Body is likely missing college student, investigators say
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College student Kelly Nolan disappears after a night of drinking
Searchers find a body Monday near a major highway in Wisconsin
Investigators believe the body is Nolan Police are calling it a homicide investigation
FITCHBURG, Wisconsin (AP) -- Investigators think a body found in a field Monday is a college student who vanished last month in Madison, where the woman was last seen after a night out at the bars.
Kelly Nolan, 22, was last seen early on June 23 after a night of bar-hopping with friends in Madison, Wisconsin.
1 of 2 Police searching an area about 10 miles south of Madison found the body on private property in a wooded area dotted with homes.
Dane County coroner said the body was tentatively identified as 22-year-old Kelly Nolan, while Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said detectives were investigating the death as a homicide.
DeSpain declined to describe the condition of the body, but said it was obvious to detectives that the person had been slain.
Monday morning, police had focused their search for Nolan on a 3-square-mile area around Fitchburg that included part of the neighboring village of Oregon, just off U.S. Highway 14.
DeSpain said that he was not aware of any specific suspects in Nolan's disappearance and that the area was one of several areas identified during the investigation as worth searching.
"We believed there might be items connected to Kelly Nolan's disappearance that could be found in this area," DeSpain said Monday.
Nolan, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student from the Madison area, had been living in a Madison apartment for the summer. She was last seen early on the morning of June 23 after a night out with friends at bars in the city.
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A cafe employee on Saturday reported seeing Nolan early on June 23 and walking her toward her home until they ran into another man who said he knew Nolan, according to Tom Paras, the owner of Amy's Cafe.
Two days later, when the employee learned of Nolan's disappearance, he called police with the information, Paras said.
Police have released few details, saying they didn't want to jeopardize the investigation, and family members have said they were advised not to discuss details of the case.
Police said the area where the body was found had been searched before, but not to the extent it was on Monday morning. Dogs trained to recognize Kelly Nolan's scent were involved in the latest search, authorities said.
Nolan's sister April, 20, described her as fun-loving and creative, but said she had been going through a tough time since the deaths of their father in 2006 and their stepmother in May.
Nolan didn't get the summer job she had hoped to find when she returned from school, and she had worked at the Orpheum Lobby Restaurant for about a week in June before being fired the Wednesday before she disappeared.
Restaurant owner Henry Doane said Nolan didn't have enough experience for the job. In the spring, she served 14 days in jail after pleading guilty to driving under the influence as a second offense.
Madison police were assisted in Monday's search by agents from the FBI, Dane County Sheriff's Department, K-9 units and horse search teams, as well as police agencies from Wisconsin and Illinois.
Nolan's family offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her return. E-mail to a friend
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