Police looking into alleged confession in 1985 cold-case murder of Barre Mills woman

It has been considered a cold case for decades, but there may be new information involving a 38-year-old murder case in Vernon County.

A patient at the Mendota Mental Health Institute reportedly confessed to the 1985 murder of Terry Dolowy, telling his nurse that he killed her.

The information was passed along to Madison police, which notified investigators from Vernon County.

Dolowy went missing from her Barre Mills home in February of 1985. Her decapitated body was found five days later in Vernon County.

The man who made the confession was reportedly a friend of Dolowy’s fiance.

In a Facebook post, the La Crosse and Vernon County sheriffs both said they are aware of the new development but had no comment.

In 2010, La Crosse Sheriff’s Captain Kurt Papenfuss was quoted by WIZM News as saying that new information in the case could be obtained from a forensic anthropologist in Minnesota, who had been studying Dolowy’s remains. No arrests resulted from that investigation.