The Disappearance of Kelly Dwyer

It was somewhat unusual for someone to just vanish out of thin air, especially on the east side of Milwaukee. Kelly Dwyer, she is a young woman that is out trying to discover herself. You see this bright, eyed, smiling, beautiful girl who really seemed to have a lot of life and vitality. We got to spend quite a bit of time together in the yoga room. It was rare not to see her, and I had just assumed she was on an adventure of some sort. October 12, 2013, she did not show up for work. Her co-workers were absolutely the first to respond. Kelly was very tied to her cell phone, always posting on social media, always texting. When they called Kelly's cell phone, it went straight to voicemail. Kelly Dwyer is missing. Flyers started going out. All of the sudden in the community, it was boo. Everybody knew that she was missing. There is a sense of urgency here. Absolute sense of urgency for certain. Today authorities and volunteers hunted for clues in her disappearance. I think that people saw those images and realized, you know, this could be my daughter. This could be my best friend. Kelly Dwyer was an acquaintance of mine. We would meet up at Alium, a local bar, and we would touch face frequently throughout the week. We learned that she was on a number of websites where one would meet men. She was bright, sweet, just kindhearted, good person. She was on websites that could expose you to people very quickly that are strangers. One of her friends made comments, and she might be with one of those people right now. Ms. Dwyer was meeting people that could have put her in harm's way. It's like she vanishes. Her social media goes dead. Her debit card goes dead. The phone is dead. Like the rest of Milwaukee, assistant district attorney Sarah Hill found Kelly Dwyer's sudden disappearance in 2013, baffling. In an age of an electronic footprint, if you will, it's not there. It's like she just isn't anymore. The night of October 10th started out like any other for Kelly. She'd been on a date with a man named Chris Socko. Kelly came to Chris' apartment building. They go to get a few drinks and have a nice night out at a place called Alium. A cute little bar that was kind of across the street from the apartment building. I remember her and I having a small conversation of, "So what do you have to do tomorrow?" And she goes, "I actually have off." That Chanel Royston was at the bar that night. Kelly told her what she planned to do the next day. I want to wake up in the morning. I want to do yoga. I want to do laundry and just have an easy day. They picked up a pizza from Ian's a little pizza place that's like a block away, brought it to the bar. We're all sitting outside on this very long communal picnic bench. We're all nibbly on the pizza. You know, they're sharing it with us. Kelly and Chris decide to call it a night. A little after two in the morning. They head back to Mr. Socko's apartment building across the street. Kelly and Chris had been dating for about a year after being introduced through a mutual friend. Kelly had moved to Milwaukee in 2008 and gone to college. When we're in our early 20s, that's definitely a time of exploration when you're trying to find your own footing as an adult. That's it. Biceps behind the ears. Lower your chin. She always greeted me with the hugs. Kelly's journey of self-discovery had led to yoga class and instructor Ryan Haider. She was always excited to see me and excited to get her butt kicked in my class. Keep your upper back strong and her energy was just infectious. Kelly worked part-time as a nanny and as a salesperson for an athletic apparel store where her tight-knit co-workers were the first to sound the alarm when she missed a shift. They worked together and they played together. It's like she found her tribe. When was the last time that you saw Kelly Dwyer? It was just before her birthday. She was like something big is going to happen. I can feel it. This feels really important to me. Kelly had just turned 27 and her relationship with 38-year-old Chris Saco seemed to be taking on greater meaning for her. Based on what her friend said, it certainly appeared to me that she was extremely interested in him, maybe even in love with him. Chris's mother, Joyce Fry. He was always into sports, he always had a lot of friends. He was a very good golfer. My dad took him out to the driving ranges. I think he put a golf club in Chris's hand when he was about three. Chris graduated from Boston University with a degree in international business, but his love of sports led him to his dream job. He was a major hockey fan and they did hire him in their IT staff and he just thought that there could never be anything better. And where was his office? It was at the ballpark, that's where he stayed. That's where his office was. So he was in heaven. Yeah, he really was. But Joyce says Chris left New York in search of new opportunities, eventually landing in Milwaukee in 2009 and winding up at the relocation management company where she worked. He was the CIO, the chief information officer. I became