A Wisconsin man has been charged with murder nearly 40 years after a college student was found decapitated.
Michael Raymond Poppof Tomah, Wisconsin, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge for the crime of Terry Dolowy occurred in 1985. He faces life in prison if convicted of the murder, AP reported.
Dolowy was a 24-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She was originally from River Forest, Illinois. His decapitated and burned body was found in a sewer on the side of a road in Vernon County, five days after she disappeared from her home in La Crosse County on February 14, 1985.
Prosecutors said Popp, who was 21 at the time of the killing, knew Dolowy. He had lived near the victim’s home in Barre Mills, where she was living with her fiancé Russell Lee, at the time of her killing, according to a criminal complaint filed in Vernon County Court.
The complaint states that Popp told police in March 1985 that he, his girlfriend, Dolowy and Lee attended pool tournaments together, adding that they were often pool partners.
In January 2023 there was a lead in the case, as DNA samples taken from Popp matched material found in Dolowy’s autopsythe complaint states.
The suspect initially said Dolowy was just an acquaintance. However, when authorities presented him with DNA evidence in March 2023, he said he and the young woman “maybe had a little romance” for six to eight months.
Popp said that He lied before because “it is a very serious case” and did not “want to be associated with him,” the complaint said. He also denied killing Dolowy and told police he is not a violent person.
When Popp’s ex-girlfriend was interviewed by police in 1987, she was asked whether he might have committed Dolowy’s murder, the La Crosse Tribune reported.
In this regard, she responded: “Mike is able to do something like this because he has so many different personalities”However, he said he did not believe he was involved.
Popp’s girlfriend broke up with him in 1986 when she filed a court order against him for physical abuse, the outlet added.
The suspect, now 60, is being held in the Vernon County Jail and his cash bail has been set at $1 million.
“We did it,” Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson said in announcing the arrest and charges. “I am very grateful to the men and women of law enforcement who solved the case.”
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