Massive search efforts around the Madison area in June and July led authorities to find the body of a missing University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student.
In the early morning hours of June 23, 22-year-old Kelly Nolan — who was living in Madison for the summer — went missing.
After a massive manhunt combed Madison and the surrounding communities, the young woman's body was discovered in a wooded area July 9 in the nearby Town of Dunn — some 10 miles from the place where she was last seen alive.
Nolan was last seen with friends after a night of partying at State Street-area bars and was last heard from through a phone call to her sister made just after midnight.
An employee of Amy's Café, 414 W. Gilman St., was walking with Nolan early June 23 when the two allegedly met a man who said he knew Nolan. The employee then allegedly left Nolan with this man.
According to Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain, the man was questioned after a composite sketch was established while Nolan was considered a missing person. However, the man is not considered a suspect in the murder.
Despite dozens of leads being pursued, DeSpain said the MPD has no suspects or persons of interest in the investigation.
UW senior Julia MacCallum, who is living in Madison over the summer in the area where Nolan disappeared, said a missing local woman grabbing national attention seemed surreal.
"It's chilling because it's a situation that we all fear, but when we have it down the street it hit home a lot more," MacCallum said. "It's much more visceral and real than having it happen in another community."
With students on summer break, UW senior John Sinclair said Madison seemed much more relaxed. However, the community was turned on its side when national television crews came to town.
Sinclair said he sensed an attitude change once the case took a drastic turn in July when Nolan's body was found.
"You start to think about where you were that night, you think those are the bars I go to and maybe I saw her," Sinclair said. "People started feeling more on their toes once they found it was a homicide — it certainly scared people."
Police used signals from Nolan's cellular phone to key in on a three square-mile area and conducted aerial and canine searches, according to DeSpain, who said police stepped up the search in the Town of Dunn on July 9.
"It was an area of interest, and we decided to pull out all the stops and do a massive search with at least 100 law enforcement personnel from Wisconsin and Illinois, canines, and canine-handling volunteers," DeSpain said.
A day after the body was found, Dane County Coroner John Stanley confirmed the body was Nolan's and declared the case a homicide, but he has decided to withhold the cause of death while the investigation is being conducted.
The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation, a missing person and homicide foundation in Modesto, Calif., and an anonymous donor posted a combined $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Nolan's murder.
"Any time we post a reward, our goal is to get it out as quickly as possible to get them off the streets sooner rather than later," said Kim Peterson, executive director of the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation. "It's a team approach — if the family, public, media and police work together, there's a greater chance of solving it."