involved in Kelly Dwyer's missing person investigation. Catherine Spano, then a detective with the Milwaukee Police Department, would learn about Kelly and Chris's relationship. She says Kelly's reasons for dating Chris were obvious. He was educated, he was bright, he was smart. He had a job that paid him well, he had a nice car, a beautiful condo down on the east side. While some friends thought Kelly might have been in love with Chris, it seemed Zaco might not have been on the same page. Zaco described his relationship with Kelly Dwyer as friends with benefits. But it did seem Kelly was keeping her options open. Mr. Zaco didn't make promises to her that he was being exclusive with her, and she also dated some other people. Royston recalls another time, not long before Kelly went missing. It was a very easy night here at the bar. Chanel was out at the Allium bar, when Chris and Kelly invited her back to Chris' apartment at closing time. I went across street with him for a nightcap, walked out to the balcony to smoke a cigarette, Chris then joined me, he was smoking marijuana, Kelly was inside. I don't know exactly what Kelly was doing. Chanel says she got a bad feeling. I just had this urge that I needed to leave. So she just arrived, she told Chris and Kelly, she suddenly realized how late it was, and that she had to work in the morning. I looked at Kelly, I said I'd need to leave, and she looked up and said are you sure? I said yep, it's okay, it's just late, later than I thought, I need to go home and I walked out. What was it? What was your sixth sense telling you? I don't know. It just, you weren't supposed to be there. That space, bad juju, you don't need to be here. Chanel wasn't the only one to get the sense that all might not have been right in Kelly's world. Kelly, like many women her age, had been active on several dating websites. Even though she was seeing Chris and I'm thinking that that was the main person she was seeing, she was dating other people, there were other people and other men involved. And her friends were concerned. She made a few statements, they were usually prompted by the friends observing, bruising on her wrists or her neck and wondering why she has those bruises. She told one friend, she kind of laughed about these bruises on her neck and wrists and laughed it off as a crazy night, and changed the subject. Yes. As police face the daunting task of finding Kelly, would her love life provide their first clue? There are some evil people out there. 23. So on Monday, October 14th, I started my shift at 4pm. I learned that Kelly Dwyer, a young woman, had been reported missing and had not been seen or heard from since the previous Friday. As Kelly Dwyer's family and friends continued to search for her, Milwaukee detective Tammy Tremel McLean arrived at the scene of Kelly's last-known whereabouts three days earlier. Chris Succo's apartment building. They come right through this door and he actually holds the door open for her. You can see that on the video. You see two people that are chatting, walk past that camera, there's another camera that catches them, turning the corner to the elevator. And you can see Kelly in her typical, I think, outgoing fashion. She's gesturing with her hands a little like they bend the corner. And then that's the last time that she is ever seen alive by anyone. Now it was time to talk to the other person in that video. Tremel McLean sat down with Succo in his 18th floor apartment. He came off as a pretty nice guy. He said she would hang out with him a couple of times a week, he used the word party, they party together. Somewhat shockingly, Succo didn't hold back, telling police exactly what he meant by party. As he described how he and Kelly had ended their evening. They walk back and they do lines of cocaine, they have a couple more drinks. He says there was sex and they both passed out on opposite ends of his couch. Succo said Kelly left around 9 o'clock the next morning, adding that he heard the front door click shut behind her. There was only one problem with that. While I'm speaking with him, I get a text message from one of the other investigators who had been watching video downstairs with the manager. And he simply just says in the text, she doesn't come out. As Tremel McLean focused on how Kelly could have slipped out of this high security building undetected, Succo seemed more interested in shifting focus away from himself. Well, you know, she's messing around with a lot of other guys. There's some other guy, you know, kind of trying to take the attention away from himself. That may have been Succo's intention, but that's not what happened. In your bones, in your gut, based on your instinct and your training and experience, you felt like you were looking at a suspect. Yes. Police needed a way to search Succo's apartment for evidence. As he had told Tremel McLean he'd used drugs there, they were able to get a search warrant. What you find? Lines of cocaine on top of a magazine, some canisters of marijuana in the refrigerator, painkillers, peels, and marijuana pipes, smoking