“The Suitcase Murders”: 20/20 Reports on Steven Zelich Case & Jenny Gamez and Laura Simonson Homicides October 16 2026

The victims were Jenny Gamez, a 19-year-old woman from Oregon, and Laura Simonson, a 37-year-old mother of seven from Minnesota. Their deaths occurred more than a year apart, but their bodies were discovered together in June 2014. Investigators traced both women to Zelich, whose past as a Wisconsin police officer and involvement in online bondage communities became central elements of the case.

Zelich admitted responsibility for both deaths but maintained that the women died during consensual sexual encounters involving strangulation. Prosecutors pursued homicide charges, and his guilty pleas resulted in prison sentences in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The legal proceedings continued beyond his sentencing, with a Wisconsin appeals court ordering further consideration of his attempt to withdraw one of his pleas.

The 20/20 episode revisits the investigation, the lives of the two victims, the evidence connecting their deaths and the court proceedings that followed. The case raises questions about how Zelich concealed two deaths across state lines, the significance of his history in law enforcement and the evidence that led to his convictions.

• Who Is Steven Zelich & Where Is He Now? 2026 Update & Profile
• Who Was Jenny Gamez & What Happened to Her? 2026 Update & Profile
• Who Was Laura Simonson & What Happened to Her? 2026 Update & Profile

The Discovery of Two Suitcases in Rural Wisconsin

On June 5, 2014, a highway worker cutting grass along a road in the Town of Geneva, Walworth County, Wisconsin, encountered two large suitcases concealed in roadside vegetation. The location was approximately 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee, in a rural area where the luggage had been left among the grass.

The worker detected an odor coming from the suitcases and contacted authorities. When investigators examined the luggage, they discovered the decomposing remains of two women. The condition of the bodies indicated that the victims had been dead for a considerable period, presenting forensic challenges for investigators.

The discovery initiated an investigation involving law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon. Detectives needed to identify the women, establish their movements before death and determine whether the person who abandoned the suitcases was responsible for their deaths.

Dental records helped investigators identify the victims as Laura Simonson and Jenny Gamez. The women had different backgrounds, lived in different states and disappeared at different times. Their remains had been placed together at the roadside, suggesting that someone had retained possession of both bodies before disposing of them.

The condition of the remains prevented the forensic pathologist from establishing a definitive cause of death through the autopsies alone. Investigators therefore depended on other evidence, including missing-person reports, hotel records, witness accounts and statements obtained during the criminal investigation.

The discovery transformed what had been separate disappearances into a homicide investigation involving two victims. The central question became how the women had encountered the same person and why their bodies had remained concealed for months or years.

Who Was Jenny Gamez? The Oregon Teenager Who Travelled to Wisconsin

Jenny Gamez was 19 years old when she died in 2012. She came from Cottage Grove, Oregon, and had spent part of her adolescence in foster care. Her early life included significant personal challenges, and she had become a mother while she was a teenager.

Gamez gave birth to a son in 2008, when she was approximately 15. The child’s father obtained custody in 2010. Gamez subsequently left her foster family’s home, hoping to establish a life outside Oregon.

Her departure was an important factor in the investigation. Unlike Laura Simonson, whose disappearance prompted a missing-person inquiry, Gamez had not been the subject of an active search that led investigators to her whereabouts before the discovery of her remains.

Gamez came into contact with Steven Zelich through an internet community associated with bondage and sexual relationships. Zelich was more than three decades older than her and lived in West Allis, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb.

Their online contact led to an arrangement to meet in Wisconsin. Investigators established that Gamez and Zelich spent time together at a hotel in the Kenosha area during 2012. What began as an online connection ended with Gamez’s death during their encounter.

Zelich would later acknowledge that he had caused her death through strangulation. He maintained that the incident occurred during sexual activity and was not intentional. His account became part of the criminal proceedings, but the prosecution treated the circumstances as grounds for a homicide charge.

Gamez’s body was placed inside a suitcase rather than being reported to police or emergency services. Zelich transported her remains to his residence, where he concealed them for an extended period.

For Gamez’s family, the discovery of the suitcase brought confirmation of a death that had occurred far from home. The investigation established that she had died long before authorities recovered her remains and identified the man responsible.

Jenny Gamez’s Death at a Kenosha-Area Hotel

Investigators reconstructed Gamez’s final known movements through Zelich’s statements and evidence of their meeting. The pair had arranged to meet after communicating online, and their encounter took place at a hotel in southeastern Wisconsin.

