The Murder of Brittany Zimmerman

Who Was Brittany Zimmermann?

Brittany Sue Zimmermann was born on November 15, 1986 to Kevin and Jean Zimmermann in Marshfield, Wisconsin.  She also had a brother named Matthew.  She attended Grant and Madison Elementary Schools, Marshfield Junior High and graduated from Marshfield High School in 2005.  She received an AP Scholar with Distinction Award upon graduating.  She was a student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison at the time of her death and was studying Microbiology and Immunology.  

According to her high school guidance counselor, Liz Dostal, Brittany knew she wanted to be a physician as a freshman and she knew it wasn’t going to be easy.  Dostal said, “She was a very precocious freshman girl, very concerned about her learning and picking the right courses to prepare her.”  Brittany was in the top 10% of her class and completed eight advanced placement courses before she graduated in 2005.  

Brittany was in the school band, the Spanish Club and was a part of the National Honor Society.  She also volunteered her time at the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge.  Dostal described Brittany as “bubbly and spirited.”

In college, she worked at the Campus Registrar’s Office for three years and her boss, Joanne Berg said, “The work ethic just oozed out of her.  She always came to work with a smile.”  According to Berg, Brittany’s fiance, Jordan Gonnering, transferred to Madison to be with her.  Brittany was on the Dean’s List in the fall of 2005 as well as the spring of 2006.  Her MySpace page said, “I’m a Medical Microbiology & Immunology major at UW-Madison, hoping to graduate Spring 2009.  After my BS, I plan to get an MS in Public Health, followed by an MD in Infectious Disease.”  One of her favorite books was “The Chronicles of Narnia” and her favorite movie was “The Constant Gardener.” 

Brittany enjoyed cooking, eating at different restaurants, her three kittens (Boo, Felix & Marv) and fishing with her dad.  She was planning on getting married to Jordan in Hawaii.  Her dad said of her, “As a young girl she was just so kind to everybody.  She never had a bad thing to say about anybody.  She was the brightest girl and the most considerate person.  She was one who was always willing to help anybody.”

What Happened?

On April 2nd, 2008, Brittany went to campus for class and left to go back to her off-campus apartment at about 11:30am.  She was walking on the sidewalk near her apartment when her fiance, Jordan, yelled to her from the balcony and then gave her a call on her cell phone.  Jordan then left for class and Brittany went inside to work on her computer from 12:00pm-12:18pm.  A minute later, at 12:19pm, Brittany made a call to 911 from her cell phone.  The dispatcher hung up after reportedly hearing nothing on the other end.  There was another call placed to 911, but it was a hang up call.

Jordan went to class from 12:05pm-12:55pm then rode his moped back to the apartment.  When he arrived, he saw that the lock on the outside security door was broken.  He went inside and when he got to the bedroom, he found Brittany on the floor.  He called 911 with the belief that Brittany had been shot several times. 

911 Call

It was nearly a minute into the five minute 911 call that the dispatcher determined it was an emergency and nearly 3 minutes in for dispatch to help Jordan provide aid to Brittany.  The police responded to the 500 block of West Doty Street at 1:10pm – 48 minutes after Brittany dialed 911.  It was determined that Brittany had been stabbed several times, beaten and strangled.  The autopsy determined that her manner of death was homicide and her wounds were caused by “a weapon similar in nature to one possessing a blade length from 2 to 5 inches, blade width of 1.5 to 2 centimeters, and with a prominent hilt.”   Brittany’s cell phone was found in pieces and DNA, hair, blood, footprints and fingerprints were found. 

Suspects / Witness Statements

Brittany’s fiance, Jordan, was never a suspect and was said to be extremely helpful with the investigation.  There were a few men suspected – Thomas Cosgrove, Jeffrey D. Ball, Chauncy Mack and David A. Kahl.  With Kahl being seen in the area on the day of the murder. 

Neighbors of Brittany’s said that Kahl was asking residents for $40 to repair a flat tire.  In one case, Kahl yelled at a woman for not locking her door after he entered her home and she refused to give him any money and forced him to leave.  The police interviewed Kahl for the first time on the day of Brittany’s murder.  Kahl was interviewed several times after and described two men and a woman that were with him that day.  He said the three others were running scams with him.  Kahl changed details of his story and the descriptions of the other people involved over time.  

