Blue Mounds man's death a "cold and calculated act," Dane Co. Sheriff says

(WMTV/Gabriella Rusk)
(WMTV/Gabriella Rusk)(NBC15)
Published: Jan. 17, 2020 at 12:14 PM CST
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The death of a Blue Mounds man whose body was discovered on Dane Co. highway this week and originally attributed to a hit-and-run turned out to be a “cold and calculated act,” Sheriff Dave Mahoney said.

The Sheriff’s Office is now investigating Nicholas J. Day’s killing

with Mahoney adding the 26-year-old died a very violent death.

The Sheriff went on to urge anyone with information about the killing – no matter how small it may be – to reach out to investigators as they try to determine what happened.

"Right now our priority is to get information from the public to garner any tips that we can at this point to help us build a timeline here," Dane County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Elise Schaffer told NBC15 on Thursday.

"[They] may have seen him jogging yesterday - anybody that may have seen anything that looked out of ordinary in this area, we'd like to hear from them," she continued.

The Sheriff’s Office has not released much information about Day’s death, including how he was killed and

. Originally, authorities said he died in a hit and run that happened while he was jogging along County Highway JG, near Bergum Road, between 12:45 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.

The Dane Co. Medical Examiner’s Office released the results of its preliminary investigation Thursday, attributing his death to “homicidal violence.” The agency is conducting more testing as well.

Anyone with information about Day’s death is asked to call the Dane County Communications Center non-emergency line at 608-255-2345 or the Dane County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 608-284-6900.