Investigators in Wisconsin used genetic genealogy to solve a 50-year-old cold case this week, charging an 84-year-old Minnesota man with killing a woman who was found dead in 1974, authorities said.
Mary K. Schlais, 25, was found dead at an intersection in the township of Spring Brook, Wisconsin on February 15, 1974, according to the Dunn County Sheriffâs Office. Her death was ruled a homicide and the initial investigation revealed she had been hitchhiking to an art show in Chicago when she was killed, the agency said.
Jon Miller, of Owatonna, Minnesota, was arrested on Thursday after he âconfirmed his involvementâ with Schlaisâ homicide, according to Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd. Heâs currently in custody in Steele County, Minnesota, and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, Bygd said.
âThis is a huge victory for our agency,â Bygd said at a Friday news conference. Itâs the first time the agency has used genetic genealogy to solve a case, the sheriff said.
For decades, detectives from multiple law enforcement agencies who were assigned to the homicide case received various leads and tips and conducted interviews, but no âviableâ suspects were identified, according to the sheriffâs office.
Evidence was also examined and reexamined over the years, but it wasnât until the agency started working with a team of genetic genealogists at Ramapo College in New Jersey in recent years, investigators were able to identify Miller as the suspect using genetic evidence, the department said.
Forensic genetic genealogy can generate leads for unsolved cases by analyzing DNA on top of traditional genealogy research, according to the US Department of Justice.
It combines forensic genetics, or DNA analysis, with conventional genealogy, or oneâs family history, for human identification.
âAgencies can spend thousands and thousands of dollars sending DNA samples to private labs across the country to try and get results and we had a college very willing to step up and help us with this process,â Sheriff Bygd said.
Two sheriffâs investigators who have been working on the case, Dan Westland and Jason Stocker, said at the news conference they spoke with Schlaisâ family, who expressed relief and gratitude for the investigation.
The sheriffâs office did not go into detail about what piece of DNA evidence investigators used to solve the case or the genetic genealogy process leading them to the suspect, saying they would leave it for Ramapo College representatives to address at their Monday news briefing.
The sheriff said investigators were thrown a âcurveballâ while assessing Millerâs family lineage because he was adopted.
âIt 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,â he continued.
Westland said when he and Stocker spoke with Miller Thursday, he was âfairly calm about what had occurred.â
âI believe itâs got to even be a relief for him after 50 years of living with this. Itâs had to have been on his mind almost every day. You would think anybody with a conscience, it would. So, I think he was done fighting it, personally,â said Sheriff Bygd.
Many of the detectives and former sheriffs who worked on the case over the years have died, said the sheriff, who added he was âelatedâ to tell some of his former coworkers who are still alive the case was solved.
âI was actually sitting in a deer stand when I got a text from investigator Westland yesterday and I had a difficult time controlling my excitement,â Bygd said. â⊠Iâve been through with every investigator thatâs picked this up and ran with it and got to a dead end.â
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