Author: jplucas

MARSHFIELD, Wis. — In Marshfield, where woman found slain near campus on Wednesday is from, many are mourning and trying to come to terms with Brittany Zimmermann’s killing.

Many there said they are finding it difficult to understand how something so senseless could happen to such a well-liked person.

Staff and former teachers at Marshfield High School said they remember Zimmermann as a bright student with a great attitude who was always smiling.

Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp is interviewed on campus reaction and response to Brittany Zimmermann’s death. (Video.)

MADISON – Family members, friends and Madison officials gathered at a vigil Sunday for a murdered University of Wisconsin student.

Brittany Zimmermann had a promising future ahead of her. Just 21-years-old, she was engaged to be married and wanted to go to graduate school to study medicine.

At a vigil in her honor held at the UW-Madison campus on Sunday, her family spoke about the tragedy for the first time.

MADISON, Wis. — As concerned parents of prospective University of Wisconsin-Madison raise questions following a student’s slaying, the university’s Admissions Office said it takes a very proactive approach to talking about safety.

Tour guides are trained to talk about the school’s various safety measures, such as the SAFEwalk and SAFEride programs offered on campus.

WISC-TV joined a group of high school students and their parents on a campus tour Thursday. Most parents said that while they hope the recent homicide investigation is an isolated incident, safety is always a primary concern for them.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police have in custody a man suspected of panhandling in the area where a University of Wisconsin-Madison student was found killed earlier this week.

As authorities continue to investigate the slaying of Brittany Zimmermann, investigators have looked into various reports of a man knocking on people’s doors in the neighborhood asking for money and in some instances, doing so after entering through unlocked doors.

MADISON, Wis. — The UW campus community remembered Brittany Zimmerman on Sunday with a candlelight vigil.

Zimmerman was found murdered in her campus apartment on Wednesday.

The vigil offered comfort to more than 100 friends and students.

“Brittany was the light of all of our lives, “said Zimmerman’s aunt Lisa Walcisak. “She was a little angel.”

Zimmerman was special to her family.

MADISON, Wis. — Downtown Madison residents Saturday got a chance to voice their concerns over the recent violence in their neighborhoods.

Madison police and Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz attended the meeting to stress community involvement to people living downtown.

Authorities said at the meeting that they had more than 20 detectives working full-time on the Brittany Zimmermann murder investigation. Zimmermann was found dead Wednesday afternoon in her residence in the 500 block of West Doty.

Days after the downtown murder of 21 year old Brittany Zimmermann, safety on the U-W campus is being heightened. On campus, safety organizations are noticing the overall feeling of safety seems to have declined since Wednesday.

“It’s gotten incredibly hectic,” says Safe Walk employee, Chelsea Riley. “I would say which is definitely a good thing.”

Safe Walk, a student run safety peer service, takes calls from students looking for someone to walk with in the downtown area to ensure their safety. And now their services are needed more than ever.

Ben Burdick, a maintenance worker for the McBride Company, spent the day checking security locks on dozens of windows on West Doty Street. The company owns three apartment buildings on the same block where Brittany Zimmerman was found killed on Tuesday.

“We got a lot of phone calls with concern,” said Burdick. He says management wants residents to feel safe. Many students, he thinks, don’t realize they have special pin-locks in their windows to keep them from opening all the way.

A number of residents living near the scene of Brittany Zimmerman’s murder don’t seem that concerned for their safety. Many students are not even locking their front doors.

Only four of ten doors 27 News knocked on Friday afternoon was locked.

Hundreds gathered Sunday evening on UW’s campus with candles and fond memories to remember the life of Brittany Zimmermann. Those who knew her best made clear that the 21-year-old student from Marshfield who was found murdered inside her Doty Street home last Wednesday, will not be forgotten.

Nationally syndicated columnist and Fox News analyst Michelle Malkin called for reform to immigration enforcement strategies in front of a diverse audience of supporters and protesters Friday night at Ingraham Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Malkin, who stirred applause and jeers throughout the speech, said immigration reform policies should adhere to the “rule of law, not the rule of the mob.”

“If we value self-preservation, if we value our sovereignty, immigration must be treated first and foremost as a national security issue,” said Malkin.

As a freshman in high school, Brittany Zimmermann already knew she wanted to attend UW-Madison and study to be a physician.

She also realized it wouldn’t be easy, so she visited her guidance counselor, Liz Dostal, early that year. Throughout Zimmermann’s four years at Marshfield High School, she returned often, making sure she was on the right academic path.

Madison police are focusing on the population of transients regularly in the Bassett neighborhood as part of their investigation into the death of a 21-year-old UW-Madison student whose body was found Wednesday in her apartment near campus.

“We’ve got people we are looking for,” said Lt. Joe Balles.

A Wisconsin college student found dead in her Madison apartment has sparked fears that a killer may be loose near the sprawling university campus.

“At this writing no suspects have been identified and detectives have ruled out that this may have been a random act,” according to the Madison Police Department incident report.

