WEST ALLIS, Wis. (KTTC/AP) --
Bond has been set at $1 million for a former police officer suspected of
killing two women and hiding their bodies in suitcases dumped in southern
Wisconsin.
Steven Zelich, 52, is charged with
two counts of hiding a corpse in a case that brought investigators to
Rochester. Zelich appeared on video but didn't speak during a hearing Friday in
Walworth County Circuit Court.
Zelich's lawyer, Travis
Schwantes, asked for a far lower bond, noting his client hasn't been charged
with homicide. But District Attorney Daniel Necci said he expects homicide
charges to be filed where the women were killed. Investigators allege the women
were killed elsewhere in Wisconsin and in Minnesota
According to the criminal
complaint, Zelich is accused of stuffing the remains of two women in suitcases
he left along a southern Wisconsin highway. The complaint goes on to say he met
his victims online, bound and killed them and carried their bodies around in
his vehicle for months.
On June 5, a highway worker
discovered the two suitcases beside a road in Geneva, Wis., about 50 miles
southwest of Milwaukee. On June 12,
evidence brought investigators to Rochester where one victim, Laura Simonson,
37, of Farmington, Minn., was seen checking into the Microtel Inn and Suites with Zelich back on Nov. 2.
Zelich checked out alone the next day.
Police said Rochester could
have served as a common meeting point, as Simonson was from Farmington, and
Zelich is from the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis.
Zelich's apartment in West
Allis was searched Wednesday, as neighbors watched. They describe him as a man who kept to
himself, was quiet, and never stopped to talk.
Investigators said Zelich was
involved in bondage and sexual fetish websites, where he may have been looking
for a sex partner. Police said they don't know if that's where he and Simonson
first met. Meanwhile, the second woman killed is still unidentified.
The complaint says Zelich
killed one woman in Wisconsin in late 2012 or early 2013 and the other in
Minnesota last November. It says he hid the first body in his home, then later
stored it with the second body in his vehicle.
Both women were found bound,
and their bodies had started to decompose. One had a ball gag in her mouth
Zelich was a patrol officer for
12 years with the West Allis Police Department before resigning in 2001.
We'll have the latest on this
story on KTTC.com and the NewsCenter