MADISON, Wis. -- A 53-year-old man has been charged in the 2008 killing of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was found strangled and stabbed in her downtown apartment.
Madison police said Friday that David Kahl was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, 12 years after 21-year-old Brittany Zimmermann was killed.
Kahl is in custody on unrelated charges and doesn't have a lawyer yet in the murder case.
Zimmermann was killed by strangulation and stabbing in her downtown Madison apartment in the middle of the day.
A mishandled 911 call was at the center of the investigation. In 2008, Madison Police indicated Zimmermann screamed during the call, but it was dropped. The Dane County Dispatcher didn't call back.
In 2016, Zimmermann's parents told TMJ4 Newsa DNA match had been made in their daughter's case. They did not release the name at the time.
"We have known of the match for some time and we're hopeful that things would have come together and an arrest would be made. We are confident that there are multiple persons that had been in the prison system in the past and may have detailed information about Brittany's murder that this person revealed to them. We are asking that those with any information they believe may be of some help to the investigation come forward. We are aware of someone who has this type of information, but for some unimaginable reason has chosen to keep this to themselves," her parents said at the time.
