Police Officer Says The Murders Were An Accident, Thinks He'll Get Away With It

Watch this police interrogation with intense raw interrogation from the interrogation room as police conduct a full interrogation of a suspect. This raw interrogation footage captures every moment of the suspect interview, complete with deception detection techniques, and criminal psychology in true JCS style interrogation. 1. The Background Steven Mark Zelich, a former West Allis, Wisconsin police officer later working private security, met both women through online bondage and sadomasochism contacts. Jenny Gamez, 19, of Cottage Grove, Oregon, traveled to Wisconsin in 2012 to meet him. They were not in a prior relationship. Laura Simonson, 37, of Farmington, Minnesota, and a mother of seven, met him in Rochester, Minnesota, in November 2013. Court accounts describe the deaths as occurring during sexual encounters involving restraint. Zelich told investigators both deaths were accidental. Prosecutors described a repeated pattern, not a single accident. 2. The Crime Gamez died in August 2012 at a Kenosha County hotel near Highway 50 and I-94, after Zelich picked her up at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport. He said she died during “breath play” when a restraint was around her neck. Simonson was last seen on November 2, 2013, after checking into the Microtel Inn in Rochester with Zelich. Hotel video showed him leaving alone the next morning. Prosecutors said she died there on November 3, 2013, during a similar encounter. He put each body in a suitcase, kept Gamez’s remains at his West Allis apartment for more than a year, and later kept both remains before dumping them. On June 5, 2014, highway workers found two suitcases along North Como Road in the Town of Geneva, Walworth County. Both women were bound. Simonson had a rope around her neck and a gag in her mouth. 3. The Investigation Simonson was reported missing on November 22, 2013. Farmington police traced her to the Rochester hotel. Gamez had not been reported missing. Investigators interviewed Zelich in March 2014 and took a DNA sample. That DNA later matched DNA on ropes used to bind Gamez. He was arrested on June 25, 2014, and first charged in Walworth County with two counts of hiding a corpse. A search of his apartment included removal of a refrigerator. He admitted causing both deaths but said they were accidental. His account conflicted with the bindings, the long storage of the bodies, and his failure to call for help. A coworker’s complaint about a smell from his vehicle preceded the dumping. 4. Conviction and Sentencing January 25, 2016: In Kenosha County, before Judge Bruce Schroeder, he pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide with use of a dangerous weapon and hiding a corpse. He had been charged with first-degree intentional homicide. March 30, 2016: 35 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision for the homicide, plus a concurrent 3 years in prison and 3 years of extended supervision for hiding a corpse. Credit for 644 days. February 3, 2017: In Olmsted County, Minnesota, before Judge Pamela King, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Simonson’s death and was sentenced to 25 years, consecutive to the Wisconsin homicide term. October 13, 2017: In Walworth County, Judge Kristine Drettwan sentenced him to two consecutive 5-year terms, 10 years total, for two counts of hiding a corpse, with extended supervision, on top of the earlier sentences. Combined prison time reported across the cases is 70 years. Wikipedia lists a minimum non-parole period of about 58 years. true crime,law and crime network,interrogation,interrogation analysis,red thread interrogations,interrogation jcs inspired,interrogation jcs style,interrogation psychology,interrogation psychology jcs inspired,new interrogations 2026,interrogation breakdown,police interrogation psychology,bodycam,interview,case analysis,bodycam footage,crime investigation,police interrogation,suspect interview,int,interrogations 2026,interrogation videos,jcs true crime