MENOMONIE, Wisconsin — A Minnesota man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading “no contest” in court to the murder of a Minneapolis woman he met hitchhiking 50 years ago.
Last November, Jon Keith Miller was charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the death of Mary Schlais, 25. She was discovered dead in Spring Brook, Wisconsin, on February 15, 1974. Miller was 33 at the time.
Despite the discovery of a stocking cap at the scene and a witness seeing Miller’s car, the case remained unsolved for five decades. The witness misrecalled the color of the car, leading Miller to believe he “got away with it.”
Miller told KARE 11 reporter Lou Raguse that he wanted to have sex with Schlais but stabbed her when she refused. He said he didn’t realize his stocking cap had been left behind until officers investigating the case showed him a photo of it in 2024.
The prosecution played video in court on Thursday in which Miller told investigators that the photo he was shown was of his cap.
The cold case heated up when Ramapo College genetic genealogy experts examined DNA from the stocking cap. It is the same method that has been used to solve cold cases across the country since the Golden State Killer was apprehended in 2018.
Miller informed Raguse that he intended to plead guilty, “because I know I am. “Why go through all of this mess?” he asked. “Put me away for the rest of my life.”
Miller had the opportunity to speak in court on Thursday but declined. The prosecution played a portion of his interview with KARE 11 during which he stated that he had not thought much about the murder in the previous 50 years.
Schlais, a University of Minnesota honors graduate, lived in Minneapolis in 1974. She was hitchhiking to Chicago to attend an art show.
At the November press conference announcing the charges, Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd stated that hitchhiking from Minneapolis to Chicago was not unusual at the time. But stories like this are why we don’t allow our children to do that anymore.”
Schlais’ family members were in court on Thursday to witness the verdict.