pipes. They should tell you how cold this place was before. Succo was arrested for drug possession. During his interview, he seemed flip, even when asked routine questions about his medical history. Succo's interrogation finishes abruptly. And while they had Succo in custody, police get a warrant to search his cell phone, hoping to find clues in Kelly's disappearance. They were stunned to find a video of Succo and Kelly Dwyer engaged in a sex act, where Kelly appears to be in distress. She can't breathe, she's straining for breath. When was this video taken? The video was taken approximately three weeks before she went missing. And there was more incriminating evidence, disturbing pictures of Kelly on Succo's phone. Still photographs that are very concerning as well because she appears to be unconscious on his bed. But police could not link those images to Kelly's disappearance. And despite Succo being a person of interest, they could only charge him with drug possession. But that search of his apartment led police to a bizarre discovery in his bathroom. During that first search warrant, the police observe the shower curtain hooks with the torn fragments of shower curtain. Not knowing what a torn down shower curtain could mean, and concern that Kelly is never seen exiting the building. But they then bring in a canine to conduct a sniff for the odor of decomposing human remains. And that police cadaver dog Molly would deliver some stunning results. There's an indication at the outside of the apartment door and the parking garage on the level he parked his car on the dumpster door on the 18th floor. Molly alerted on the hallway, guest bedroom, guest bathroom. She went on to the master bedroom, got up on to Chris Succo's bed. She seemed to be sniffing vigorously on top of his bed and gives her final formal trained alert. For police, that moment changed this case forever. They now believed Kelly was dead and her final moments had been in Chris Succo's apartment. And if Kelly died on that bed, where did the body go? That's what we needed to find out. And Chris Succo had those answers and at that point it was turning into a homicide investigation. Not having enough to charge Succo and not knowing where Kelly's body could be, police search Succo's home electronics for more clues. They examined an external hard drive and some discs that were found in his spare bedroom. What's on that hard drive? That hard drive has a number of hardcore child pornography videos. Very extremely, extremely disturbing. Succo disavowed any knowledge of the child pornography police found. If you're an IT guy, you collect stuff. So you collect old hard drives, you collect discs, you collect, you just collect IT equipment. And that particular hard drive was from his former place of work in Boston. He didn't know it was there. And you believe him? I do believe him, yeah. It had been two weeks since Kelly disappeared. Succo was arrested again, this time for possession of child pornography. By early November 2013, he was out on bail and a waiting trial on the drug and child porn charges. Girlfriend? No, I mean I date multiple people. But before Succo had loyered up in that first interrogation, it would turn out he'd said something that would come back to haunt him. He began dating, a young woman in 2009. He was living two different lives. But towards the end, there was more touching. More of the smiling towards each other. There was more affection there than there had been towards the beginning. According to Chanel Royston, before Kelly Dwyer disappeared, it seemed her relationship with Chris Succo was evolving. Did Kelly ever tell you that she was falling in love with Chris? She never told me, but you could tell, you know, how she would look at him, that she was looking for something more, and I think that she did love him at that point. It turns out Succo may have been in love as well, with someone else. He was in a very serious relationship with a woman who he was dating at the time that he was seeing Kelly, and this young woman knew nothing about the relationship with Kelly. And did Kelly have any idea about this other woman? Absolutely not. And neither did investigators until this other woman's brother, Chris Succo. After seeing Succo arrested on the news, reported to police that his sister, Megan, had been dating Succo for more than three years. When I went to interview the long-term girlfriend, Megan, I had a lot of photographs from the search warrants with me. And I was able to have her identify different objects within the apartment. a number of things were missing. She described that guest bathroom. There should have been a shower curtain. There should have been a little rug and some matching decorative towels. All of those things were gone and she was surprised to see that. She identified the shower curtain hooks that were bent and torn. I identified the fact that they were not like that when she had last been in there. And it's in that very bathroom where the sniffer dog had alerted exacting human remade. Exactly. Megan also identified one more missing item. There had been a large travel golf bag lying in front of the TV that had been there for weeks and weeks that they literally would have to step over to get into the bathroom and that was missing. A travel golf bag, possibly like this one, is commonly used by golfers to protect their clubs. It's all padded. Very large. Very large. It was padded. It was silver and she thought it was maybe two, two and a half feet wide. Detectives wondered if Zaco had a more sinister use for the bag. Could Kelly's body have fit inside that travel? