Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Kelly Nolan's June of 2007 Murder Remains A Mystery.



Something does not add up with the June 2007 murder of Kelly Nolan, a 22-year-old college student in Wisconsin. Kelly Nolan had been bar hopping that night. She had met friends at a bar in Madison, Wisconsin. She and three girlfriends spent most of the the night in a State Street bar in Madison. At around 11:30 p.m., Nolan's friends left her to go home. Nolan chose to go to another bar. Later in the morning hours, Nolan disappeared. Two weeks later her body was found in a wooded area on private property 11 miles from where she'd last been seen.The death was labeled a homicide but no cause of death was revealed. The Madison Police Department.
says the case can be solved; however, the trail is cold and no arrest seems likely in the immediate future.

Nolan's last contact with anyone was a cell phone call to her sister in the early morning. Cell phone pings led police to search the area where they found her body on July 9, 2007.
An employee of Amy's Cafe in Madison, apparently met Nolan at another nearby bar called the Lava Lounge. A witness apparently told police that the employee and Nolan walked out of the bar together because another male bar patron was harassing Nolan. Supposedly, the employee of Amy's walked out with Nolan, but then Nolan went back into the bar to use the bathroom. The problem is that no one has an accurate description of the alleged male patron. Furthermore, surveillance video fails to show any "person of interest" talking to Nolan. For more details see:
Nolan family's web site

A $10,000 reward is available for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Kelly Nolan's death. Madison Police Department remains open to information by calling (608) 266-6014.

Update 6-13-11: Another young woman, Lauren Spierer was apparently abducted after a night of partying. LINK.

Update 2-25-13: It was requested that we not let our readers forget Kelly Nolan.  No chance we would. Kelly has been gone for five and a half years. She was murdered after spending a night out with friends The murderer of the 22-year-old UW-Whitewater student has yet to be identified. John Summers was one of two lead detectives on the case.  He retired in July of 2010 form the Madison Police Department and is now a special agent with the Cold Case Unit of the state Department of Justice's Criminal Investigation.  Since his retirement he has discussed the discovery of Kelly's body found in a wooded area 10 miles away from where she had last been seen. 

Detective Dave Gouran, who took over the investigation, and Detective Lorie Anderson have vowed not to let the case grow cold. Yet time may be an enemy to the discovery of the truth. Gouran told the press that "...some good suspects had been disproven. You can spend a lot of time and effort on really good-looking leads."  Kelly's family has spoken little publicly since the July 9, 2007 discovery of their daughter. Obviously they are devastated by the loss of their daughter.
In January 2008 Joel Marino, 31, was stabbed by a former UW-Madison student during a robbery in his West Shore Drive home.  In April 2008 UW-Madison junior Brittany Zimmermann, 21, was stabbed and strangled in her West Doty Street apartment. Zimmermann's killer has not been found; however, at this point there is no evidence that it is connected to Kelly Nolan's death.

On the night Nolan disappeared, she went to Memorial Union before heading Downtown with friends.  Shortly after Kelly's disappearance, an employee of Amy's CafĂ© allegedly told the State Journal he started walking Nolan home from the Lava Lounge, 461 W. Gilman St., toward her Mifflin Street apartment. This man left Kelly after they allegedly ran into another man who had been at the Lava Lounge.  The employee of the Cafe is not a suspect. The person Nolan left with is unknown. In sum, no current suspects or persons of interest. The case is old, but not forgotten.

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny about the surveillance video.

Anonymous said...

It all seems too fishy. But why do gals let themselves get separated from their friends?

Blond Bombshell said...

let's not blame it on the victim. That mentality is so 60's

Shell

Anonymous said...

Common sense never hurt any one. Don't put yourself in a bad position whether you are a man or a woman. Call a friend, call a taxi, call the cops. Call someone.

Anonymous said...

Common sense my @ss. Brutal criminal conduct can't be blamed on the victim. No longer is this "the victim had it coming" attitude be accepted.


S.M.

Ms Calabaza said...

I agree ... let's not blame the victim.

Video Guy said...

