What happened to Wisconsin woman Theresa Wesolowski?

The upcoming episode of People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s is all set to dive into the brutal murder of Theresa Wesolowski. The 22-year-old was found stabbed to death near the side of a road close to her workplace in 1999.

Titled 1999: Roadside Murder, the upcoming episode will air on August 12, 2022. The case will take viewers back to 1999 when the hardworking Wesolowski was murdered by her co-worker.

The case was far from an easy one and it took authorities years to track down the perpetrator, who turned out to be the most unexpected suspect. This case shook the small town of Germantown, Wisconsin, and affected the small community permanently.

Read on for more details about Theresa Wesolowski's murder.

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Who was Theresa Wesolowski and what happened to her?

A Germantown, Wisconsin native, Theresa Wesolowski was born in May 1977. After graduating in 1995, she took up two jobs and started saving up for a house and a car. Described by her friends and acquaintances as a well-liked personality, Theresa also showed tremendous potential in her work.

Her promising life was cut short on the fateful night of May 28, 1999. One of her coworkers found her nearly a block away from the plant where she worked. The co-worker allegedly saw her lying on the ground, face down with blood all around her. Authorities determined that she had been stabbed multiple times, nearly 47 times, on the front of her body and in her neck.

The police immediately established that the case was that of rage killing. They also found all of her money in her purse and ruled out robbery as a motive. Tire and shoe marks present in the scene hinted at another person being there in the scene. Authorities allegedly believed that the killer took Theresa Wesolowski by surprise as there were no struggle injury marks on her body.

Thus began a long search that would not yield any results for years. Authorities initially suspected her boyfriend, who allegedly had frequent arguments with her, but he had a strong alibi.

Authorities continued to investigate her workplace due to its proximity to where her body was found.

Mark Libecki, a friend of Theresa from work, claimed that the latter was upset that day. Others singled out Isaac Alvarez, with whom Theresa had a heated argument that day.

Isaac was also rumored to be carrying a knife with him. However, Isaac, too, allegedly had an alibi and passed the polygraph test. Although authorities also suspected Jerry Kirkpatrick, he also had a solid alibi.

Soon, authorities ran out of leads and the case began growing cold. After some modern developments in DNA testing, authorities finally found a match from their initial set of suspects, and the DNA matched the most unexpected suspect.

It belonged to Mark Libecki. Police further found that Libecki's shoes matched the prints found at the scene and traced his old car, which also revealed traces of Theresa Wesolowski's blood.

With all the evidence in place, authorities arrested Libecki. He allegedly changed his story several times and blamed a co-worker named Tom Thompson, claiming that he had killed her and threatened Libecki to keep quiet.

Libecki maintained his innocence. Authorities allegedly believe that Libecki had romantic feelings for Theresa and had made a move on her that night. When she rejected him, he brutally stabbed her to death. He was sentenced to life with no possibility of parole.

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The upcoming episode of People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s will explore the case in detail when it airs on August 12, 2022.