Could unidentified woman found in suitcase in the Town of Geneva actually be from Oregon?

WALWORTH COUNTY (WITI/AP) — Kenosha police are saying a woman whose body was one of two found in suitcases in the Town of Geneva on June 5th is not believed to be from the Kenosha area. Meanwhile, the murder mystery that began in the Town of Geneva could now span three states.

A criminal complaint against former West Allis police officer Steven Zelich says Zelich told investigators he caused the death of the woman, who hasn't yet been positively identified, in late 2012 or early 2013 in Kenosha County.

The second woman has been identified as 37-year-old Laura Simonson.

The complaint against Zelich says he told authorities Simonson died in Rochester, Minnesota in November 2013.

Zelich has been charged with two counts of hiding a corpse.

FOX6 News is learning authorities in Oregon think they know the identity of the first woman.



Last week, Town of Geneva police issued a sketch and description of this woman.

She is described as possibly Caucasian, between the ages of 15 to 35, 5’2” to 5’4” tall, weighing 120 – 140 pounds with long, straight dark brown or black hair.  She has a pronounced overbite and crooked lower teeth, two piercings in each ear, and a quarter sized heart tattoo on the lower left abdomen/pelvic area.

An Oregon state family says the sketch and description are familiar to them.

A news station in Eugene, Oregon says this unidentified woman may be a missing Oakridge, Oregon mother.

According to their report, the Cottage Grove Police Department is working with authorities in Wisconsin to get dental records for Jenny Gamez -- who disappeared in 2012.

In the criminal complaint filed against him, Steven Zelich told officials he met the unidentified woman while chatting online in 2012.

They met in person in late 2012 or early 2013 in Kenosha County, and Zelich told officials he caused this woman's death during that meeting, according to the complaint.

The complaint says when the woman was found, inside the suitcase in the Town of Geneva, her hands were bound with rope behind her back.

The report out of Oregon state claims Gamez' foster mother says investigators told her Zelich met his victims on an online dating website, and that sexually-deviant content was found on Gamez' computer.

The unidentified woman is the first victim. The other is 37-year-old Laura Simonson of Farmington, Minnesota.

When her body was discovered in the suitcase in the Town of Geneva, the complaint against Zelich says she was found with a rope wrapped around her neck, and a sexual ball gag strapped into her mouth with a collar. She was found naked.

Simonson was reported missing by her mother in November of 2013.

The complaint against Zelich says he told police he put the bodies into suitcases -- hiding the unidentified woman at his home in West Allis, and later in his vehicle. The suitcase with Simonson's body inside was hidden in Zelich's vehicle, according to the complaint.

It wasn't until the first week in June that Zelich says he took the suitcases to the Town of Geneva, according to the complaint.

They were found off the road in tall grass on June 5th.

Zelich made his first appearance in court in Walworth County through a video monitor in jail Friday, June 27th.

Zelich was ordered held on a $1 million bond on the two counts of hiding a corpse.

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