According to the prosecution’s account, Zelich strangled Gamez during sexual activity. He described her death as accidental, claiming that the encounter involved consensual bondage practices. That explanation did not account for his decision to conceal her body or his failure to seek assistance.

The physical evidence had limitations because Gamez’s remains were not discovered until June 2014. The passage of time and decomposition complicated efforts to determine the precise mechanism of death through forensic examination.

Zelich’s statements therefore became an important part of the case. Investigators examined his account alongside the circumstances of the hotel encounter and his actions after Gamez died.

Rather than contacting authorities, Zelich placed Gamez’s body inside luggage and transported it to his home in West Allis. Accounts of the investigation describe him storing her remains in a refrigerator before transferring the suitcase to his vehicle.

The concealment continued through 2013, when Zelich met Laura Simonson. By the time of Simonson’s death, Gamez’s remains had been hidden for approximately a year.

The extended concealment became one of the case’s most disturbing elements. Zelich had maintained his employment and daily life while retaining possession of a young woman’s remains, and he went on to establish contact with another woman through the internet.

His actions after Gamez’s death also became relevant to the prosecution’s assessment of his claim that the strangulation was an accident. Whatever his stated intentions during the encounter, his subsequent conduct demonstrated that he knew a woman had died and had taken steps to prevent the discovery of her body.

Who Was Laura Simonson? The Minnesota Mother of Seven

Laura Simonson was 37 years old and lived in Farmington, Minnesota, south of Minneapolis. She was the mother of seven children and had family members who became concerned when they lost contact with her in November 2013.

Simonson had experienced personal difficulties, including mental health challenges described by relatives in reporting on the case. Those circumstances formed part of her background but did not explain or diminish the criminal conduct that caused her death.

Like Jenny Gamez, Simonson had met Steven Zelich through an online connection. Their communication led to an arrangement to meet at a hotel in Rochester, Minnesota, approximately 80 miles southeast of Minneapolis.

The hotel meeting took place in early November 2013. Simonson checked into the Microtel Inn & Suites under her own name, creating a record that investigators would use to reconstruct her movements.

She did not return to her family. A relative reported her missing on November 22, 2013, prompting an investigation into her disappearance.

Detectives traced Simonson’s movements to the Rochester hotel and identified Zelich as a man who had been with her. Hotel records and surveillance evidence became important in establishing their association before she vanished.

The circumstances raised concerns because Simonson had disappeared after meeting a man who lived in another state. Investigators needed to determine whether she had left of her own accord, encountered an accident or become the victim of a crime.

For months, her family had no confirmation of what had happened. The answer emerged only after the discovery of the two suitcases in Wisconsin.

What Happened to Laura Simonson at the Rochester Hotel?

Laura Simonson’s encounter with Zelich took place at the Microtel Inn & Suites in Rochester in November 2013. Investigators established that the two had arranged the meeting through their online communications.

According to Zelich’s subsequent statements, the encounter involved sexual activity that included a rope around Simonson’s neck. He claimed that he caused her death through accidental strangulation.

The evidence associated with Simonson’s body included restraints and a gag device, which investigators considered when examining the circumstances of her death. The prosecution’s case concerned the fatal strangulation and Zelich’s responsibility for it, regardless of his assertion that the encounter began with consent.

Consent to sexual activity did not remove the legal significance of the fatal injury. The criminal proceedings focused on the conduct that caused Simonson’s death and the level of criminal responsibility established by the evidence.

After Simonson died, Zelich placed her body inside a suitcase. He did not report the death to hotel staff, police or emergency medical personnel.

He transported her remains from Minnesota to Wisconsin, where he concealed them alongside the remains of Jenny Gamez. The two women had never been connected through their families or communities, but Zelich’s actions brought their cases together.

The concealment meant that Simonson’s family remained without answers while investigators pursued leads in her missing-person case. Her disappearance continued to be investigated until the bodies were recovered in June 2014.

The Rochester hotel became a critical location in the investigation. It established the connection between Simonson and Zelich, placed them together before her disappearance and provided evidence for the Minnesota prosecution.

Steven Zelich’s Police Career and History of Complaints

Steven Michael Zelich was born in 1961 and joined the West Allis Police Department in 1989. He worked as a police officer in the Milwaukee suburb for more than a decade before his career ended in 2001.

His departure followed an internal investigation involving allegations about his interactions with women. Department records described complaints that Zelich had used his position as a police officer to approach women, obtain personal information and pursue contact outside his professional responsibilities.

