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Who Was Jenny Gamez & What Happened to Her? 2026 Update & Profile

Ryan Gill
Jenny Gamez was a 19-year-old mother from Oregon whose life ended after she travelled to Wisconsin to meet Steven Zelich, a former police officer she had encountered through the internet. Her death in 2012 remained undiscovered for nearly two years, until a highway worker found her remains inside a suitcase abandoned beside a rural Wisconsin road.

Gamez was one of two women whose bodies were discovered together in June 2014. The second victim, Laura Simonson, was a 37-year-old mother of seven from Minnesota who had died during a separate encounter with Zelich in November 2013.

The investigation into their deaths became known as the Suitcase Murders case. Zelich admitted causing both deaths but claimed that they occurred accidentally during consensual sexual encounters involving strangulation. He eventually pleaded guilty to criminal charges in both cases and received prison sentences totalling 70 years.

Gamez’s life and death are examined in ABC’s 20/20 episode “The Suitcase Murders,” airing Friday, October 16, 2026, at 9/8c. The episode revisits the investigation that identified her remains, the circumstances of her final encounter with Zelich and the criminal proceedings that followed.

Who Was Jenny Gamez?

Jenny Gamez was born in Oregon and grew up in the Cottage Grove area, south of Eugene. She experienced a difficult adolescence and spent part of her teenage years in foster care. Her life before her death included changes in her living arrangements and the responsibilities of becoming a parent at a young age.

Gamez gave birth to a son in 2008, when she was approximately 15 years old. The child’s father obtained custody in 2010. Gamez subsequently left her foster family’s home and sought greater independence, although her circumstances during the following years were not fully documented in public accounts of the case.

By 2012, Gamez had established contact with Steven Zelich, a Wisconsin resident more than three decades older than her. Zelich had previously worked as a police officer in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb, before resigning in 2001 following an investigation into complaints about his conduct toward women.

Gamez’s relationship with Zelich developed through the internet. Their communication eventually led to an arrangement to meet in Wisconsin, where Gamez would lose her life at the age of 19.

Jenny Gamez’s Childhood and Life in Oregon

Gamez spent part of her childhood and adolescence in Oregon’s foster care system. Public accounts of her background describe a young woman whose early years included instability and difficulties establishing a permanent home environment.

Becoming a mother during her teenage years added another dimension to her circumstances. Her son was born in 2008, and custody subsequently passed to the child’s father. Gamez remained a young woman attempting to establish her own life when she left her foster family’s home.

Her departure created challenges for those attempting to understand her whereabouts after she disappeared. Unlike Laura Simonson, whose family reported her missing in November 2013, Gamez was not the subject of an active missing-person investigation that led authorities to discover her death.

The lack of a coordinated search became a significant aspect of the later investigation. By the time authorities identified her remains in 2014, she had been dead for nearly two years.

How Did Jenny Gamez Meet Steven Zelich?

Gamez met Zelich through an online community associated with bondage and sexual relationships. Zelich participated in internet forums involving domination and submission, and investigators later examined his online communications as part of the homicide investigation.

Zelich was approximately 51 years old when Gamez died, while she was 19. The substantial age difference and their different backgrounds attracted attention after investigators established their connection.

Their communications led to an arrangement to meet in person at a hotel in southeastern Wisconsin. Gamez travelled from Oregon to Wisconsin, where the encounter took place in the Kenosha area during 2012.

Investigators later established that Zelich had arranged similar circumstances for his meeting with Laura Simonson in Minnesota the following year. Both women had established online connections with him, and both died during hotel encounters involving strangulation.

The criminal investigation focused on Zelich’s conduct during those encounters and his decisions after the women died. Participation in online bondage communities was not itself evidence of a crime, but the communications helped detectives reconstruct how he met the victims.

What Happened to Jenny Gamez at the Wisconsin Hotel?

