84-year-old Minnesota man arrested in hitchhiker’s 1974 cold case homicide

MENOMONIE, Wis. — An 84-year-old Owatonna, Minn., man has been charged with a 50-year-old unsolved murder that occurred in western Wisconsin’s Dunn County.

Jon K. Miller was charged Thursday in Dunn County Circuit Court with first-degree murder.

“On February 15, 1974, Mary K. Schlais was found deceased near the intersection of 408th Ave. and 990th St. in the Township of Spring Brook,” wrote Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd in a press release. “Mary’s death at that time was ruled a homicide. The initial investigation revealed that Mary was from Minneapolis, MN, and was believed to be hitch-hiking from Minneapolis to an art show in Chicago. There was an eye-witness that observed a suspect and suspect vehicle that were believed to be connected to the homicide of Mary Schlais.

“Over the course of the next several decades there were many tips, leads, and interviews conducted related to this homicide by multiple law enforcement agencies. There were also several items of evidence examined and re-examined over the years as technological advances in DNA were developed. Still, no viable suspects were identified,” Bygd wrote.

In recent years, Dunn County Sheriff’s Office investigators began working with Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J., and their team of genetic genealogists. Through investigative genetic genealogy, a viable suspect was identified.

Bygd announced that deputies arrested Miller on Thursday.

Miller is in custody and awaiting extradition back to Wisconsin, he wrote. A $1 million cash bond was set in Dunn County Circuit Court, online records show.