Ex-cop pleads guilty to killing woman, ditching body

Stevin Zelich, a 54-year old former police officer of Wisconsin is charge with first degree murder intentional homicide and hiding dead bodies. He’s also linked to the death of 37-year-old Laura Simonson of Minnesota. Both women’s bodies were found in suitcases, abandoned along a Walworth county Wisconsin road.

A judge ruled last week that jurors could hear testimony from a former police officer regarding a Minnesota case in which Zelich is also accused of causing a woman’s death.

Zelich pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide with use of a unsafe weapon and hiding a corpse in the Gamez case, which was filed in Kenosha County, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee.

Court documents show Zelich admitted to killing both women during rough sex, but said their deaths were accidental. According to police, both died during a sexual choking game.

Suitcases containing the women’s bodies were found outside Lake Geneva in June 2014.

Zelich told investigators that he put Gamez in her suitcase and took it to his West Allis apartment, and then stashed her body in his refrigerator. Simonson from Minnesota also died in the same manner back in November 2013.