ABC is airing a new 20/20 episode on the Steven Zelich case, tracing how investigators tied two women found dead in suitcases in Wisconsin to a multistate search. The episode, The Suitcase Murders, airs Friday, Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. ET and streams the next day.
Jeff Recknagel said investigators first had to answer basic questions before they could look for a killer. “We had a tremendous amount of work in front of us to try to figure out -- first off, who the victims were, then to try to figure out how they had lost their lives, and then to try to figure out who was the person responsible for that,” he told 20/20.
Wisconsin suitcases
Human remains were found in suitcases abandoned by the side of a rural Wisconsin road in June 2014. Eric Anderson, then with the Town of Geneva Patrol, recalled opening one suitcase and finding a woman’s decomposing body naked, bound with rope and in a fetal position. Recknagel, who opened the second suitcase, found a black plastic bag with a woman’s hand protruding out.
The second body had pink-painted fingernails, was bound with rope and appeared to be in a state of mummification. Investigators found no identification at the scene, and extreme decomposition prevented them from obtaining DNA from the bodies. That forced investigators to build the case through timeline work, outside witnesses and records instead of a quick lab match.
Laura Simonson search
Months before the suitcases were discovered, Farmington Police Department Detective Sergeant Lee Hollatz was investigating the disappearance of 37-year-old Laura Simonson. In November 2013, she left her van in her mother’s driveway with her cell phone, purse, medication and a note instructing her mother what to do with the vehicle and all her belongings.
Kristin Scouton said Simonson would never have voluntarily left her children. “Her kids were her life,” she said, adding, “She would've never just voluntarily left her children.” Alyssa, Simonson’s 13-year-old daughter, was among six other children in the family line described in the case materials.
Hotel records and video
A hotel front desk agent reported recognizing Simonson at a property about an hour’s drive away. Kristi Bodunov said the man she saw with Simonson made her uneasy: “There's certain people you meet where the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. He was one of those,” she told John Quiñones.
A registration card with Simonson’s signature showed she had stayed at the hotel. Police also obtained checkout video that showed the man leaving alone. The absence of surveillance video of Simonson and the man checking in left investigators without the same visual proof for the arrival, even as the hotel records placed her there.
From Oregon to Minnesota
The investigation stretched from Oregon to Minnesota and involved the FBI as detectives tried to identify the victims and link the disappearance to the Wisconsin deaths. The Suitcase Murders is part of a new 20/20 broadcast on the case, with John Quiñones reporting and Deborah Roberts serving as co-anchor.
The unanswered piece in the record is the identity of the man seen with Simonson and how he connected to the deaths. For readers following the case, the next step is straightforward: the episode airs Friday night, and the following day’s stream is the place to look for the case file details presented on camera.
