Life for 84-year-old in cold case murder

The man who admitted to killing a young artist back in 1974 – then spent the next 50 years as if nothing had happened – will spend what’s left of his future in prison.

Jon Keith Miller, 84, was sentenced last week to life in prison for the first-degree intentional homicide of Mary Kathleen Schlais, who was 25 when she was murdered in February 1974.

Her body was found in a snowbank in Spring Brook Township in Dunn County, Wis., just a few hours after leaving her Minneapolis apartment to hitchhike to Chicago.

Schlais had been stabbed several times in her upper torso, including in her back. An autopsy report released at the time indicated she had defensive cuts to her hands; injuries to her face suggested she had been hit or punched several times.

She was fully clothed, though her purse and coat were missing – and were never found. What was found, however, was the clue that would lead to her killer: An orange and black stocking cap.

It was found on the road near Schlais’s body, and contained human hairs that did not match the victim.

As decades passed, technology eventually became fine-tuned enough to determine the identity of the person who likely dropped the cap while dumping Schlais.

Miller – who by then was living in relative obscurity in Owatonna – was tracked down by investigators following the lead of Cairenn Binder, the assistant director of the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center at Ramapo College in New Jersey.

Using the DNA found in the stocking cap, Binder found relatives of the suspect – one in Wyoming and another in Michigan. The two men are first cousins to each other, but didn’t know Miller, who had been adopted out of the extended family as a baby.

In November, Binder told investigators about a woman she believed is Miller’s daughter. She also lives in Minnesota.

The woman and her mother were interviewed; after agreeing to submit her DNA for Binder to compare with the suspect, it was confirmed the DNA from the cap belonged to her biological father: Miller.

Her mother confirmed she had been married to Miller from 1973-1977 – and was pregnant with their daughter at the time of the murder.

 Miller was arrested at his home on 195 24^th Place NW on Nov. 7 after initially denying knowledge of the crime. When shown the photo of the stocking cap, he admitted it was his, and said he hadn’t even realized he dropped it.

Miller told authorities after picking up Schlais as she hitchhiked, he asked her for sex. When she refused, he grabbed a knife stowed above the passenger seat visor and stabbed her in the back.

“I believe it’s got to be a relief for him, after 50 years of living with this,” Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said a few days after Miller’s arrest. “It had to have been on his mind almost every day. You’d think anybody with a conscience, it would. I think he was done fighting it, personally.”

It seems he gave Miller too much credit: During last week’s sentencing, a portion of an interview with Miller was played by the prosecution.

He said he didn't think of the murder much over the past 50 years.