While the homicide of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann remains unsolved five months after her death, questions about its circumstances are far from over.
After Zimmermann, 21, was found dead in her off-campus apartment April 2, concerns about downtown safety rattled the campus community during the spring semester. Madison Police Department Central District Captain Mary Schauf said two full-time and several part-time detectives were assigned to pursue leads and tips in the Zimmermann case over the summer, but no suspects have emerged.
As the investigation into the homicide remains active and ongoing, the issue of Zimmermann's 911 call before her death continued to unfold in the summer months. 911 Center records show that Zimmermann placed a call to the center from her cell phone before she died, but when the line was disconnected, the dispatcher failed to call her back, a violation of the center's policy.
The controversy surrounding the handling of Zimmermann's call helped change the Dane County 911 Center's policy regarding cell phone calls. Previous policies stipulated that if the dispatcher was unsure if an emergency was occurring or not, police were only dispatched if calls were made from landlines. In June, the 911 Center adjusted the policy to include police dispatch for calls made from cell phones as well.
On June 13, Kevin and Jean Zimmermann, Brittany's parents, filed a federal lawsuit against Dane County and 911 dispatcher Rita Gahagan seeking unspecified compensatory damages. The suit alleged the defendants contributed to Zimmermann's death by violating county regulations and failing to call Zimmermann back or alert police after her initial 911 call was disconnected.
Nearly a month after county attorneys moved to dismiss the case, the Zimmermann's dropped the suit on July 28.
In addition to Zimmermann, the homicide of Kelly Nolan, another young female coed, remains unsolved. In June 2007, Nolan, a 22-year-old UW-Whitewater student living in Madison for the summer, disappeared after a night of drinking at State Street bars. Police found her body in a wooded area on the outskirts of Madison in the town of Dunn about two weeks later.
