I hope someone comes forward. I didn't realize that the news conference would be on campus yesterday, or else I would have gone to see it in person...
Sisters of slain student appeal to public for help
Associated Press
September 18, 2007
The sisters of a slain Wisconsin college student asked the public Monday to come forward with information that could help in the search for her killer.
Kelly Nolan, 22, disappeared early June 23 after a night of bar-hopping with friends in downtown Madison. Her decomposing body was found more than two weeks later in a ditch about 10 miles south of the city.
Sisters April and Candice Nolan said they believe people in the community know what happened to their sister but have failed to contact police.
"There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about our sister Kelly," Candice Nolan, 25, told reporters. "We ask that you please find it in your heart, if anybody knows anything that may help us answer some questions as to what happened to our sister ... please come forward."
Despite the lack of visible progress in the investigation, she added she was confident police would "bring justice where justice is needed."
The pleas, during a brief news conference on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, were the first comments from Nolan's family since she was confirmed dead in July.
Police say Nolan went out with a group of friends that included her 20-year-old sister, April, on June 22. But she left them before midnight and went to other bars by herself before she vanished in the early morning hours.
A police spokesman said last month that two men who were walking Nolan home have been ruled out as suspects. Nolan was a student at UW-Whitewater but was living in downtown Madison for the summer.
Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said students who saw Nolan that night might have left town before they knew she was murdered. Those people might have information that could help detectives solve the case, he said.
DeSpain added that the department has not backed off the investigation and detectives have interviewed hundreds of people, some of them more than once.
DeSpain wouldn't reveal any potential theories on how Nolan died and said police do not have any suspects. He did say detectives do not believe the person responsible fled the area after the slaying.
"We've interviewed a lot of people who are interesting at first blush but we don't have anyone who we have tied to the crime scene," he said. "We still think this is a local homicide and the suspect who is responsible for this is someone who is connected to this community."
Police also announced they were increasing the reward for information leading to an arrest to $12,000, from $10,000. Anonymous donors offered the additional money.