Investigators established that Gamez spent several days with Zelich at a hotel in Kenosha County in August 2012. According to court records, Zelich had picked her up at Milwaukee’s airport after arranging her journey from Oregon.

During their time together, the pair engaged in sexual activity involving bondage and strangulation. Zelich later told investigators that he had placed restraints on Gamez and used a rope around her neck.

He claimed that he lost control during one encounter and strangled Gamez until she died. His account characterized the death as an accident, although prosecutors treated his conduct as criminal homicide.

The precise circumstances could not be established through autopsy findings alone because Gamez’s remains were not recovered until nearly two years after her death. Investigators therefore relied on Zelich’s statements, hotel evidence and the surrounding circumstances.

The prosecution maintained that the fatal conduct created an unreasonable and substantial risk of death. Zelich’s eventual guilty plea to first-degree reckless homicide established his criminal responsibility for Gamez’s death.

What Did Steven Zelich Do With Jenny Gamez’s Body?

After Gamez died, Zelich did not contact police, hotel staff or emergency medical personnel. Instead, he placed her body inside a suitcase and transported it from the Kenosha-area hotel to his apartment in West Allis.

Investigators established that he concealed the remains in his residence, including keeping the suitcase in a refrigerator. The body remained hidden for more than a year as Zelich continued his daily life and employment.

In November 2013, Zelich caused the death of Laura Simonson during another hotel encounter in Rochester, Minnesota. He transported Simonson’s body to Wisconsin and concealed her remains as well.

Zelich subsequently moved the bodies into his vehicle. In 2014, he abandoned both suitcases beside a rural road in Walworth County. Investigative accounts indicated that warm weather and the odor from the remains contributed to his decision to dispose of them.

The concealment prevented Gamez’s family from learning that she had died. By the time authorities recovered her remains, the physical evidence had deteriorated, complicating the effort to determine the precise circumstances of her death.

Why Was Jenny Gamez Never Reported Missing?

One of the most troubling aspects of Gamez’s case was that she had not been the subject of an official missing-person report before her remains were discovered.

Gamez had left her foster family’s home and told people close to her that she intended to move. Her relatives and friends understood that she was seeking independence and might establish a life elsewhere.

Her foster mother, Lorraine Ericksen, later explained that Gamez had lived with friends and spent time in California. Although contact eventually stopped, her family did not initially know that anything criminal had happened.

The absence of regular communication caused concern, but those close to Gamez believed that she might have chosen to move on with her life. They had no information establishing that she had travelled to Wisconsin and died there.

Ericksen told reporters that Gamez had been in foster care with several families from the age of five. She described helping Gamez complete high school and recalled her as someone who brought happiness to those around her.

The family’s understanding of her disappearance changed when investigators contacted them in June 2014 about an unidentified body recovered in Wisconsin.

How Was Jenny Gamez’s Body Discovered and Identified?

On June 5, 2014, highway workers cutting grass along North Como Road in the Town of Geneva, Wisconsin, discovered two suitcases concealed in roadside vegetation.

Authorities found the decomposing remains of two women inside the luggage. The condition of the bodies suggested that they had died at different times, and investigators began the process of establishing their identities.

Laura Simonson was identified through dental records, connecting one of the bodies to an existing missing-person investigation in Minnesota.

The second woman was initially unidentified. Investigators released a composite image to assist the public in recognizing her, and people familiar with Gamez came forward after seeing the image.

Dental records confirmed her identity in late June 2014. The discovery established that Gamez had died far from her Oregon home and that her remains had been concealed for an extended period.

The identification also connected Gamez to Zelich, who had already been linked to Simonson through hotel records and the Minnesota missing-person investigation.

How Did Jenny Gamez’s Family React to Her Death?

Gamez’s death devastated relatives and members of her foster family, who had believed that she was living independently after leaving Oregon.

Her foster sister, Alexandra Troute, spoke publicly about Gamez’s personality and the difficulty of learning what had happened. She recalled that Gamez maintained a positive outlook despite the challenges she had experienced growing up.

