Body found in search for missing student

Investigators believe a body found in a field Monday is that of a college student who vanished last month in Madison, where the woman was last seen after a night out at the bars.

Police searching an area about 10 miles south of Madison found the body on private property in a wooded area dotted with homes.

Dane County Coroner John Stanley said the body was tentatively identified as 22-year-old Kelly Nolan, while Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said detectives were investigating the death as a homicide.

An identification may not come until Tuesday, the police department said.

DeSpain declined to describe the condition of the body, but said it was obvious to detectives that the person had been slain.

Monday morning, police had focused their search for Nolan on a 3-square-mile area around Fitchburg that included part of the neighboring village of Oregon, just off U.S. Highway 14.

Chief Noble Wray said cell-phone technology led police to the area where the body was found, but declined to elaborate. Police said they have not recovered Nolan's cell phone.

Investigators were taking their time with the search for evidence because the area was so large.

"The approach has been a slow methodical approach so we are not missing anything," Wray said.

DeSpain said that he was not aware of any specific suspects in Nolan's disappearance and that the area was one of several areas identified during the investigation as worth searching.

Nolan, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student from the Madison area, had been living in a Madison apartment for the summer and was last seen early June 23 after a night out with friends at bars.

She left a group of friends that included her sister before midnight.

Police have interviewed people who saw and spoke with Nolan at several downtown bars after that. She also spoke to her sister by phone after midnight.

A cafe employee reported seeing Nolan early on June 23 and walked her toward her home until they ran into another man who said he knew Nolan, according to Tom Paras, the owner of Amy's Cafe.

Two days later, when the employee learned of Nolan's disappearance, he called police with the information, Paras said.

Police have released few details, saying they didn't want to jeopardize the investigation, and family members have said they were advised not to discuss details of the case.

Police said the area where the body was found had been searched before, but not to the extent it was on Monday morning. Dogs trained to recognize Nolan's scent were involved in the latest search, authorities said.

The area is well-known to people who ride horses in the area, DeSpain said.

Nolan's sister April, 20, described her as fun-loving and creative, but said she had been going through a tough time since the deaths of their father in 2006 and their stepmother in May.

Nolan didn't get the summer job she had hoped to find when she returned from school, and she had worked at a restaurant for about a week in June before being fired the Wednesday before she disappeared.

In the spring, Nolan served 14 days in jail after pleading guilty to driving under the influence as a second offense.

Nolan's family offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her return.

Nolan's disappearance evoked memories of another woman, Angela Drake, who disappeared after going home with a man she met in a Fitchburg bar in 2005. Her body was found frozen in a culvert.

Michael Desalvo, the man she left with, is serving 25 years in prison for her death.