VIROQUA, Wis. – A man accused in the grisly murder of a rural LaCrosse woman 40 years ago will be tried for the crime, a judge ruled. An attorney for Michael R. Popp, now 61, argued there was insufficient evidence for a trial, but Vernon County Judge Mark Goodman ruled otherwise. Meanwhile, Poppe remains in jail in lieu of $1 million bail. At the hearing a state crime investigator, Lindsay Lehr, testified that a DNA sample in Dolowy’s body was matched in 2022 to Popp. His attorney, Jennifer Lough, acknowledged that Popp’s sperm may have been in the vagina of the victim, Terry Dolowy but said that didn’t mean he killed her. The cause of death was never determined, Lough noted: “This could have been a drug overdose. It could have been a person who was strangled. It could have been a person who was shot,” Lough said. “We don’t know how she died. More important, we don’t know who killed her. All we know is that Mr. Popp’s semen was found inside of the victim.” Dolowy, 24, went missing in Septenber 1985. Her headless and burned remains were discovered four days on the Viroqua side of the LaCrosse-Vernon county line. Popp, whose home is Tomah, was arrested this September while held in the Monroe County jail on charges unrelated to Dolowy’s murder – stalking, domestic abuse, threatening to spread derogatory information, obstructing police, and possessing cocaine and marijuana.
Poppe. At hearing. He was 22 years old when the murder occurred. Dolowy, 24, was last known to be at her place in Barre Mills 10 miles east of LaCrosse. Her mutilated remains were found 15 miles away.