Some women alleged that he had pressured them for dates or behaved in an intimidating manner. The complaints raised concerns about his judgment and the potential misuse of police authority.

Zelich resigned in August 2001 rather than continue through the department’s disciplinary process. His departure ended his law enforcement career, but he remained employed in security-related work.

By the time of the murders, Zelich was working as a private security officer. He lived in West Allis, where investigators would later establish that he had concealed the women’s remains.

After his arrest, the release of his police personnel records brought renewed attention to his history. Reporters examined whether the complaints made during his police career revealed patterns of conduct relevant to the later crimes.

The disciplinary allegations were separate from the homicide charges and did not establish that he had committed the murders. They nevertheless became part of the public examination of a former police officer who had been accused of abusing his position and was later convicted in connection with two women’s deaths.

His background also added another dimension to the investigation. As a former officer, Zelich had experience with law enforcement procedures, although the available evidence does not establish that he used specific police training to conceal the crimes.

The Online Connections That Led to Both Victims

Investigators discovered that Zelich had used internet communities associated with bondage, domination and submission to establish contact with women. His online activity became a central component of the case because both victims had met him through internet connections.

One profile attributed to Zelich described an interest in relationships involving captivity, imprisonment and extreme forms of domination. The language drew attention after investigators recovered the victims’ remains and documented evidence of restraints.

The online connections helped detectives establish how a man living in Wisconsin had encountered women from Oregon and Minnesota. Neither victim needed to have known the other for the cases to share a common suspect.

Investigators examined the communications and arrangements that preceded the hotel meetings. The encounters followed a pattern in which Zelich established contact online, arranged to meet a woman in person and engaged in sexual activity involving strangulation.

The case did not establish that participation in consensual bondage communities was itself evidence of criminal behavior. The criminal acts involved the deaths of the women and Zelich’s concealment of their bodies.

The distinction became relevant to his defence. Zelich maintained that the women had consented to sexual activity and that the fatal incidents were unintended consequences of those encounters.

Prosecutors rejected the suggestion that his account eliminated criminal responsibility. The charges and subsequent guilty pleas reflected the legal consequences of the fatal conduct, including the separate offense of concealing human remains.

The investigation demonstrated how online communications, hotel records and witness evidence could establish connections between victims whose disappearances occurred in different states and at different times.

How Investigators Connected Steven Zelich to the Two Deaths

The investigation into Laura Simonson’s disappearance provided detectives with a connection to Steven Zelich before the suitcases were discovered. Farmington police detective Lee Hollatz investigated her movements and established that she had spent time with Zelich at the Rochester hotel.

Hotel records and surveillance material placed the two together before Simonson vanished. Investigators questioned Zelich during the missing-person inquiry, but they did not have the evidence needed to establish that Simonson had been killed.

The discovery of the suitcases in June 2014 changed the direction of the investigation. Simonson’s remains were identified through dental records, connecting the missing Minnesota mother to the roadside discovery in Wisconsin.

The identification of Jenny Gamez presented another challenge. She had not been the subject of the same type of missing-person investigation, and her identity was unknown when her remains were recovered.

Investigators released a composite image to help identify the younger victim. People who knew Gamez recognized the image, and dental records confirmed her identity. This gave investigators a second name and a connection to Oregon.

Detectives established that both women had encountered Zelich through online communications. Their investigations traced the victims to separate hotel meetings, one in Wisconsin and the other in Minnesota.

When questioned about the deaths, Zelich admitted that he had met both women and caused their deaths during sexual encounters involving strangulation. He described placing their bodies in suitcases and concealing the remains before leaving them beside the road.

The admissions provided investigators with an account connecting the two deaths, the storage of the bodies and the location where the remains were recovered. They also formed a significant part of the evidence used in the criminal proceedings.

Steven Zelich’s Arrest and the Criminal Charges

Authorities took Zelich into custody in late June 2014. The initial prosecution concerned the concealment of the two bodies, with Walworth County authorities charging him with two felony counts of hiding a corpse.

The location of the bodies determined where those charges were filed. Because the suitcases were discovered in Walworth County, prosecutors there had jurisdiction over the offenses associated with their concealment and disposal.

The homicide investigations involved different jurisdictions. Jenny Gamez had died in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, while Laura Simonson had died in Rochester, Minnesota. Prosecutors therefore pursued the deaths through separate criminal proceedings.