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But how did Zaco get that bag out of his apartment? There is no video of Zaco leaving on any of the 28 surveillance cameras in the building. There's no camera on the elevator, so he could take her body in the travel golf bag out of his apartment into the elevator down to the first floor and out that door to the garage without being captured on any cameras. But there are cameras inside the garage and yet no image of Zaco with that bag. The garage is the only area where the cameras would be motion activated. Some of the investigators think he just got lucky with it. It took months of pain-staking work for Milwaukee PD investigators to piece together Chris Zaco's movements on the days after his date with Kelly Dwyer. Lieutenant Eric Gobranson worked the case as both a homicide and cold case detective. At 10.06 a.m., we have Chris Zaco standing by the driver's side door. When he leaves that building, at 10.08 a.m., Kelly Dwyer's phone, it goes dead. What do you think happened to the phone at that moment? Broken, powered down, thrown in the water. The river is very close by. Zaco is next seen back in his garage 16 minutes later standing by the trunk of his car. If you look closely in that image, there's a gray or silver object lying in the vehicle above the trunk level. I think that's consistent with the travel golf bag. So you believe Kelly Dwyer is in the trunk of his vehicle? I do. Investigators believe that because the cadaver dog Molly told them so. The cadaver dog not only hits on all of those things in the apartment, but the dog hits on the car also in the trunk and on the door handle and inside the vehicle. Over the next eight hours, video shows Zaco coming and going several more times, loading items into his car before finally leaving for the day at 6.16 p.m. He said he decided to take his summer sports equipment to his mother's house. On a Friday night around 6.30? Sure, yes. He came over to drop off some golf clubs and his baseball equipment. And so there's nothing in your mind unusual when he showed up with this sporting equipment at your place? Not at all. There's a golf bag that investigators say went missing. A bag that they claim Kelly Dwyer's body was in. Did you ever see this golf bag? Never. 7.30 p.m. and Zaco is now due at his girlfriend's house for a Friday night dinner. But investigators learn he didn't arrive until about 8.45. There's time that's unaccounted for. And we believe he was possibly looking for areas to dispose of the body during that time. Unfortunately, detectives weren't able to trace Zaco's movements from his phone records. Was his cell phone on or off? It was off. When Zaco did finally arrive for dinner, his girlfriend told investigators he wasn't quite himself. He was quite late. And he seemed a little bit ruffled, a little bit nervous. He's fiddling with his phone, claiming it doesn't work. When they went to bed, she described them as being restless. She described them as sweating profusely to the point where she actually had to change the sheets. She found that very unusual. And Zaco may have had a very good reason to sweat that night. His car is parked near his girlfriend's house overnight. We believe that body is absolutely in that trunk locked inside that golf bag. He could not have left that body in his apartment, because that's the first place everybody went to look for Kelly. The following morning, investigators say Zaco rose with the sun, still faced with a nightmare. He was desperate. By Saturday he had to get that body out of that vehicle. One day after Kelly Dwyer disappeared, Chris Zaco left his girlfriend's apartment and hit the road, where he went that morning would be the first in a series of clues as to what may have happened to Kelly Dwyer. Chris Zaco had gone to a place called the Mouse House. What's the Mouse House? It's a cheese place. This is the Mouse House, 80 miles from Milwaukee near Madison, Wisconsin. One cheese shop in a state full of cheese shops. Why would he drive up toward Madison to buy cheese? It's a very good question. Zaco says he drove 160 miles round trip to buy a half-pound wedge of cheese for his girlfriend's parents. But the investigators say that he did it to finally dispose of Kelly's body, somewhere in the rural Wisconsin farmland between Madison and Milwaukee. In case he was spotted, do you believe Zaco actually went to the Mouse House to create an alibi of sorts? I do. I certainly do. Police believe that after dumping Kelly's body, Zaco made his way to this shopping center on his