I'm the last one to blame a victim but we must look at some facts here.
Kelly had two DUI's and lost her license as to why she was walking from bar to bar. On the night she went missing she was at a bar with friends and instead of going home when they do, she goes out to another bar...She is a heavy drinker and partyer. I'm now wondering if she used drugs as well and may have left the second bar with someone to do drugs. Possibly a drug that if mixed with alcohol could kill her.

She may have fallen victim to foul play but she also may have over dosed with someone who would be in alot of trouble because of their drug use, so they panicked and dumped her body in the woods.

Anonymous said...

I concur with video guy. Folks got to take responsibility for their own actions and stop playing the role of the victim. Assuming her record is true, she should have sought help for a drinking problem. If you choose to stay at the bars when your ride leaves, that is a warning sign that you may have a problem.

Anonymous said...

But no one deserves to die just because they are a drunk.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe all the people on here blaming this girl for getting murdered! It's appalling! The one to blame is still out there somewhere. What if someone you love is next? If she is drunk or doesn't feel like going home when her friends do, will you still feel the same way? Will you think it's her own fault? Come on!

Anonymous said...

I think it is more a comment on society than anything. This nation has a drinking problem that too many people ignore. No, this poor girl did not deserve to die. One just speculates that maybe if she had counseling about a possible drinking problem, than just maybe she would not have been in this tragic situation.

But again, no one deserves to die. Just because someone drinks does not mean that others can take advantage of her or do harm to her. There is no justification for murder.

Anonymous said...

Maybe bars should all close at 11:00. Nothing good ever happens after midnight!

Anonymous said...

While that may be true, that doesn't help Kelly now. Kelly deserves an investigation and the family deserves resolution.

Get this investigation moving!

Anonymous said...

Still no progress on Kelly's case.

Anonymous said...

It is too bad that this has turned into a cold case.

Anonymous said...

the police need to move forward and get this back on the front page. release some details and get people thinking about her again.

Hired Hunter said...

That can be a problem with all cold cases... out of sight out of mind. It will be 4 years this summer. Way too long. And the reward is way to small to attract the attention of bounty hunters.

Anonymous said...

How come the employee of Amy's Cafe wasn't named? I know of one employee who worked at Amy's Cafe that was arrested for burglary and he died March 31, 2008, less than a year after Kelly Nolan was found.

I wonder how one can find out the name of that employee who Kelly was last seen with...

Anonymous said...

Probably the employee was not named because there was not enough evidence to consider him a suspect.

Anonymous said...

Lauren Spierer of Indiana University has just disappeared under similar circumstances. leaving a bar to walk home and with friends.....it's open season on young women and time we took measures to prevent this such as installation of CCTV's in public places. I'm sickened at the frequency with which this seems to occur and at the emboldened ways of these predators - women taken from city streets, hospitals, places of residence ..... time for some serious action to help stop this.

Legal Pub said...

6-11 anon: You are correct. We have a story up on Lauren Spierer at http://legalpublication.blogspot.com/2011/06/lauren-spierer-disappearance-puzzles.html

Anonymous said...

Why has Kelly received less publicity than Lauren Spierer?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have an answer to this question: Why would police ignore reports of a stranger repeatedly approaching a woman when there is a plethora of cold cases in this state? WHY??? Why not check someone out who is behaving in a really scary way? I'm sorry, but most cops I've talked to are not very smart.

Anonymous said...

rumors are not evidence

Anonymous said...

Not a rumor. Verified, actual REPORTS. Are you trying to tell me that a woman who reports stranger-stalking incidents to police, with corroborating evidence, is a RUMOR? That is quite an assumption, and it's what we are up against.

Anonymous said...

All I can say is, there IS a stalker out there. He has stalked me. I don't know what he is capable of, but until the cases of Kelly Nolan, Amber Wilde, Berit Beck, Areerat Chuprevich, Dawn Mohn, Beulah Ware, Deidre Harm, Jane Doe, Laurie Depies, and others are SOLVED, you should tell your wives and daughters to be ON THEIR GUARD. The cops are nowhere near knowing who was responsible in most of these cases. If they were, people would be in jail and cases would be closed. As someone said, rumors are not evidence, and that seems to be all the cops are going on in many of these cases.

