Man, 84, Arrested in Connection with 50-Year-Old Cold-Case Murder in Wisconsin: A 'Huge Victory'

An 84-year-old Minnesota man was arrested after new genetic technology linked him to a cold-case murder of a woman in the 1970s.

The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin announced in a press release that Jon K. Miller was arrested on Thursday, Nov. 7, for the murder of Mary K. Schlais, who was found dead on Feb. 15, 1974, near an intersection in Dunn County, Wis.

Schlais, who was originally from Minneapolis, was “believed to be hitchhiking” from her hometown to an art show in Chicago, according to an initial investigation by police. 

“There was an eyewitness that observed a suspect and suspect vehicle that were believed to be connected to the homicide of Mary Schlais,” police said in their statement.

However, despite investigators looking into “tips” and “leads,” and conducting interviews related to the case, they were not able to identify a “viable suspect.”

But later, thanks to advances in DNA technology and investigative genetic genealogy — which police worked on with a Genetic Genealogists team from Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J. — they were finally able to identify Miller, from Owatonna, Minn., as a suspect. 

The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office said in its release that Miller is “in custody and awaiting extradition back to Wisconsin.” It is not known if he has legal representation to comment on his behalf.

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While Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said during a press conference, per CNN, that cracking the case was a “huge victory for our agency,” he also explained that it didn’t come without its challenges.

He said, in particular, that Miller’s genealogy threw the detectives in for a “curveball,” since he was adopted.

“It takes a lot more work that these guys have put in over the last couple of weeks to try and dodge that curveball … We were able to sit down with him and let him confirm his involvement in her homicide yesterday,” Bygd said, per CNN.

The sheriff also said in the press conference that this was the first time their office used genetic genealogy to solve a case.

“I was actually sitting in a deer stand when I got a text from investigator [Dan] Westland [who was working on the case] yesterday and I had a difficult time controlling my excitement,” Bygd said, per CNN.

He added, “I’ve been through with every investigator that’s picked this up and ran with it and got to a dead end.”