Kahl lived about one mile from Brittany and approached four people over 50 minutes asking for money.  He walked down Wilson Street, Bedford Street and Doty Street asking for money and the police say that this timeline puts him at her apartment at the time of Brittany’s murder.  When he was brought in for questioning, he told detectives that he was asking for money to buy crack and admitted to being high at the time.  Detectives noticed a small cut on his hand.  A few days later, Kahl told police that he was diagnosed a few years earlier with schizophrenia and was off of his meds.  Despite Kahl’s timeline and witness statements, the police didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest.  Kahl is also a registered sex offender. 

The Investigation

The search for Brittany’s killer continued in the years following and Madison police never let the case go cold, but it was years before there was any solid movement in the investigation.  In 2009, police received an anonymous letter within a return address from prison.  The letter indicated that the writer overheard an inmate named F.R. discussing his involvement in Brittany’s murder.  The letter was entered into evidence.

In 2010, the Zimmermann family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dane County in regard to the 911 call, but ended up settling the case. The county agreed to contribute $5,000 to the family fund and $2,500 in attorney fees.  The family said that they “did not commence this action against Dane County for the purpose of recovering money, and the goal was to make sure this did not happen to anyone else.”

In 2014, DNA from a piece of Brittany’s clothing was tested and matched to David Kahl.  It matched DNA from a previous break-in he was involved in.  A few months later, Andrew Scoles, a friend of David Kahl, who was incarcerated at the Gilmer Federal Correctional Institution in Glenville, West Virginia, told investigators that Kahl had confessed to killing Brittany.  Scoles was serving time for illegal gun possession. 

On December 17, 2014, Scoles told police that he was close to Kahl and considered him a brother.  He told police that Kahl had confessed to him, but didn’t want to provide anymore information to them without a deal in place.  Scoles said, “Hypothetically, he broke down and told me what all happened.”  Scoles was released from prison in October of that year.

In 2016, Brittany’s mom, Jean, sent a video message to Scoles through his parole officer asking him to speak with police about what he knew.  He said that he would, but he wanted something in return.  Scoles responded to Jean and said, “After watching [your] video and [with] great consideration, I told the [police] I would be willing to cooperate in any and all ways that I could,” and added, “if the government would give me my life back.”  Scoles was asking for a presidential pardon for a 2010 marijuana conviction and the federal gun conviction from 2014 expunged from his record.  He wanted his felony record cleared so that he could have his 19 guns back that were confiscated during his 2014 arrest.  Scoles kept quiet and continued on with his life after being paroled in 2015.

Then on April 26, 2017, a document containing a letter from Scoles’ attorney, Joseph Bugni, to a federal judge was unsealed.  The letter detailed Bugni’s efforts to set up an interview between Scoles and the police.  It stated that Scoles was willing to testify if Kahl was prosecuted for Brittany’s murder, however, it also states that prosecutors seemed indifferent to meeting with him or making any deals. 

Despite these efforts, an interview was never set up and on August 5, 2017, Andrew Scoles died from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in July.  He took what he knew about Brittany’s murder to the grave.  After Scoles passed away, Jean, Brittany’s mom, was devastated and said that Scoles had sworn he knew all the information the police would need.  

Kahl was arrested and charged in 2011 for his 6th OWI (Operating While Intoxicated) and in 2016, he was again arrested, charged and found guilty of his 7th OWI.  He was incarcerated at the Oshkosh Correctional Center.  In 2016, Kahl admitted to being in Brittany’s home on the day she was killed, but he said that he was not the person who killed her.  

In 2018, at the ten year anniversary of Brittany’s death, her parents sat down for an interview and when asked how often they think of that day, her father said, “Everyday.  Every single day.”  Her mom told the interviewer that she thought the case would be solved right away and that they didn’t even consider that they’d be here, 10 years later.  

2020 – Finally An Arrest

The DNA that was tested in 2011 concluded that Kahl was “included as a possible contributor” but was unable to be entered in CODIS as it wasn’t eligible.  But in 2014, the FBI guidelines had changed and it was entered then.  In 2017, the police forwarded the DNA to a Pittsburgh company, Cybergenetics and in 2018, a report stated that a DNA match from Brittany’s right sleeve and Kahl was “226 thousand times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated Caucasion person.”  On April 12, 2019, the letter that was sent to police back in 2009 was sent to the crime lab for DNA analysis and the DNA was a match to Kahl.

