Solving the mystery behind the disappearance of Kelly Dwyer

Sara Hill: A little after two in the morning … they head back to Mr. Zocco's apartment building across the street.Kelly and Kris had been dating for about a year after being introduced through a mutual friend. … It's like she found her tribe.Peter Van Sant: When was the last time that you saw Kelly Dwyer?Ryan Hader: It was just before her birthday … She was like, "Something big is going to happen. … The chief information officer.Det. Katherine Spano: I became involved in … Kelly Dwyer's missing person investigation.Katherine Spano, then a detective with the Milwaukee police department, would learn about Kelly and Kris' relationship. … He had a nice car, a beautiful condo down on the east side.While some friends thought Kelly might have been in love with Kris, it seemed Zocco might not have been on the same page.Det. Katherine Spano: Kris Zocco described his relationship with Kelly Dwyer as friends with benefits.But it did seem Kelly was keeping her options open.Sara Hill: Mr. Zocco 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.Chanell Royston: It was a very easy night here at the bar.Royston was out at the Allium bar when Kris and Kelly invited her back to Kris' apartment at closing time.Chanell Royston: I went across the street with them for a nightcap … walked out to the balcony to smoke a cigarette. Sara Hill: Yes.As police faced the daunting task of finding Kelly, would her love life provide their first clue?Det. Tammy Tramel-McClain: So, on Monday, October 14, I started my shift at 4 p.m. 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 Police Detective Tammy Tramel-McClain arrived at the scene of Kelly's last known whereabouts three days earlier – Kris Zocco's apartment building.Det. Tammy Tramel-McClain: They come right through this door. … He used the word "party." They party together.Somewhat shockingly, Zocco didn't hold back — telling police exactly what he meant by "party," as he described how he and Kelly had ended their evening.Det. Tammy Tramel-McClain: They walk back. … And he simply just says in the text "she doesn't come out." As Tramel-McClain focused on how Kelly could have slipped out of this high security building undetected, Zocco seemed more interested in shifting focus away from himself.Det. Tammy Tramel-McClain: "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 Zocco's intention, but that's not what happened.Peter Van Sant: In your bones, in your gut based on your instinct and your training and experience, you felt like you were looking at a suspect.Det. Tammy Tramel-McClain: Yes.Police needed a way to search Zocco's apartment for evidence. They now believed Kelly was dead and her final moments had been in Kris Zocco's apartment.Peter Van Sant: And if Kelly died on that bed … where did the body go? I mean, I date multiple people.But before Zocco had lawyered up in that first interrogation, it would turn out he'd said something that would come back to haunt him:DETECTIVE: OK, so nobody you consider your girlfriend right now?KRIS ZOCCO: No. There is a couple of girls that I would like to be my girlfriend, but it hasn't been that seriously [sic] yet, I guess [laughs].Det. Katherine Spano: He began dating a young woman in 2009.Det. Tammy Tramel-McClain: He was living two different lives.According to Chanell Royston, before Kelly Dwyer disappeared, it seemed her relationship with Kris Zocco was evolving.Chanell Royston: Towards the end … there was more touching. And this young woman knew nothing about the relationship with Kelly.Peter Van Sant: And did Kelly have any idea about this other woman?Sara Hill | Assistant District Attorney: Absolutely not.And neither did investigators until this "other" woman's brother, after seeing Zocco arrested on the news, reported to police that his sister, Meagan, had been dating Zocco for more than three years. … Some of the investigators think he just got lucky with it.It took months of painstaking work for Milwaukee Police Department investigators to piece together Kris Zocco's movements on the days after his date with Kelly Dwyer. … When he leaves that building at 10:08 a.m., Kelly Dwyer's phone — it goes dead.Peter Van Sant: What do you think happened to the phone at that moment? … I think that's consistent with the travel golf bag.Peter Van Sant: So, you believe Kelly Dwyer is in the trunk of his vehicle?Det. Erik Gulbrandson:  I do.Investigators believe that because the cadaver dog, Molly, told them so. Joyce Frye: Not at all.Peter Van Sant: There's a golf bag that investigators say went missing, a bag that they claim … Kelly Dwyer's body was in. Det. Katherine Spano: 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, Zocco rose with the sun — still faced with a nightmare. 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.Peter Van Sant: In case he was spotted, do you believe Zocco … actually went to the Mousehouse to create an alibi of sorts? Investigators say that he walked into a "Sports Authority" and used his credit card to buy a brand-new pair of sneakers.Peter Van Sant:  Why is he buying new sneakers?Sara Hill: He might have purchased those sneakers to replace ones that he used in — 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.Sara Hill: Here's the slip up. Peter Van Sant: What was missing?Sara Hill: What was missing was her body.Eventually, Kris Zocco did go on trial, in November 2014 — not for murder, but for the child pornography possession uncovered with the initial investigation search warrants. Exactly.It would appear that police now had enough evidence to bring Kris Zocco back to court for the death of Kelly Dwyer.Sara Hill: 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 surprising to some, it's not for murder.Det. Erik Gulbrandson: Kris Zocco was charged with first-degree reckless homicide, hiding a corpse and strangulation, suffocation.With the media restricted behind courtroom security glass, prosecutor Sara Hill presents the state's theory of how they believe Kelly died. … You will hear evidence that the defendant Mr. Zocco … was basically having sex with Kelly Dwyer and … he winds up killing her.Det. Katherine Spano: I think Kris Zocco enjoyed taking women to the brink of death for his own sexual gratification. Craig Mastantuono: The police have no evidence to believe that Ms. Dwyer exited the apartment in either a shower curtain or a golf travel bag.Kris Zocco's defense attorneys Craig Mastantuono and Rebecca Coffee say the state has it all wrong.Craig Mastantuono: Someone did kill Kelly Dwyer, but it wasn't Kris Zocco.REBECCA COFFEE | DEFENSE ATTORNEY [Opening statement]: This case is more about the State wanting Mr. Zocco to be guilty than having the evidence to prove it.Peter Van Sant: Is there any eyewitness to this alleged crime?Rebecca Coffee | Defense attorney: There was no eyewitness. Peter Van Sant: If Kris Zocco did not kill Kelly Dwyer, who did? As for Kris Zocco … Joyce Frye: He did look at me when he was being removed.Peter Van Sant: What did you see?Joyce Frye: He was devastated.Peter Van Sant: And what was Kris' sentence?Joyce Frye [crying]: Thirty-one years.Peter Van Sant: Is that on top of the 19 years?Joyce Frye: Yes. Sara Hill: Kris Zocco is a person who's demonstrated that he poses a danger to society … particularly to women.