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.
â??Jeopardy!, Americaâ??s Favorite Quiz Showâ? came to the UW-Madison campus Thursday to audition students for the College Championship taping at the Kohl Center April 11 to 12.
Police continue to search for answers in the homicide of Brittany Zimmermann, a 21-year-old UW-Madison junior found dead in her apartment Wednesday.
Friends of Brittany Zimmermann said Thursday she was a generous and ambitious individual. “She could just light up a room,” said Joanne Burg of the UW-Madison registrarâ??s office, where Zimmermann worked for three years.
The University of Wisconsin brought back the HTML web timetable Thursday in response to an outcry by students who felt it was superior to a new system for searching for classes.
University of Wisconsin students filled the Memorial Union Great Hall Thursday afternoon trying to qualify to be a contestant on â??Jeopardy!â?
Following the homicide of University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermann, officials did not report a significant increase in SAFE services Wednesday evening.
Madison police are aggressively pursuing the transient population in the downtown area for information about the killing of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin junior, found dead in her West Doty Street apartment Wednesday afternoon.
The slaying of a young woman in her downtown apartment has University of Wisconsin-Madison students and her neighbors on edge.
“I’m extra scared because of the little bit of information that’s been released,” said Christian Caflisch, 23, a recent UW-Madison graduate who lives less than a block from where Brittany Sue Zimmermann, 21, was found dead Wednesday in her apartment at 517 W. Doty St. “They are basically telling us, ‘A killer is out there. Be safe.’ ”
Another student expressed confidence in the police.
“We trust the campus and city police to take care of us, to protect our safety,” said senior Jessica Zeier.
Madison police do not have a suspect or any persons of interest identified in the murder of UW-Madison senior Brittany Sue Zimmermann, but the department has received more than 75 tips over the past 24 hours about the case.
Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said today items found “that may have evidentiary value” are already being examined by forensics analysts with the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory in Madison.
Zimmermann, 21, was murdered Wednesday in her apartment in the 500 block of West Doty Street in downtown Madison.
Almost 1,000 UW-Madison students tried out Thursday for just one spot as a contestant on the popular TV quiz show “Jeopardy!”.
Most of those interviewed before or after the initial 10-question written test at the Memorial Union wanted to participate because they were longtime fans of the knowledge-based show, but some were more interested in the chance to win some big money.
Tope Awe said she thought her interview at the Department of Homeland Security office in Milwaukee last week was dragging on a bit too long. And then, the University of Wisconsin-Madison student recalled, in came the plastic bags.
“As soon as I saw the plastic bags, I realized what was happening,” Awe recalled in an interview. Immigration agents suddenly entered the interview room carrying the bags to collect personal belongings from her and her brother, Benga Awe. “I don’t even know how to describe it. I had no idea what to do,” said the 22-year-old Pharmacy School student, who remembered breaking down in tears.
On Thursday, Awe was back at school, trying to catch up on her missed classes after being released two days earlier from the Dodge County Jail, where she and her brother were detained on an immigration hold.
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.
Aggressive marketing of credit cards on college campuses is putting some students deep into debt and needs to be reined in, a local unit of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chapter of the consumer group cited a recent national survey showing 76% of students, lured by promotions such as free T-shirts and food, have stopped at tables to consider a credit card or to sign up for one. The national survey included students from UWM and UW-Madison.
If you’re thinking about starting a company, the best advice you can get comes from people who have been there and done that.
That’s the philosophy behind the Venture Mentoring Service at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its director, Sherwin Greenblatt, was at UW-Madison this week to explain how the program works.
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.
A man convicted of kidnapping and raping two University of Wisconsin students in the fall of 2006 was sentenced Wednesday to a 40-year jail sentence.
The University of Wisconsin is reaching out and mourning the loss of a student killed Wednesday in her campus-area home.
Police officials advised students to follow normal safety measures Wednesday after the murder of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin student.
Police are investigating the homicide of a University of Wisconsin student found near campus Wednesday afternoon, with her killer still at large.
Following her release from federal custody Tuesday, third-year UW-Madison pharmacy student Tope Awe will be able to return to campus within the next few days.
Authorities are investigating the death of a UW-Madison junior at her campus area apartment Wednesday as a homicide, according to the police.
In the wake of UW-Madison junior Brittany Sue Zimmermannâ??s death, campus officials are trying to retain a sense of community and stress awareness of personal safety.
Antonio Pope, the man convicted of kidnapping and raping two female UW-Madison students in 2006, will spend 40 years in prison for the attacks, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Brittany Sue Zimmermann, who was murdered Wednesday in her campus area apartment, majored in medical microbiology and immunology at UW-Madison and planned to go on to medical school where she was going to take on infectious diseases, said her father Kevin Zimmermann.
“She had so much to offer the world,” Zimmermann said by phone from Marshfield, noting that Brittany had a 4.0 grade-point average at Marshfield Senior High School and earned enough credits that when she entered college she was already considered a sophomore.
Brittany, 21, a college junior, was planning to graduate in the fall and marry fiance Jordan Gonnering next year in Hawaii, he said.
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.
The â??Bucky Busâ? is experiencing changes after a new federal law will no longer allow Madisonâ??s Metro Transit to provide the service.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released Tope Awe, a UW-Madison pharmacy school student, from custody in Milwaukee Tuesday, pending deportation.
University of Wisconsinâ??s Bucky Bus, which provides rides during home football games, may be in danger of extinction when new federal regulations take effect later this month.
A University of Wisconsin pharmacy student who was arrested last week and faces deportation was released Tuesday afternoon and is at her parentsâ?? house in Milwaukee.
In an attempt at an April Foolsâ?? Day political statement, tires on more than 300 cars near the UW campus were deflated Tuesday.
A man who kidnapped and raped two women students in the late fall of 2006 committed “monstrous” acts which permeated the community with fear and cannot be tolerated, a judge and prosecutor both said today as Antonio Pope, 32, was sentenced to 40 years in prison with no parole.
That prison term will be followed by 20 years of extended supervision, Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Markson said, meaning Pope will be 72 years old when he can be released from prison and 92 by the time he is done with extended supervision.
Of Margot Presley, the UW-Madison student in the film, Sewell told me, “Thank God for Margot. She is all about women’s issues. She’s sweet but she brings out things about inequality.”
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
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison took to the streets Monday to protest the detention of Tope Awe, a Nigerian pharmacy student being held by federal immigration authorities. University officials, meanwhile, made cautious statements about the popular student’s plight.
At least 50 students rallied at the Memorial Union, calling for the release of Awe, repeatedly described as a dedicated student and leader in the campus community.
Over 40 UW-Madison students, staff and community activists gathered Monday in Memorial Union to rally support for a student facing deportation.
