VIROQUA, Wis. — A patient at a Madison mental health hospital told a nurse that he killed a 24-year-old LaCrosse area woman in 1985, the nurse reported to authorities. The decapitated body of Terry Dolowy was found in Vernon County five days after she disappeared from her home. Although a cold case after 28 years, sheriff’s investigator Scott Bjerkos in Viroqua has been pursuing leads on and off all that time. Bjerkos said, however, he can’t find collaboration of the Madison patient’s confession. There is no evidence that the man was anywhere near Delowy’s place, he said. Even so, Bjerkos said he’s hopeful that at new crime-fighting technology some day may solve the case.
Dolowy. Last seen coming home after a shift at Piggy’s restaurant in LaCrosse, It was about 12:30 a.m. in December 1985. She was studying finance full time at UW-LaCrrosse.