Posted on 07/10/2007 6:30:13 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Nolan vanished June 23 after drinking with friends)
Fitchburg, WI - Police discovered a body Monday that they believe is Kelly Nolan, the 22-year-old woman who disappeared June 23 after a night of bar hopping in downtown Madison, in a wooded area at the edge of this capital city suburb.
Dane County Coroner John Stanley said the body's appearance and the evidence surrounding it led him to conclude that it was "probably the missing person we've been looking for, Kelly Nolan," and that she had been murdered.
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said that as of Monday the Nolan investigation was no longer a missing-person case. He said it was now a homicide investigation, in which police have no suspects.
The discovery of the body on private property off Schneider Road, 10 miles south of Madison, drew gasps across the country as national media broadcast live coverage of the police news conferences in nearby Oregon.
Nolan, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student from Waunakee who was living in Madison for the summer, vanished from a social scene that was familiar to people her age.
She was last seen hanging out at bars around State St., one of the most popular night life destinations for college students in Madison. Wray said Monday that police still did not know what happened to her.
"It's so scary," said Emily Boesen, a 23-year-old who tends bar at Paul's Club on State St. On the front of the bar hung a ripped missing person flier with a photo of a smiling brunet with brown eyes, who was said to be 5 feet, 5 inches, weighing 125 pounds and wearing a green shirt with capped sleeves and jeans the last time she was seen.
"I never want to go outside," Boesen said.
Cell phone led police
Wray would not say exactly where the body was discovered, but Patricia Wardell, who lives at 4724 Schneider Road, said it was on the property of her neighbor, whom she identified as Eleanor Killerlain.
Wardell said Killerlain, who did not respond to a call for comment, is in her 80s and has owned the more than 20 acres of property for decades.
She said the entire neighborhood was shocked.
"We're a quiet little street," Wardell said. "We've never had anything like this before."
Wray said police were led to the area by "cell phone technology," although he would not elaborate.
Police had searched Schneider Road unsuccessfully last week. A larger group of 100 law enforcement agents from multiple jurisdictions in Wisconsin and Illinois began a second search at 4:30 a.m. Monday.
Stanley said the body had been there for "a while," certainly longer than several days, and that it could take a day or two to confirm the identity. He said investigators didn't want to disturb the scene before they have gathered all the evidence and that the body would be identified by DNA, teeth and fingernails.
Nolan's family - including her mother, Mary Jane, and sisters, Candice, 25, and April, 20 - could not be reached for comment.
Stanley said he had notified them early Monday that based on the evidence at the scene, he believed the body was that of Kelly Nolan. Joel DeSpain, a Madison police spokesman, said the family spent Monday with someone from the Dane County district attorney's office who works with victims and witnesses of crimes. Separated from friends
Kelly Nolan disappeared after separating from friends with whom she had been drinking at around 11:30 p.m. June 23, DeSpain said. He said police talked to several people who saw her out later at bars. He said Nolan talked to her sister April by cell phone sometime after midnight.
April Nolan has described her sister as a fun-loving fan of art and music who had been recovering from the deaths of their father in 2006 and their stepmother in May.
In the spring, Nolan served 14 days in the Walworth County Jail for a second drunken driving offense. She was fired from the Orpheum Lobby Restaurant, where she worked for about a week in June, the Wednesday before she disappeared.
As dusk descended Monday on State St., Boesen wasn't the only one rattled by the day's discovery.
"This has freaked me out," said Kristen Kempe, 24, who recently returned to Madison after briefly living in Philadelphia. "I'm much more conscious of where I'm going and who I'm going with."
Lock and load.
This strikes a chord in my memory ... weren't there some disappearances in Madison of male college students who were out bar hopping sometime in the last couple of years?
"social scene that was familiar to people her age."
9 words, 40 letters to avoid saying 'bar'.
Sad story.
PRayers up for the family.
Stay safe Diana.
So sad, prayers up for the family...
Memo to FOX news — “must locate next “girl gone missing story... NOW!”
When I first saw this story a few days back, I had a feeling it would end badly. Women should not be out after dark alone. Might sound sexist, but...
Did they find the other two perps?
This strikes a chord in my memory ... weren’t there some disappearances in Madison of male college students who were out bar hopping sometime in the last couple of years?
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of too with this poor missing girl. But, weren’t there a few missing young women too?
Interesting bit about their being led to the scene by ‘cell phone technology’. I’d guess it was the victim’s phone that led them there. They likely obtained coordinates from the carrier. The article mentions a search previous to yesterday’s search. It’s likely they had this information for awhile.
The new Ed Gein?
Not sexist...SENSIBLE. Sure they have a right to go out and have fun absolutely but ... they should be very, very, very choosey WHERE they goand with whom they go. Their right to go anywhere and do anything with friends or by themselves does not negate the fact there are perverts out there who just love preying on others. It’s a fact of life. Sad but a fact still. I pray for the family in their horrible loss. I pray for her murderer to burn in hell and SOON!
amazing.
Do the police think that the perp lives in that vicinity?
Is that bizarre, or what?
“...weren’t there some disappearances in Madison of male college students who were out bar hopping sometime in the last couple of years?”
That’s at the UW LaCrosse. Some believe that these young men (I think eight so far) just “fell” into the river after drunken nights on the town. Others believe that a Serial Killer is at work, as there is easy access to the Interstate from that point, too.
Who knows. The cops are totally tight-lipped about that. We need to get Greta on the case. ;)
“Did they find the other two perps?”
Yes. The one woman was killed by a guy she sort of knew and had spent the evening with. He didn’t exactly kill her...just dumped her naked, in a snow-filled ditch in 20 degree weather around Christmastime. He was later arrested for some other reason, then he confessed to leaving her there to die. No one knows why.
The other body was a drug snitch killed by his higher ups from the Milwaukee area. They shot him, then burned him, then dumped him in a ditch up here, too.
I don’t know what it is. I guess to those that live in the city, this seems like “the sticks” where a body will stay hidden. BUT...those of us that own any chunks of land are usually using it for growing food, walking our dogs, a morning run or walk for ourselves, small game hunting, etc. It’s t he stupidest place to dump a body IMHO, but then, I don’t have the pea-sized brain of a criminal.
They seem to have a clue as to who the killer is, but no one is in custody as of now. I’ll check the news tonight to see what’s up. They still have Schneider Road completely closed down; it must be something quite strange because they are going over a 3-mile area with a fine-toothed comb, looking for “evidence.”
Of course they shouldn't, but they are encouraged to by the feminist notion that they are no different from men. They can go and get drunk and meet up with strangers and enjoy casual sex with mere acquaintances and nothing bad will happen except possibly a pregnancy, which can, of course, be taken care of.
Not only that but feminist liberals seem to be among the loudest supporters of laws restricting lawful gun ownership, something which should ideally benefit women more greatly.
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