Zelich faced a substantial prison sentence even before the homicide charges were resolved. The concealment offenses carried their own penalties, independent of the question of whether prosecutors could prove intentional or reckless homicide.

The prosecution also had to address the limitations of the forensic evidence. The decomposition of the remains complicated efforts to determine the precise causes of death, making Zelich’s statements and the surrounding circumstances important to the cases.

His claim that the women had died during consensual sexual activity became a central issue. Investigators and prosecutors examined whether his account was consistent with the evidence and whether the deaths constituted criminal homicide.

The charges developed into separate proceedings involving the death of Gamez, the death of Simonson and the concealment of their bodies. Those proceedings would produce convictions and sentences across Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The Wisconsin Prosecution for Jenny Gamez’s Death

The Wisconsin homicide prosecution concerned Zelich’s responsibility for the death of Jenny Gamez at the Kenosha-area hotel. Prosecutors initially pursued a first-degree intentional homicide charge before the case was resolved through a negotiated guilty plea.

A significant pretrial issue involved whether prosecutors could introduce evidence about Laura Simonson’s death. The state argued that the similarities between the two encounters were relevant to Zelich’s intent, purpose and pattern of conduct.

The proposed evidence concerned two women who had met Zelich online, two hotel encounters involving strangulation and two deaths followed by the concealment of bodies in suitcases. Prosecutors maintained that these similarities had evidentiary significance beyond establishing that Zelich had been involved in another death.

Zelich’s defence objected to the evidence. His attorneys argued that presenting details of Simonson’s death could prejudice jurors considering the Gamez case and lead them to judge Zelich based on the allegations involving another woman.

Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder considered the dispute and permitted the prosecution to use the evidence. The ruling affected the potential scope of a trial because jurors would have been allowed to hear about both deaths while considering the Wisconsin homicide charge.

On January 25, 2016, Zelich pleaded guilty to an amended charge of first-degree reckless homicide, along with a charge of hiding a corpse. The plea eliminated the need for a jury trial in the Gamez homicide case.

First-degree reckless homicide under Wisconsin law concerns conduct that creates an unreasonable and substantial risk of death or great bodily harm under circumstances showing utter disregard for human life. The conviction did not require the same finding of an intent to kill as a first-degree intentional homicide conviction.

On March 30, 2016, Zelich received a sentence of 35 years in prison for Gamez’s death, followed by 10 years of extended supervision. The sentence for the associated corpse-concealment charge ran concurrently rather than adding to the 35-year prison term.

The Minnesota Murder Case Involving Laura Simonson

The Minnesota prosecution concerned Simonson’s death at the Rochester hotel in November 2013. Prosecutors relied on Zelich’s admissions, evidence of the hotel encounter and the circumstances surrounding the concealment of her body.

Zelich maintained that he had not intended to kill Simonson. He claimed that the fatal strangulation occurred during sexual activity involving a rope, an explanation similar to the account he provided concerning Gamez.

The Minnesota case proceeded under that state’s criminal law, separate from the Wisconsin homicide prosecution. The fact that Zelich had received a prison sentence for Gamez’s death did not resolve his responsibility for Simonson’s death.

On February 3, 2017, Zelich pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Simonson case. The guilty plea established his criminal responsibility for her death without requiring a contested jury trial.

The court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The Minnesota sentence was ordered to run consecutively to his Wisconsin sentence, meaning the prison terms were added rather than served at the same time.

The two homicide sentences amounted to 60 years of imprisonment. The outcome reflected convictions for the deaths of both women, despite Zelich’s claims that neither death had been intentional.

For Simonson’s family, the Minnesota proceedings established a criminal judgment concerning the circumstances of her death. Her disappearance had begun as a missing-person investigation, but the case ended with a murder conviction against the man who had met her at the Rochester hotel.

Zelich Receives Another 10 Years for Concealing the Bodies

The criminal proceedings did not end with the two homicide sentences. Zelich also faced charges in Walworth County for concealing the women’s bodies and abandoning the suitcases along the roadside.

These charges addressed conduct that occurred after the deaths. Zelich had transported the remains, retained possession of them and prevented their discovery before leaving the suitcases in a rural location.

The concealment had consequences for both families. Gamez’s relatives did not know what had happened to her, while Simonson’s family endured months without confirmation of her fate.

On October 13, 2017, Zelich received an additional 10-year prison sentence for two counts of hiding a corpse. The sentence was added to the prison terms imposed in the Wisconsin and Minnesota homicide cases.