Her foster father and sister described her as someone with a generous personality and concern for others. Their accounts provided a picture of Gamez beyond the circumstances of her death.

Lorraine Ericksen also spoke about the uncertainty that followed Gamez’s disappearance. The family had wondered why contact had stopped but had not imagined that she had been killed in Wisconsin.

The identification of her remains brought answers, but it also established that Gamez had died nearly two years earlier. Her son was left without his mother, and her relatives faced the knowledge that her death had remained concealed throughout that period.

Steven Zelich’s Trial and Guilty Plea for Jenny Gamez’s Death

Following the discovery of the bodies, prosecutors charged Zelich with concealing human remains. Additional homicide charges followed as investigators reconstructed the encounters with both women.

In Wisconsin, prosecutors initially pursued a first-degree intentional homicide charge concerning Gamez’s death. Zelich maintained that the strangulation had been accidental, and his attorneys challenged the prosecution’s attempt to introduce evidence about Laura Simonson’s death.

Judge Bruce Schroeder permitted the evidence, finding that the similarities between the encounters were relevant to the prosecution’s case.

On January 25, 2016, as his trial was about to begin, Zelich pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide involving the use of a dangerous weapon and to hiding a corpse.

The guilty plea eliminated the need for a jury trial and established Zelich’s responsibility for Gamez’s death. It also resolved the case without requiring prosecutors to prove that he had deliberately intended to kill her.

What Sentence Did Steven Zelich Receive for Killing Jenny Gamez?

On March 30, 2016, Zelich appeared in Kenosha County court for sentencing. He was 54 years old at the time.

The court sentenced him to 35 years in prison for Gamez’s death, followed by 10 years of extended supervision. The sentence reflected his conviction for first-degree reckless homicide.

Zelich subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for Laura Simonson’s death in Minnesota, receiving an additional 25-year prison sentence in February 2017.

In October 2017, he received another 10 years for concealing the bodies. His combined prison sentences amounted to 70 years, effectively ensuring that he would spend the remainder of his life in custody if the sentences were served as imposed.

The proceedings established legal responsibility for both deaths and the concealment that delayed the identification of the victims.

Why Jenny Gamez’s Story Remains Important

Jenny Gamez was 19 years old when her life ended. She had experienced instability during childhood, become a mother as a teenager and sought independence after leaving foster care.

Her circumstances made it difficult for family members to recognize that she was in danger when she stopped communicating with them. Her death remained unknown until investigators discovered her body almost two years later.

The case also illustrated the importance of identifying unidentified human remains. The composite image, recognition by people who knew Gamez and confirmation through dental records were essential to establishing who she was.

Without that identification, investigators would have faced additional obstacles in reconstructing her movements and connecting her death to Zelich.

Her story also became part of a wider examination of how online relationships can bring people together across considerable distances, and how investigators reconstruct crimes involving victims who have left their established communities.

Jenny Gamez’s Story on ABC’s 20/20: The Suitcase Murders

ABC’s 20/20 revisits Jenny Gamez’s death in “The Suitcase Murders,” airing Friday, October 16, 2026, at 9/8c.

The episode examines the discovery of her remains alongside those of Laura Simonson, the investigation that connected both women to Steven Zelich and the criminal proceedings that followed.

Gamez’s case represents one half of an investigation involving two victims who lived in different states, disappeared at different times and had no known relationship with each other. Their deaths became connected through Zelich and the discovery of the suitcases in Wisconsin.

The convictions established that Zelich was criminally responsible for both deaths. For Gamez’s family, the investigation finally answered what had happened to the young woman who had left Oregon hoping to establish an independent life.

Her death at 19 ended a life that included a son, foster relatives and friends who remembered her for her kindness and positive outlook. The identification of her remains ensured that she would no longer be an unidentified victim and allowed her family to learn the truth about her disappearance.

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