A woman’s beheaded body was found burnt in a ditch in 1985. 40 years on, a truck driver is charged with murder

Terry Dolowy, a student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, was last seen alive at her home at a trailer park on February 14 1985

Terry Dolowy (pictured) was last seen alive on February 14, 1985 (WMTV)

A suspect has been charged with murder 40 years after the beheaded and burnt body of a 24-year-old woman was found dumped in a ditch in Wisconsin.

Terry Dolowy, a student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, was last seen alive at her home at a trailer park in Barre Mills on February 14 1985, after she returned from her job at a local restaurant.

She then vanished without a trace along with her white poodle.

Police said at the time that the door to the trailer she shared with her fiancé was found ajar but her personal items were still inside, The Vernon Reporter reported.

Four days later, Dolowy’s decapitated and burnt body was found along Mohawk Valley Road, Vernon County.

For 40 years, the case appeared to go cold, with over 500 people interviewed but no arrests made – until now.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Monroe County District Attorney Kevin Croninger announced that Michael Raymond Popp, a 60-year-old truck driver from Tomah, Monroe County, had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Michael Raymond Popp, a 60-year-old truck driver from Tomah, Monroe County, is charged with first-degree murder (WMTV)

Advances in DNA technology had enabled investigators to match the DNA taken during Dolowy’s autopsy to DNA samples taken from Popp in January 2023, according to a criminal complaint.

Popp initially told police that Dolowy was only a casual acquaintance but, when confronted with the DNA evidence, he claimed they “maybe had a little affair” lasting six to eight months, NBCChicago reported.

Popp was arrested for Dolowy’s murder and is now being held in Vernon County Jail, Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson said at the briefing. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Croninger said that Popp had also been charged with stalking, threats to communicate derogatory information, as well as other charges related to the possession of drugs in connection to a separate alleged victim.

At the briefing, Torgerson insisted that the case had never gone cold.

“Those sheriffs carried the torch of this investigation, which as I talked about earlier, I don’t feel ever went cold,” he said, thanking the “numerous” law enforcement authorities that had collaborated in the investigation.

He added: “I really want to underscore that the La Crosse County Sheriff’s Office has worked with the Vernon County Sheriff’s office in tandem for all these years, 39 years, and have never ever given up.”