Madison police dealt with a number of high-profile cases this summer, ranging from a shooting on State Street to a monkey biting a woman at State Street Brats.
However, the kidnapping and murder of 22-year-old Kelly Nolan stood out as the biggest case of the summer.
Nolan, a student at UW- Whitewater, was last seen alive on State Street the night of June 23.
Police said Nolan was most likely out for a night at the bars when someone abducted her. Friends who were with Nolan that night told police they lost track of her toward the end of the night.
Surveillance from city bars and witness accounts were used as tools in the case.
After almost two weeks of searching, the Madison Police Department, along with other area authorities, found Nolan's body on the outskirts of Madison in the town of Dunn.
The police continue to search for Nolan's killer but said the case was isolated and the public is in no immediate danger.
Overall, our community, including downtown Madison, remains extremely safe. This is just the second murder in Madison this year. Downtown crime in general is down significantly compared to last year,"" said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz in a statement this summer.
""That said, we must always strive to do better. Even one murder a year in our community is too many.""
The case was magnified in the public because just a month prior to Kelly Nolan's disappearance, Austin Bodahl, a 23-year-old homeless man from Minnesota, was shot to death on State Street.
It happened no more than a week after the spring semester ended on May 22. Police said Daniel Kelly, 31, and Bodahl got into an argument that led to a fight, and Kelly eventually fired the fatal shots.
The MPD apprehended Kelly soon after and charged him with first-degree reckless homicide. He faces up to 60 years in jail if convicted.
""I think the police did a phenomenal job dealing with the situation,"" said Eli Judge, UW-Madison junior and District 8 alderperson.
Judge said he has handled citizens' questions all summer about safety downtown. He maintained that downtown Madison is not a dangerous place, but improvements must be made.
And while police and city officials witnessed unusual events throughout the summer, nothing compared to what took place Aug. 8, when a monkey, dressed in a diaper, bit a woman on State Street and then escaped from its owner.
Police said the victim was petting the monkey, which at that time was leashed, when the animal attacked. The MPD found the monkey later that day and took it into custody where it remained quarantined for ten days.
As for sexual assaults, police reported two close to the UW-Madison campus in late August.
Aug. 24., Police said a 20-year-old man fell asleep on his porch on the 400 block of N. Carroll St. and woke up to Kevin Smith, 45, of Madison, sexually assaulting him.
The other occurred Aug. 28. A woman told police she was sexually assaulted at a bus stop near Tokay Boulevard, which is about five miles from campus.
Hours later, police said the attacker was apprehended on a bus which had stopped near State Street.
