Former Wisconsin Cop Pleads Guilty to Killing Oregon Woman, Stashed in Suitcase

Former Wisconsin police officer pleaded guilty on Monday on the charges of murder on one of the two women's deaths. The victims' bodies were disposed in suitcases and were left along a highway in Wisconsin.

Steven Zelich pleaded guilty on the death of Jenny Gamez of Oregon in 2012, the ABC News reported. He admitted to the charges of reckless homicide after choking the 19 year old victim to death while on a sexual encounter on hotel in Kenosha. He was also charged two counts of hiding the corpses and dumping it on 2014.

Lorraine Ericksen, Gamez foster mother said Gamez had been staying in foster care since she was young. Gamez came to live with her foster mother after she renounced her parental rights to her child. She also went to Cottage Grove, Oregon to attend college and live with her friends. However, Gamez suddenly did not contact her, as well as her friends in Cottage Grove.

According to Daily Mail, Michael Graveley, Kenosha County Deputy District Attorney said he would seek the maximum 75-year term, when Zelich is sentenced on March. His lawyer, Jonathan Smith refused to reveal the details on why he took the decision to plead guilty. However, the lawyer said, he doesn't want to go to trial and the death was not intentional.

The former West Allis police officer is also charged on the death of Laura Simonson, a 37 year old woman of Minnesota, who also died similarly to Gamez a year later, Huffington Post reported. Her body was also found along with Gamez on a rural Wisconsin highway.

The 54 year old former police of Wisconsin met the two women online, strangled them to death at hotels while playing sexual games and stashed their corpse in suitcases. He put them in his car trunk and dumped them when the bodies started to smell. Road workers were the ones who discovered the bodies. 

Steven Zelich worked for the police department in West Allis from February 1989 until his resignation in August 2001, over an internal investigation that discovered he stalked women while on duty. He wven used his position to get access to their personal information.

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