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Kelly Nolan

July 10, 2007 1:26 AM

ne of the biggest local news stories here in Madison, Wisconsin over the past few weeks has been the disappearance of Kelly Nolan. Apparently, she vanished from downtown a few weeks ago. It was nighttime, she was out barhopping with her friends. She was last seen on State Street, the street that connects the UW campus to the State Capital, and the center of Madison's nightlife.

Last seen, that is, until today. Police found what they're pretty sure is her body in a field not too far from my apartment.

Last week, while getting lunch with Bluebunny and RPM, we saw Ms. Nolan's mother putting up flyers with her daughter's picture. I felt terrible because, at that time, she'd already been missing for several days. I've heard vague statistics about how unlikely it is that a missing person will be found alive after a certain number of hours. I remember hoping that this would be one of the rare cases where things ended alright. Or, that, like the case a few years ago, that Ms. Nolan had run away or kidnapped herself or something.

But that's apparently not what happened. It appears, from the limited information available right now, that Ms. Nolan was murdered. I have no idea what happened between the time she was abducted and the time her body was discovered, and I don't want to speculate. But, needless to say, I'm fairly certain it wasn't good.

This whole incident is scary for a few reasons. First of all, I've been on State Street alone at bar time numerous times. And I've never really felt threatened down there. Of course being big and male makes it unlikely that I'll be abducted or messed with, but I have many female friends who could easily find themselves walking home alone after having some drinks with friends. It's scary to think that they're not safe, even in the shadow of our capital's dome.

And it's scary, also, to think that there is a murderer in our community. I mean, there's probably more than one murderer around, given that Madison's population. But the fact that something like this happened in this town just makes me wonder what kind of person could do something like this. Who would abduct someone and then dump them in a field? How could any human being be that depraved?

It's a terrible thing. I'm sorry for Ms. Nolan's family's loss.



5 Comments


lily said:

It seems like capitol buildings are magnets for crime. In Lansing, the nearby parks and neighborhoods of the capitol building are pretty unsafe, and just south of the US Capitol, there are some sketchy neighborhoods. I've wondered, before, if it's like that in other jurisdictions.

July 10, 2007 6:03 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

You've certainly developed a fascination with the word "jurisdiction" as of late.

That's an interesting observation about the neighborhoods about capital buildings. I've never been to DC, but I've heard that the whole thing is one big sketchy neighborhood, with the exception of the Georgetown area.

Also, I was afraid that you were going to crack some joke about the U.S. Capital being the most crime-infested place or something. Kudos for not doing that, lol.

July 10, 2007 7:48 PM



Terry said:

Thanks for posting about this. I feel just awful for the Nolan family. Not only have they lost the love of their lives, all of their suffering is going to be public. I can't imagine how hard it would be to find closure when your daughter's name is on the front page of the paper every day for weeks on end.

On the news tonight, it said that an employee of Amy's Cafe found her in a bar, and, seeing her in an intoxicated state, offered to walk her home. After a couple of blocks, a man claiming to be her friend said something like "hey, I know this girl, I'll take it from here," and the Amy's Cafe employee turned her over to the man he believed to be her friend.

If this story is correct, and the Amy's Cafe employee was just walking her home because he knew she was drunk and didn't want anything bad to happen to her . . . how is he going ever going to forgive himself?

Its nights like this that make me realize why it is that I'm going into the field of criminal prosecution.

July 10, 2007 11:52 PM



Gwenelda said:

One or two to rmeebmer, that is.

July 10, 2011 5:15 AM






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