Anonymous said...

And one more thing, we, the public, have a right, and law enforcement has a duty to inform us about what they know happened to Kelly Nolan. We have a right to know what someone out there has done and could do again. It has been going on five years since she was found and they still have not informed the public about what this monster that probably still roams among us did to her, and might do to one of us.

Anonymous said...

There definitely could be a stalker. I have warned my kids...

Curious said...

Under what law do we have a right to know what the police know?

Anonymous said...

The law of common sense...it's been five years...we need to be aware of the dangers that exist and not have them swept under the rug.

Anonymous said...

Didn't mean to leave out Brittany Zimmermann, nor many others, including Connie Bolter, Lara Plamann, James Park and Todd Yopek--all in recent years in the Fox Valley. All unsolved. Someone is having a field day while the cops refuse to look past people who knew the victim.

Anonymous said...

It appears a guilty verdict was obtained recently in the Park case, still leaving many, many cases unsolved.

Anonymous said...

Cops have a rough job. It is endless and too often unappreciated.

Anonymous said...

It is rough job, especially when the database doesn't come through. Then you have to think and pay attention and maybe move around a little. If someone in the victim's pool of acquaintances didn't do it, then we move on to those with criminal records. We are now waiting for the backlog of DNA evidence to be updated. When that's all done, they will match up the DNA in these cold cases and solve all the crimes. In the meantime, someone is getting away with murder, someone who isn't in any database or easily accessible pool, like whoever stabbed Tanna Togstad, Tim Mumbrue and their dog in 1992, also along the I-41 corridor. What's rough is to be repeatedly told to get lost when trying to report suspicious behavior because the database is king.

Anonymous said...

What happened to free speech?

Flatfoot said...

On the other hand, cops are constantly bombarded with crackpot tips that desert attention from the real inveStigation

Jenny said...

the police need to move forward and get this back on the front page. release some details and get people thinking about her again.

Anonymous said...

Cold trail?

Anonymous said...

Your attitude, flatfoot, is why we have serial killers in this country. I'm not talking about hunches; I'm talking about verified, blatant stranger stalking. Another year has gone by and not one of these cases has been solved.

Tipster said...

Yeah, Flatfoot. Open up your eyes and spend a little time investigating. NO clue is worthless. If nothing else, you may find the killer through the process of exclusion!

Anonymous said...

Yeah Tipster, I played the game of clue too. Unfortunately, in real life there is not just a few cards that you need to exclude to determine it was Capt Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick.

Anonymous said...

^^ You forgot: "Please pass the donuts." ^^

Anonymous said...

^^ You probably play Clue while you are waiting for someone who never had and never will have a conscience to get one. Perfect scenario for monsters like BTK to operate unhindered.

Anonymous said...

At this point, there are no suspects. We don't know who is or who is not a monster. Until there is probative evidence, it is premature to suspect anyone.

... and get with the times, muffins are preferred to donuts.

Anonymous said...

Woman reports stranger approaching her in public and making inappropriate comments. Told by police to get license plate. Years go by, same stranger continues to approach. Told by police he's just a weirdo, nothing to see here. Stranger sneaks up on woman in parking lot and yells inappropriate comment. Cops do nothing. Finally after years woman manages to get license plate despite her fear of approaching the man's car. Cops contact him, he admits the behavior. Suggestion the guy could be dangerous is scoffed at. Didn't show up in database.

Anonymous said...

I won't comment on the specifics of any particular case. However, one must ask if you know whether the stranger had a verified alibi for the night in question? If so, this particular stranger, while perhaps a weirdo, would have had nothing to do with the crime at hand.

Just saying that while not all leads have been exhausted, in cases like this, sometimes a particular lead may end up in a dead end.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is it was case closed, no further investigation, despite the fact there are scores of unsolved missing and murdered women and men in my area and the state. It never got as far as you are suggesting. Could have been nothing, could have been a big break. The point is no one was interested.

Anonymous said...

You are truly a sick person!

Anonymous said...

https://www.facebook.com/napolean.smith.315

Keeping up the interest...

Anonymous said...

Actually, there is a forum that does discuss this case...

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52025&page=11