpain said.
Despite the high-profile slayings, Madison remains a safe city
compared with others its size. Violent crime dropped about 15
percent in 2007 from the year before, according to FBI statistics.
"Violent crime overall has been down quite a bit, but that's
not much comfort to the people involved in this latest act," said
George Twigg, a spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
Residents said they are frustrated that the killer or killers
have so far eluded police and about what they call a lack of
official information. They said they were locking their doors,
looking for suspicious individuals and avoiding walking alone at
night.
Cheyanne Cyr, 20, who walked her dog in the neighborhood
Thursday morning, said she was taking precautions but worried
someone could still break into her house.
"I think it's pretty scary. I was really shocked when I heard
about it last night," said Cyr, a student at nearby Edgewood
College. "I would really hope they would find the person who did
it. I mean, are the Madison police doing their jobs?"
Caflisch said he spent last night at the nearby home of his
girlfriend, also a student, at her request. As he spoke, a police
siren sounded in the distance.
"Now every siren you hear, you think the worst," he said.
"It's very scary."