From stabbing to arrest: a timeline in the Joel Marino case
More than five months after Joel Marino was stabbed to death in his Monona Bay home, neither police nor prosecutors have said what accused killer Adam Peterson's motive was in the crime.
It's not clear how soon that information will be forthcoming. Peterson, 20, is due in court for a status conference on Wednesday, July 9, to decide how the case should move forward.
Details about the case have come out slowly, even after Peterson's arrest on June 26. What follows is a timeline that shows what is known, offering a glimpse of what was occurring in Peterson's life while the Madison Police Department was piecing together the evidence to make his arrest. The items are drawn from the criminal complaint, the search warrant used to obtain a DNA sample from Peterson, news accounts and interviews by The Capital Times.
Oct. 8: Adam Peterson, a transfer student from UW-La Crosse, withdraws from his classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was enrolled as a junior carrying 12 credits. His father, Melvin Peterson of St. Paul, Minn., later says Adam wanted to take a break.
November: Peterson moves into his own apartment at 431 W. Main St. because he wants more space.
Nov. 9: Peterson starts working third shift, 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., at Capitol Centre Foods, 111 N. Broom St.
Dec. 7: Peterson's last day working at Capitol Centre Foods.
Jan. 20: Peterson reports to Madison police that his laptop and MP3 player have been stolen by a homeless man named "Bruce," who was living in his apartment building. Peterson says Bruce stole the items on Jan. 16 or Jan. 17. He tells an officer that he had loaned his apartment keys to Bruce, whom he believed had made copies of them and used them to gain access into his apartment while he was gone.
Jan. 25: Livia Novitske, an employee at Sports World, 510 State St., sells a Puma backpack to a man she would later identify as Peterson.
Jan. 28: Joel Marino, 31, a Madison employee of Guidant Technologies, is home at 714 West Shore Drive all morning. He is stabbed in the abdomen and upper chest between 1 and 1:20 p.m. Police find him in an alley off the 700 block of South Park Street. Marino is pronounced dead at a local hospital. The cause of death is a fatal stab to the upper chest with a paring knife. Police find the knife inside Marino's home. There is no sign of forced entry.
Thomas Ulrich, a resident of 946 West Shore Drive, is standing in his driveway shortly after 1 p.m. and sees someone running toward him from the direction of Marino's house. The person is thin, wearing a red-and-white stocking cap, possibly with a snowflake on it, and a winter coat. Ulrich speaks to the person, but receives no answer. He later helps police create a composite drawing of the male. The drawing is released to the public March 10.
Stephen Vanko, 954 West Shore Drive, looks out his window while talking on the phone at approximately 1:06 p.m. and sees a person with a slender build wearing a white stocking cap and tan coat standing near his garage. He goes out to find the person but sees no one. Officers later arrive and find a Puma backpack inside Vanko's recycling bin. A white knit stocking cap with a "W" is found on the ground nearby.
Jan. 29: Madison police announce they believe the crime occurred inside Marino's home and are looking for a "person of interest" who was seen by several neighbors around the time of the crime. The person of interest is described as 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches tall and was last seen wearing a white stocking cap with a red "W" on the front and a tan sheepskin-type jacket. He was carrying a gray newer-looking backpack.
Jan. 30: Photos of the stocking cap and backpack, which were found two days prior, are released to the public. Investigators say the items were worn by a person of interest in this case. The items are sent to the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory for forensic tests.
Feb. 22: Peterson celebrates his 20th birthday.
Feb. 25: Peterson reports his laptop stolen for the second time to Madison police.
Feb. 26: New evidence prompts Madison police to announce the "person of interest" is directly involved in the murder of Joel Marino. The suspect is described as a white male, in his 20s, possibly his early 20s, between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet 2 inches tall. The suspect may have a thin build and blond or light-blond hair. Police say the suspect was possibly seen in the State Street area on Friday, Jan. 25, during the afternoon. Police add that the suspect was last seen wearing a tan Carhartt-type jacket and a white stocking cap with a "W" on the front.
March 7: Eric Peterson, Adam's twin brother, becomes concerned about Adam's behavior and calls the police. An officer arrives, and learns from Eric and one of his roommates, Michael Wacliawski, that Adam has been aggressive and volatile that day. Eric tells the officer Adam has been using cocaine, that he is confused about who he is and becomes hostile when people ask him about it. Eric said Adam is much more paranoid when he does drugs.
Adam agrees to go with the police officer to speak with a mental health provider. He is then taken to a local hospital for a psychological evaluation. He is checked into a psychiatric ward for a week, according to his father.
Adam denies being on medication during the incidents at his brother's apartment.
Police now have Peterson's cell phone number, which is later used by police to contact him in Minnesota. Police place Peterson on an in-house list of potential residents with mental health problems.
When released, he moves near Stillwater, Minn., to live with his mother. It is not clear from the search warrant on which date this occurred.
March 10: Police announce the DNA found on the knife from the crime scene matches DNA found on the white cap and backpack. A photo of the paring knife also is released to the public. Police say the suspect may live in or around the State Street area.
Police release a sketch of the suspect to the public.
March 16: Madison resident John Broda calls police to provide information concerning a person he believes may have committed the Marino murder. He says a white male in his early 20s had worked at Capitol Centre Foods roughly a month and a half ago. He said the man was good-looking and wore a white stocking cap. Broda said he knew the man had quit school at UW-Madison and didn't talk much.
March 17: John Broda is interviewed by police to confirm his statement from the previous day.
March 20: Hair is removed from the inside of the white stocking cap and given to the FBI Hair and Fiber Lab.
April 2: Brittany Zimmermann, a UW-Madison student, is murdered in her apartment on West Doty Street.
May 1: A physical scientist/forensic examiner with the FBI reports back to Madison police that 17 hairs have been analyzed from the cap. The hairs belong to a caucasian, are brown in color with no chemical treatment, not curly but partially wavy to straight, and the longest one was 2 inches in length, its end cut by a scissors.
June 11: A detective with the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota assists in the investigation by calling Peterson's cell phone. The officer briefly talks with Peterson.
June 23: Detectives show John Broda, Livia Novitske and Thomas Ulrich a photo lineup that includes Peterson's Minnesota Department of Transportation photo. Each picks Peterson's picture as the individual they saw or had contact with in connection to the Marino case.
June 25: The Washington County detective contacts Verizon to confirm that Peterson's number is an active account.
June 26: Peterson is arrested after officers obtain a search warrant to collect his DNA.
June 29: Peterson's father, Melvin, tells the Star Tribune that his son couldn't be involved in two unsolved murders in Madison because he was out of town at those times. Melvin Peterson states his son was in Minnesota for treatment for depression when Brittany Zimmermann was murdered on April 2. When Kelly Nolan disappeared downtown and was later found near Oregon last July 9, Melvin Peterson said Adam and his twin brother, Eric, were working in Wisconsin Dells.
June 30: Peterson is transported from Minnesota and booked into the Dane County Jail.
July 1: Peterson appears in court wearing a suicide prevention smock. Bail is set at $1 million.
Mike DeVries/The Capital Times
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Adam Peterson (center) appears in court on July 1 with defense attorney Dennis Burke (right).
