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On Nov. 7, 2024, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of Jon Miller, 84, of Owatonna, MN, in connection with Schlais’s death.
Schlais, then 25, was hitchhiking from Minneapolis to Chicago when she was killed. Her body was found with multiple stab wounds along a road in Dunn County, WI, on Feb. 15, 1974.
At the scene, investigators collected a stocking cap that they believed could hold the key to identifying the killer. But for 50 years, despite extensive efforts and advancements in DNA technology, no viable suspect emerged.
The case remained a prominent unsolved mystery in Dunn County.
In 2022, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office partnered with Ramapo College’s IGG Center to revisit the evidence. This collaboration yielded a major breakthrough when the IGG team, using genetic genealogy, linked DNA from the stocking cap to Miller, marking the first time the IGG Center has identified a suspect leading to an arrest.
Detectives interviewed Miller at his home, where he reportedly confessed to the crime, officials shared during a press conference. Had she survived, Schlais would have been 76 this year.
“This is a historic case for both the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office and the Ramapo College IGG Center,” officials said. Since its opening in December 2022, the IGG Center has aided in more than 16 cases, including the rare exoneration of two wrongfully convicted brothers.
Miller remains in custody, awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. Sheriff Kevin Bygd and the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department expressed gratitude to Ramapo College’s IGG Center, whose work has finally brought justice to Schlais’s family after five decades.
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