The news last spring was stunning. A bright, and vibrant UW-Madison student was senselessly killed inside her downtown apartment. Brittany Zimmermann, age 21, loved her fiancé, her cats, cooking, reading, and just hanging out with her family and friends. She was a medical microbiology and immunology major from Marshfield. Brittany was looking forward to going on to medical school. She dreamed of saving lives and - someday - becoming a mother. She was robbed of her dreams, and our community, her family, and so many others of her graceful presence.

As the fall semester at the UW-Madison commences, Brittany's mom and dad, Kevin and Jean, are initiating a reward fund. They issued the following statement:

Brittany was tragically taken from us on April 2, 2008. The past five months have been agonizing and today we still have no answers as to who took our daughter from us. We would like to thank the Madison Police Department for their ongoing efforts with the investigation and we would like to assist the detectives in anyway possible. Our desire to help has brought us to all of you today; we would like to announce that we have established a reward fund and the reward will be available to any person or persons who can provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered Brittany. We have established the fund through the Marshfield Medical Center Credit Union and donations can be sent directly to the Marshfield Medical Center Credit Union. At this time we can promise a reward of $5,000, and this will increase with donations.

We are grateful for all of the community support we have received thus far and we have to believe that someone has additional information that has not yet been shared with the police. We are asking that you please come forward with any information that may help with this investigation. The days since Brittany's death have been very dark and we are desperate to find justice for our daughter. We would like to thank the community in advance for any support they may be able to provide.

Contributions can be sent to: Brittany Zimmermann Reward Fund
C/O Marshfield Medical Center Credit Union
302 W. Upham Street/Marshfield WI 54449

If you have information call: Madison Area Crime Stoppers
608-266-6014