Family members attended the sentencing hearing and delivered victim impact statements. Their statements described the loss of their loved ones and the suffering caused by the deaths and concealment of the remains.

The court proceedings also brought attention to Zelich’s treatment of the bodies. Prosecutors described the act of placing the women in luggage and abandoning them beside the road as a further violation of the victims’ dignity.

The additional sentence brought Zelich’s aggregate prison terms to 70 years: 35 years for Jenny Gamez’s death, 25 years for Laura Simonson’s death and 10 years for concealing the bodies.

Given Zelich’s age when the sentences were imposed, the combined terms amounted to a prison sentence expected to keep him incarcerated for the remainder of his life.

Why Steven Zelich Challenged His Wisconsin Guilty Plea

Although Zelich had pleaded guilty, the Wisconsin homicide case returned to the courts through post-conviction litigation. He sought to withdraw his guilty plea in the Gamez case, alleging that his trial attorneys had provided incorrect legal advice.

The dispute concerned the pretrial ruling allowing prosecutors to introduce evidence about Laura Simonson’s death. Zelich maintained that the evidence would have prejudiced a jury considering whether he was criminally responsible for Gamez’s death.

According to his post-conviction motion, his attorneys had advised him that he could plead guilty and retain the right to challenge the evidentiary ruling on appeal. Zelich argued that he relied on this advice when deciding not to proceed to trial.

The legal problem was that a guilty plea generally waives a defendant’s ability to challenge certain pretrial rulings, including decisions about the admission of other-acts evidence.

Zelich claimed that he would have insisted on a trial if he had understood that entering the plea would prevent him from appealing the ruling. He argued that the alleged error deprived him of the opportunity to make an informed decision about his defence.

Judge Bruce Schroeder held a post-conviction hearing but denied Zelich’s request to withdraw the plea. Zelich appealed, arguing that the court had not permitted him to present the evidence necessary to establish ineffective assistance of counsel.

The dispute did not concern whether the bodies had been discovered or whether Zelich had admitted causing the deaths. It concerned the legal advice he received before pleading guilty and whether that advice affected his decision to forgo a trial.

The Wisconsin Appeals Court Ruling in November 2020

On November 25, 2020, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals issued a decision in State v. Zelich, Appeal No. 2019AP1655-CR. The court examined Zelich’s argument that his attorneys had misinformed him about his ability to challenge the admission of evidence from the Simonson case.

The appellate judges concluded that Zelich had made allegations sufficient to warrant a complete evidentiary hearing on his ineffective-assistance claim. The lower court had ended the hearing before allowing him to develop the issue.

The appeals court also examined the underlying evidentiary ruling. It concluded that the circuit court had acted within its discretion when it permitted prosecutors to introduce evidence concerning Simonson’s death.

The judges recognized that the evidence carried a risk of prejudice, but found that its relevance to the prosecution’s theory of Zelich’s purpose and conduct justified its admission under the applicable legal standard.

The distinction was important. The appeals court did not conclude that Zelich was entitled to withdraw his guilty plea. It ruled that he was entitled to an opportunity to prove that his attorneys had provided constitutionally ineffective assistance.

The court ordered the lower court to complete the post-conviction evidentiary hearing. If Zelich established both deficient legal representation and resulting prejudice, he could be permitted to withdraw his plea.

The ruling represented a procedural victory for Zelich, not an acquittal or reversal of the underlying homicide finding. It required further examination of his allegations before a decision could be made about whether the guilty plea should stand.

The published 2020 appellate decision establishes the remand, but does not establish that Zelich succeeded in withdrawing his plea. The available records reviewed for this article do not confirm a later final disposition of that post-conviction motion.

What the Appeals Court Revealed About the Evidence Against Zelich

The 2020 appellate decision provided an account of the prosecution’s evidence and the legal arguments surrounding the Wisconsin homicide case. The court discussed Zelich’s statements about both deaths and the similarities prosecutors sought to present to a jury.

According to the criminal complaint summarized in the decision, Zelich admitted meeting Gamez online before arranging their encounter at a Kenosha County hotel. He described restraining her, placing a gag in her mouth and using a rope around her neck during sexual activity.

He told investigators that he lost control during the encounter and caused her death. He then placed her body in a suitcase, transported it to his apartment and concealed the remains.

The decision described his account of the Simonson encounter in comparable terms. Zelich had travelled to Rochester, met Simonson at a motel and engaged in sexual activity involving restricted breathing. He admitted causing her death and transporting her body to Wisconsin.

