A Fitchburg woman shot Saturday has died, according to the Dane County coroner’s office, and police are still searching for her killer.

That search Sunday left some homes in a west side Madison neighborhood evacuated as a team of Madison Police Department searchers checked three residences with reported connections to the suspect. No one was arrested.

Francesca M. Weber, 47, died late Saturday, according to Kurt Karbusicky, chief deputy coroner. An autopsy was completed Sunday but the cause of death is listed as pending, said Karbusicky, who could not release further details of the death.

Fitchburg police have put out a national alert for Steve J. Weber, 49, of Verona. Police said he is the suspect in the shooting of Weber. She was shot about 6 p.m. Saturday at her Fitchburg apartment at 5152 Anton Drive.

The couple’s divorce was finalized Monday, according to online records.

"He’s still at large and he’s still considered armed and dangerous," Sgt. Gary Kaschub said. "We’re actively pursuing it."

Weber grew up in the Verona area and has "numerous" local ties, Kaschub said.

At about 2:45 p.m. Sunday a Madison police SWAT team converged on the Westmorland Avenue area, checking reports from Fitchburg police that Weber maybe was hiding with relatives there, according to Sgt. Will Quast, of the Madison police.

"They were checking a couple of addresses," he said, a search that required some residents to leave their homes. At about 8 p.m., normal traffic was resumed and residents returned, he said.

Francesca Weber had filed for divorce from Stever Weber in February 2008 and he was under a restraining order not to be on Anton Drive, according to a criminal case filed against him in January.

Police believe Weber drove to his ex-wife’s apartment in the New Fountains apartments in a black Chevy pickup truck with Wisconsin plates AB6336. He is described as white, about 5 feet 7 inches and 190 pounds. At the time of the shooting he was reportedly wearing a jeans jacket and light-colored blue jeans.

Francesca Weber’s death is the second homicide this year in Dane County. It’s also the first homicide in Fitchburg since October 2007 when Julio Marin-Garcia, 28, stabbed his wife, Yuliana Hernandez-Hernandez, 23, to death at their apartment on Leopold Way.

— State Journal reporter George Hesselberg
contributed to this report.