I-Team: Bond set at $1M in WI suitcase bodies case

ELKHORN, Wis. (WLS) -- Steven Zelich, the man accused of stuffing the bodies of two women in suitcases, appeared in court Friday.

The public defender representing the former Wisconsin police officer now claims the deaths with which he's charged may have been accidental. It's a story the ABC7 I-Team has been following.

It didn't take police long to zero in on the man they believe responsible for the deaths of the two women. He is charged, but not with homicide- at least, not yet.

Zelich sat hands folded and said not a word during his five-minute court appearance by video camera. His public defender asked that Zelich be released on a $50,000 signature bond. The judge decided it should be $1 million.

"We don't get a lot of hidden corpses in Walworth County so a million dollars is the appropriate bond," said Daniel Necci, Walworth County district attorney.

For now, Zelich is held on two counts of hiding a corpse. The decomposed bodies of two women stuffed into a pair of suitcases found by a lawn crew near Lake Geneva three weeks ago. One of them remains, at present, a Jane Doe from Kenosha County. The second is Laura Simonson of Minnesota, a mother of seven whose family says she struggled with mental illness.

Both met Zelich online. An anonymous web ad six months ago showed personal pictures of Laura Simonson and claimed that Steven Zelich had her imprisoned. The anonymous posting claimed that Zelich called himself "Mr. Handcuffs" and on this sado-masochistic web forum, Mr. Handcuffs from Milwaukee was seeking a 24/7 slave to join him for a life of "total enslavement."

"For him to be capable of doing something like that, and my kids! I had my kids around him!" said Jamie Bates, former girlfriend.

For the better part of a year, Jamie Bates and her children lived with Zelich. Police spent a full day removing items from in his West Allis apartment, but won't disclose what they found. Zelich has acknowledged that he kept the body of one of the two women in his apartment for a time before discarding it.

"There's a long way to go before we find out how these deaths occurred," said Travis Schwantes, public defender.

His public defender says Zelich is cooperating with police. He's admitted that he caused the deaths of both women. But there is no word yet on likely homicide charges that would be filed in Minnesota and Kenosha County. Might there be other women who met the same fate?

"I wouldn't want to speculate," said Necci.

Zelich may likely contend that these were deaths that occurred during consensual sex. Prosecutors in both Minnesota and Wisconsin say there is more work to be done before any decision is made on whether or not to file homicide charges.