The death of 22-year-old UW-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan was one of the top stories of 2007 to make headlines in the city of Madison. Police revealed that Nolan disappeared one night when friends left her bar hopping on State Street in June 2007. After two weeks of searching, Nolan's body was found in the town of Dunn, Wis.
Since this discovery, however, no further information has been released regarding the Nolan case. While some members of the public may feel left in the dark by the drought of information, I believe Madison police and the members of Nolan's family have legitimate reasons to keep whatever information they have undisclosed.
Law enforcement officials working to uncover the truth about Nolan's death have justified reasons to keep details of the case to themselves.
Mary Schauf, captain of Madison Police, went on record saying that revealing more information about the Nolan case could be disadvantageous to the ongoing investigation. She assured the public that the case is still active, have not been any major leads as to a potential suspect. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, while stating that the investigators have forensic and other leads to follow, also did not disclose anything specific.
While people closely following the story of Nolan's death would naturally want their questions answered, the public must trust that the police are doing best and understand that there are logical reasons behind the case's confidentiality. Police often keep details about their cases private in order to prevent false confessions or copycat crimes.
As for the family of Nolan, I feel they have a right to keep any additional information to themselves. While the public wants to know what occurred on that June night, the only people who currently deserve to know the extra details are Nolan's family.
It is the family's discretion as for what to share, and they should be able to maintain privacy regarding the specifics to this unfortunate occurrence. They have chosen not to divulge information about Nolan's activities or what she said to her sister in a phone conversation before she went missing.
If I were in their situation, I would do the same. It would be too easy to paint an incorrect picture of what happened that night with just random tidbits of information. It would also be too easy to blame Nolan herself for everything that happened to her if it were discovered that there was poor decision-making involved on her part.
The truth is, while she did have a worrisome history of alcohol-related arrests, and the alcohol in her system the night of her disappearance would have severely impaired her judgment, it is not the role of the media to judge her at this point.
The public would be quick to jump to conclusions with just small portions of the truth, and it is best that no misleading assumptions are made as to how Nolan died and why the body was found in a town approximately 10 miles away from where she was last seen.
So, as for the Nolan case, we will just have to wait and see what the police have learned when they are ready to share. Until then, however, it is important that the public trusts that investigators are doing what they can to get an unbiased and complete understanding of how events unfolded.
Although we may not ever know exactly what happened to Nolan, it is important for all students to remember to stick together and use basic safety precautions when staying out late, especially if alcohol is involved.
Kory Doulgass is a freshman with an undecided major. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com
