A western Wisconsin man has been charged in the 1985 murder of a college student whose decapitated body was found days after she disappeared, authorities said Tuesday.
Michael Raymond Popp of Tomah was arrested Monday on one count of first-degree murder in the killing of 24-year-old Terry Dolowy. He was being held in the Vernon County Jail on $1 million cash bail.
Popp, 60, had not retained an attorney as of Wednesday morning, the Vernon County Clerk’s Office said.
Prosecutors said Popp knew Dolowy, a native of River Forest, Ill., who was a senior at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. At the time of her killing, he lived a short distance from where Dolowy lived in La Crosse County with her fiance, according to a criminal complaint.
Vernon and La Crosse County officials previously said that Dolowy had left her purse at home, she didn’t have her car and her dog was missing. At the time of her disappearance, she was working full-time as a bar manager at an upscale restaurant in La Crosse.
Vernon County Sheriff’s Office
Dolowy disappeared on February 14, 1985 from her home in Barre Mills. Days later, her decapitated and burning body was found in a roadside culvert in Vernon County. Her head has never been found, officials said.
Several years after the initial investigation, a chip of paint was found in a sheet that had wrapped the victim’s body, officials previously said. Officials said at the time that the paint possibly came from the trunk of a vehicle in which the body was being transported.
The complaint states that Popp told police in March 1985 that he and his girlfriend went to pool tournaments with Dolowy and her fiance and that they were often pool partners, La Crosse Tribune reported.
DNA samples taken from Popp in January 2023 matched material found in Dolowy’s autopsy, according to the complaint.
While Popp initially said Dolowy was only a casual acquaintance, when authorities in March 2023 presented him with DNA evidence linking him to Dolowy, he changed his story, saying he and Dolowy “maybe had a little affair” for six to eight months . complaint states.
Popp said he had lied because “it’s a pretty serious case” and he didn’t “want to be associated with it,” according to the complaint. Popp denied killing Dolowy and told police he is not a violent person, the complaint states.