Brittany Sue Zimmermann, 21, was found dead in her apartment near the University of Wisconsin-Madison shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday by police called to check on the student’s welfare. A preliminary examination by the Dane County coroner has ruled her death a homicide. The coroner did not say how the woman was killed, but an autopsy was scheduled for today.

MADISON — Very little was revealed Thursday by the Dane County Coroner about how Brittany Sue Zimmermann, 21, of Marshfield, died in her Madison apartment Wednesday other than it was a homicide due to a “complexity of traumatic injuries.”

Coroner John Stanley was unavailable for comment Thursday afternoon and a person answering the phone, who declined to give her full name, wouldn’t elaborate on the autopsy report’s details.

MADISON, Wis. –Three unsolved killings in less than a year share at least one thread: They’ve spread fear among college students and downtown residents in Wisconsin’s normally laid-back capital.

A college student vanished in June after a night of barhopping; her body was found in the woods days later. In January, a 31-year-old man was stabbed to death with a paring knife in his home near the University of Wisconsin-Madison in what police called an apparently random act.

The first police officers from both Madison and UW arrived on the scene around 1:00pm on Wednesday.

The university posted its first message on its website warning about an “incident” downtown at 3:30pm, but it wasn’t until 5:50pm when university officials sent out a mass email and web posting to students calling it a “death” investigation.

It has been two nights since the murder of Brittany Zimmerman and many in the area are weary.

“It is really weird,” stated student and neighbor Moadh Masoud. “It is right next to where I live. I’m a student as well as she was. I didn’t think it could happen here.”

“It is really scary. Especially in Madison it is one of the safest cities,” added passerby Annaliese Kowert.

But not everyone shares that sentiment.

MADISON, Wis. — Authorities are continuing the investigation into the death of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was discovered on Wednesday in her West Doty Street apartment.

The Dane County coroner’s office performed an autopsy on Thursday and confirmed that Brittany Zimmermann, 21, of Marshfield, was a victim of homicide.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police received a sketch of a man who illegally entered a West Washington Avenue apartment house shortly before the time that they were summoned to the scene of a woman’s death two blocks away.

Holly Davis, a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison junior told WISC-TV reporter Linda Eggert that she has six roommates but all were gone just before 1 p.m. Wednesday when she said an intruder opened her front door, walked in and halfway up the stairs to her room.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison students said they are concerned about safety around campus after a student was found dead in her home on West Doty Street on Wednesday.

Students said they are shaken by the homicide investigation and how close it is to them.

UW-Madison sophomore Whitney Bauer didn’t know Brittany Sue Zimmermann, but she said that doesn’t make her death any easier to understand.

College students want to rein in “out-of-control” unfair credit card marketing.

UW-Madison Freshman Nicholas Lillious says students are coerced into signing up for a credit card with free stuff, like T-shirts and pizza. And then they’re trapped.

MADISON — Police are investigating the death of a 21-year-old Marshfield woman as a homicide.

Police say Brittany Sue Zimmermann, 21, a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior who was majoring in medical microbiology and immunology, was found dead at about 1 p.m. Wednesday in a downtown apartment.

“Deal or No Deal” is not the only deal for Wisconsinites.

While thousands hoped for a chance to be on the game show, others contemplated their moment of fame on other TV programs.

Today, University of Wisconsin-Madison students are lined up for a “Jeopardy!” casting call that will select one brainy student to join 14 others from around the country for the game show’s 2008 College Championship and top prize of $100,000. The tournament tapes April 11 and 12 at Madison’s Kohl Center.

“We are no longer classifying this as a death investigation, it is officially, we are officially investigating a homicide,” says Madison Police Chief, Noble Wray.

Just after 1 o’clock this afternoon, police were called to the 500 block of West Doty Street. There the found the body of 21 year old and U-W senior, Brittany Sue Zimmermann.

“Clearly this is a devastating and tragic situation and honestly it’s a shock!” says UW Dean of Students, Lori Berquam.

MADISON, Wis. — A 32-year-old Madison man was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to abducting and raping a pair of University of Wisconsin-Madison students on separate occasions in 2006.

Antonio Pope pleaded no contest last November to two counts of kidnapping and two counts of first-degree sexual assault in the incidents. Pope didn’t speak at his sentencing, but Dane County Judge John Markson said that Pope behaved like a monster.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police detectives are investigating the death of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student whose body was found at a residence on Doty Street on Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities said that the investigation is focused on a residence in the 500 block of West Doty and cordoned off part of the street early Wednesday afternoon.

Madison – A former high school track star studying to be a pharmacist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her brother have been released from custody pending their deportation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday.

Tope Awe, 22, and her brother, Oluwagbenga Awe, 24, were detained Thursday after a meeting with immigration officials in Milwaukee. They were released Tuesday but must wear ankle monitoring bracelets and check in regularly with immigration officials while they wait for travel documents for their return to Nigeria, the agency said Tuesday in a statement.

The agency says Tope Awe and her brother, Benga Awe came to the U.S. in 1989 on six-month tourist visas. Their requests to stay in the country have been repeatedly denied