drive back to Milwaukee. Investigators say that he walked into a sports authority and used his credit card to buy a brand new pair of sneakers. Why is he buying new sneakers? He may have purchased those sneakers to replace ones that he used in dumping the body. Like he might have been concerned that evidence got on those sneakers so he had to have new ones to put on. Here's the slip up. I don't know if maybe he just had a momentary lapse of judgment, but that created a paper trail for him. That paper trail was a single credit card receipt, which gave detectives a critical piece of the timeline. We know through the investigation that he purchased the cheese at 9.55 am, and we know that he purchased the shoes at 12.11 pm. The distance between the Mouse House and sports authority is 54 miles, and it should take 47 minutes to get there, but yet we have 90 minutes on a cone at 4 at that time. 90 minutes, certainly enough time detectives believed, for Zaco to locate a secluded spot off the highway. But for them to find that spot would be like finding a needle in a haystack. And without Kelly's body, there was no physical evidence of a crime to charge Zaco with, only circumstance and suspicion. Did you want to take it to trial? Then? It was tough. What was missing? Who was missing was her body? Eventually, Chris Zaco did go on trial. In November 2014, not for murder, but for the child pornography possession uncovered with the initial investigation search warrants. What's the result of that trial? He's convicted of all but one count. One month later, Zaco pleaded guilty to additional drug charges and was sentenced to a total of 19 years. So, are you done with Chris Zaco? Is that it? Or is the potential murder investigation still hanging over his head? It's still there. Well, we still wanted to be able to find out what actually happened with Kelly. Authorities have just identified the remains of 27-year-old Kelly Dwyer. Detective, where are we? We are on a dead-end country road and we are about 45 miles west of Milwaukee. And it's quite overgrown here, but this is the specific area where Kelly Dwyer's body was found. For a year and a half, Kelly Dwyer had been here, hidden under these trees. Just six miles from busy I-94, before her remains were discovered by a local man out for a walk. He catches a glint of light, hitting off of something that's whitish in color. And when he takes a closer look, he sees what appears to be a human skull. Six days later, using dental records, those remains were confirmed to be Kelly Dwyer. What could not be confirmed, though, was just how she died. There was nothing on that skeleton to tell us what the cause of death was. There was no physical evidence found at the scene, either. No shower curtain, no cloth, no towel, no clothing. No travel golf bag. But detectives say there was one clue left behind, the position of Kelly Skeleton. Her feet and legs were more over in this area, with one of her legs completely turned very contorted. Same thing with her left arm, it was behind her back as if she had been scrunched into some kind of a container. Like a golf travel bag? Like a golf travel bag, exactly, exactly. It would appear that police now had enough evidence to bring Chris Saco back to court for the death of Kelly Dwyer. It is just too much of a coincidence that her body is found somewhat near where he was shopping on the day after she goes missing. But assistant district attorney Hill wanted more than coincidence to build an airtight case. We wanted to make sure that we had uncovered all of the evidence we would be able to uncover. When you have a case that's going to be largely circumstantial, it's absolutely essential you do that. And with Saco already in prison, there was no rush. It took another two years of investigative work before the state of Wisconsin charged Chris Saco in the death of Kelly Dwyer. And another year and a half to bring the case to trial. My name is Jack Wagner, host of Other World, a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal, supernatural or unexplained. I have no idea how I got there. I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks like this. It felt like electric stars on fire. I started Other World to take a grounded approach to the paranormal, help people tell their own stories and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but maybe one day we will. Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Other World Now for free wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This case is about a young woman named Kelly Dwyer. Almost five years after Kelly Dwyer went missing, Chris Saco goes on trial for her death. That's surprising to some, not for murder. Chris Saco was charged with first re-reclus homicide, hiding a corpse in strangulation suffocation. With the media restricted behind courtroom security glass, prosecutors Sarah Hill presents the state's theory of how they believe Kelly died. You will hear evidence that the defendant, Mr. Saco, was basically having sex with Kelly Dwyer and he winds up killing her. I think Chris Saco enjoyed taking women to the brink of death for his own sexual gratification. In fact, investigators interviewed several women who said that Saco engaged in this type of behavior as far back as high school. And that it was that reclus conduct that wound up killing Kelly Dwyer. And then Mr. Saco had to do something about it. Chris uses that shower curtain and wraps her up, puts her into the golf bag and goes down to his parking garage. The police have no evidence to believe that Ms. Dwyer exited the apartment in either a shower curtain or a golf travel bag. Chris Saco's defense attorneys Craig, Mastantuno and Rebecca Koffee say the state has it all wrong. Someone did kill Kelly Dwyer, but it wasn't Chris Saco. This case is more about the state wanting Mr. Saco to be guilty than having the evidence to prove it. Is there any eyewitness to this alleged crime? There was no eyewitness, no. Is there a CSI moment, some definitive piece of DNA? There was no DNA evidence. The prosecution contends that while the security camera video clearly shows Kelly walking into Saco's building, she is never seen walking out. She very well could have left the building in a way that wasn't reviewed. The defense argues there is video from several cameras. They never had a chance to examine because it was not preserved as evidence. And the defense went to review all of the video evidence that video was missing. And what about that missing travel golf bag? Police insist is in the back of Saco's car. We've looked at that picture. There is no silver bag in his trunk. There is no video of him carrying a bag that would have been a very large bag to fit a woman who is five foot seven. There was no video of that because that didn't happen. The cadaver dog evidence seems significant. Hainine Molly alerts on the bed in the master bedroom and she also alerts in the garage. There's no way whatsoever to verify what the officer says this dog alerted to. It wasn't even filmed. And so it's entirely dependent on a police officer describing what she believes her dog was alerting to. And the defense also has an explanation for that video on Saco's phone where Kelly appears to be in distress. The government found a video that Kelly Dwyer and Chris Zackle made together. They are calling it strangulation or suffocation. A consensual sexual act is what it depicts. That type of sex is depicted in mainstream motion pictures like 50 shades of gray as being engaged in with two consensual adults. If Chris Zackle did not kill Kelly Dwyer, who did? I don't know. I don't think that we know. I think that we know that it could have been a number of other people. The defense says that's because Kelly dated men she had met online. And it's the suggestion that she met up with one of these individuals and that that could be the cause of her disappearance. Yes. Yes. To support that theory, the defense presented a witness who says that he saw Kelly after she was reported missing. Someone who credibly said I saw her that weekend in the car of another individual. His observation of this individual was very brief at a stoplight. I was sure that it was her exactly like her. She went to the district station and said, I saw the woman that is being looked for. That's on the posters. That's on TV. Did anyone ever follow up with you about that information? No. You think he's just mistaken? I think he's mistaken. I don't think he was trying to mislead anybody. I just truly believe he's mistaken. After nine days of argument and testimony, the case seemed to rest on one thing, the quality of the evidence. Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant killed Kelly Dwyer. Every piece of circumstantial evidence supports that. Despite the tragedy of Ms. Dwyer's demise, it's not just as to find Chris Zackle guilty based on conjecture. It's just as to find him not guilty. All of the factors pointed to him. There's no other person that could have done it. It took the jury only three and a half hours to reach the same conclusion. Either jury find the defendant, Chris Zackle, guilty of first degree, reckless homicide has charged and cut one of the evidence. Finally, after five years of waiting and wondering, there is justice for Kelly Dwyer. As for Chris Zackle, he did look at me when he was being removed. What did you see? He was devastated. And what was Chris's sentence? 31 years. That on top of the 19 years? Yes. Chris Zackle is a person who's demonstrated that he poses a danger to society, particularly to women. And that someone is dead as a result. That someone was a vibrant and trusting young woman just beginning to find her way in the world. She was a loving person who truly cared about people and loved so much that she didn't really find much fault in anyone. There's this sense of profound loss. Loss for her family, her friends. You see a loss of. light because of one person's selfishness. And that's a tragedy. Tragedy is the best word for it. A mystery woman found dead in the woods murdered but who was she? And how did she die not once but twice. Follow and listen to The Woman in the Woods wherever you get your podcasts.