Published October 16, 2026
When highway workers found two suitcases abandoned along a rural Wisconsin road in June 2014, a community was left shocked and searching for answers. Inside were the bodies of two women. Identifying them, and finding who was responsible, took investigators across three states.

A missing mother and a roadside discovery

Months earlier, Farmington, Minnesota, Detective Sergeant Lee Hollatz had been investigating the disappearance of 37-year-old Laura Simonson. Her family has said she would never have left her children voluntarily. After the suitcases turned up in Walworth County, Wisconsin, police widened their search beyond the state and learned of the Minnesota missing-person case.

The tip that mattered

Hollatz had issued a statewide alert about Simonson, and a hotel front desk agent about an hour away recognized her. The employee remembered that Simonson had stayed there weeks earlier with a man who made her uneasy. Surveillance video later backed up that account, showing a man checking out alone after arriving with a woman whose body was later found in a suitcase.

Federal help and a former officer

After promising leads went nowhere, the FBI and Wisconsin State Police joined the investigation. Their focus turned to Steven Zelich, a former West Allis police officer. He had resigned in 2001 after allegations that he abused his authority to intimidate and harass women, which he denied. DNA recovered from the rope on the second victim matched Zelich, and he confessed to killing both women. He identified the second victim as Jenny Gamez, 19, of Cottage Grove, Oregon.
2 women found dead in suitcases lead to multistate hunt for killer – 1310 KFKA +3

Remembering the victims

Simonson was a mother of seven. Gamez was a young woman from Oregon whose family lost her far from home. The case is a reminder of how much depends on ordinary people: a detective who kept pushing a missing-person case, and a hotel employee who remembered a face.

The investigation is the subject of “The Suitcase Murders,” a “20/20” episode airing tonight, Oct. 16, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.

Source: ABC News