In March of 2020, David A. Kahl was charged with 1st Degree Intentional Homicide and pleaded not guilty in December of 2020.  A judge set a cash bond of $1,000,000 for Kahl.  There was a preliminary hearing in March of 2021 and an order for a competency exam was sent.  In June of 2021, Kahl was found to be competent to stand trial.  Brittany’s parents and Aunt attended via video means. 

Throughout 2022, trial and motion hearing dates were being set and discussed.  

14 Years Later – A Confession

On October 27, 2022, David Kahl confessed to the murder of Brittany Zimmermann.  According to Ben Gonring, one of Kahl’s attorneys, Kahl decided to confess after several meetings “and really a lot of soul-searching from David, he let go of a secret that he had been keeping for 14 ½ years.”  Gonring also said that Kahl didn’t intend to harm anyone and was just running a scheme and that Kahl said that Brittany was kind.  He said that Kahl said that he stepped into her bathroom and noticed she was on the phone and was scared and paranoid.

Kahl entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to life in prison.  The defense requested that he be sentenced immediately and begin his sentence right away so that he could be transferred to the Dodge Correctional Institution where he would be able to receive better medical treatment for health issues. There will be a hearing on January 12, 2023 to determine if he will be eligible for parole.  Brittany’s aunt, Kimberly Heeg said of this, “I think it takes a lot of audacity for someone in custody to request a transfer from the county jail to the state prison because he thinks he will get better medical care after he has stripped my family of an incredibly loved and amazing human who wanted to do nothing but good things in this world.  She also said, “We as a family have nothing but pain, we have nothing but daily reminders and we have nothing but torture for 14 ½ years where he did his soul-searching to decide to come clean.”  Heeg did not object to Kahl starting his life sentence right away, but called the reasoning “nothing short of obnoxious.”

Both the prosecution and defense as a part of Kahl’s plea deal are recommending him to be eligible for extended supervision after 20 years of incarceration at the hearing in January.  Kahl was 56 at the time of his agreement and would be 76 years old at the time of potential release.  The judge has stated that she wants to ensure that everyone affected by Brittany’s death will have the opportunity to make a statement before making her final ruling.

Brittany’s 911 Call / Media Trial

The dispatcher who received Brittany’s 911 call did not dispatch police to her home because she claimed to have not heard anything on the line.  The dispatcher also did not immediately or accurately inform the police department about the call after Brittany’s body was found. 

The 911 center refused to release the audio of Brittany’s call stating that the police department said that it would impair the investigation according to the director, Joe Norwick.  However, the Madison Police Department disputes this saying that it was Norwick’s way of not owning up to his department’s mistakes.  The dispatcher claimed to have not heard anything on the line and when a second call was placed, there was a hang up.  Norwick said of this, “Under the current policy, if dispatchers answer a 911 call and either don’t hear a voice on the other end of the call or are unable to determine if there’s an emergency, the dispatcher calls that number back.”  He added, though, that police were only automatically sent if the call came from a landline, not a cell phone.

In May of 2008, the Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin State Journal, WTMJ-TV and Madison-based WFSC-TV sued to get records related to Brittany’s 911 call.  The media attorneys argued that the public had the right to the records because it would show whether the Dane County 911 Center was properly responding to calls from citizens in life-or-death emergencies.  A prosecutor for the City of Madison said in court, “There’s no one in this court who has listened to this tape who ever wants to listen to it again.”  It has been said that you can hear screaming on Brittany’s end of the 911 call.  Judge Richard Niess called the call clumsy, but that it did contain significant information to finding Brittany’s killer and releasing it could jeopardize the investigation.  Since, dispatch has changed and now someone will make contact with a caller no matter what the call is. 

In regard to this, I’m in Wisconsin, though in a different county, and my husband accidentally called the police via his Apple Watch.  They called his cell phone and he told them that he had rolled over on it while sleeping – which he did, the dummy.  He told them that there was no emergency and all was fine, but police were dispatched to where we were (we were at a friend’s house for the weekend) and Nic had to go out and let them know all was well.  This was probably four or five years ago. 

Remembering Brittany

Paws for Brittany is a walk/run in memory of Brittany.  The proceeds benefit the Marshfield Area Pet Shelter (MAPS).  The event is held every year on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend.  The next event will be on Saturday, May 13, 2023 at the Wildwood Park & Zoo.  

The family also has a scholarship for Brittany that is given to a senior from Marshfield High School that is planning to attend the University of Wisconsin Madison to pursue a medical degree.  It is the Brittany Zimmermann Memorial Scholarship.