Prosecutors argued that the similarities were relevant to whether Zelich’s conduct in the Gamez case was accidental. The state sought to use evidence from the second death to support its theory concerning his purpose and the nature of his actions.

The appellate court agreed that the evidence had probative value. It concluded that the circuit court had not misused its discretion in allowing the prosecution to present the Simonson evidence.

The decision also demonstrated why the timing of Zelich’s guilty plea mattered. He entered the plea after the ruling permitting the other-acts evidence, and his subsequent legal challenge focused on the advice he received about the consequences of that decision.

The appellate proceedings therefore addressed one of the central disputes in the case: whether the similarities between the deaths could be used as evidence of criminal purpose rather than treated as two unrelated accidents.

What Happened to Steven Zelich After His Convictions?

Zelich’s criminal proceedings produced guilty pleas for the deaths of both women and convictions associated with concealing their remains. The sentences imposed between 2016 and 2017 amounted to 70 years of imprisonment.

His post-conviction challenge in Wisconsin complicated the legal history of the Gamez case. The 2020 appeals court ruling required further proceedings, but it did not establish that his homicide conviction had been vacated.

The Minnesota murder conviction was a separate judgment. The 2020 reporting on his Wisconsin appeal stated that online court records did not identify an appeal filed by Zelich in the Minnesota case.

Zelich’s convictions and sentences made him one of Wisconsin’s most widely reported homicide offenders of the period. The discovery of two bodies in suitcases, the involvement of a former police officer and the connection to online dating drew attention from national crime programs.

The case has also been examined in reporting about missing persons, forensic identification and investigations that cross state boundaries. Gamez’s identification was a significant part of that history because she had not been the subject of an active missing-person investigation before her remains were recovered.

The available reporting identifies Zelich as an incarcerated convicted murderer. The precise status of his Wisconsin post-conviction litigation beyond the documented 2020 remand would require confirmation from subsequent court records.

The Lasting Impact of the Deaths of Jenny Gamez and Laura Simonson

The deaths of Jenny Gamez and Laura Simonson left two families confronting losses that extended beyond the initial crimes. Both women died during encounters with the same man, and both were denied the discovery and identification that could have allowed their families to learn what happened at the time.

Gamez was a young mother who had travelled across the country after leaving Oregon. Her disappearance did not prompt the investigation that might have followed if authorities had known she was missing. Her identity was established only after the discovery of her remains.

Simonson was a mother of seven whose family reported her missing in November 2013. Investigators had traced her to Zelich, but the discovery of her body months later provided the evidence that transformed the missing-person case into a homicide prosecution.

The separate deaths also exposed the difficulty of connecting crimes committed across state lines. Investigators in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon had different pieces of information, and the connection between the victims became clear through the recovery of their remains and the investigation into Zelich.

The case illustrated the importance of forensic identification, missing-person records, digital communications and cooperation between law enforcement agencies. Each contributed to establishing the identities of the victims and reconstructing the events leading to their deaths.

The subsequent prosecutions established Zelich’s criminal responsibility through guilty pleas. The prison sentences reflected both the loss of life and the concealment that prolonged the families’ uncertainty.

For the victims’ relatives, the court proceedings could establish legal responsibility, but they could not reverse the loss of two women whose lives and family relationships extended beyond the circumstances of their deaths.

When Does 20/20: The Suitcase Murders Air on ABC?

ABC’s 20/20 episode “The Suitcase Murders” airs on Friday, October 16, 2026, at 9/8c. The program examines the deaths of Jenny Gamez and Laura Simonson, the discovery of their bodies in rural Wisconsin and the investigation that led authorities to former police officer Steven Zelich.

The case involves two deaths separated by more than a year, an investigation across three states, evidence from online communications and hotel encounters, and criminal proceedings that resulted in decades of imprisonment.

The episode also revisits the central conflict between Zelich’s claim that the deaths were accidental and the prosecution’s case that his conduct constituted criminal homicide. His decisions to conceal the bodies and his history before the killings form part of the account.

The outcome was a series of guilty pleas and sentences totalling 70 years, followed by a legal challenge concerning the advice Zelich received before his Wisconsin plea. The 2020 appellate ruling left that challenge subject to further proceedings.

At the centre of “The Suitcase Murders” are Jenny Gamez and Laura Simonson, two women whose disappearances became connected through a roadside discovery in June 2014. Their identification brought the crimes to light, and the investigation that followed established the responsibility of the man who had concealed their deaths.