Man sentenced for 1974 murder of Minneapolis woman after DNA breakthrough
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (FOX 9) - An 84-year-old man has been sentenced for killing a Minneapolis woman more than 50 years ago.
Sentencing for 1974 murder
Man charged in 50-year-old Wisconsin cold case
An 84-year-old man was charged in a 1974 homicide case, where authorities said he admitted to stabbing and killing a Minneapolis woman. FOX 9's Mike Manzoni has the story.
What happened?:
Miller was sentenced to life behind bars during Thursday's hearing. The sentence was in accordance with the laws in effect when the murder occurred.
The backstory:
In November, Jon Keith Miller, of Owatonna, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Mary K. Schlais. The 25-year-old woman from Minneapolis was hitchhiking to an art show in Chicago. The criminal complaint states that Millner admitted to picking her up and stabbing her to death.
Her body was found near the intersection of 408th Avenue and 990th Street in Spring Brook Township, Wisconsin, on Feb. 15, 1974, a rural area eight miles west of Eau Claire. The case went unsolved for nearly 50 years until an advancement in DNA technology and genetic genealogy helped crack open the case.
READ MORE: Wisconsin cold case: How investigators made an arrest after 50 years
How did they solve the case?
DNA evidence leads to Wisconsin cold case arrest
DNA from a stocking hat found at the crime scene of Mary Schlais's murder lead investigators to make an arrest nearly 50 years after her death. FOX 9's Rob Olson has more.
Dig deeper:
Among the evidence found at the scene was a stocking hat. At the time of the murder, before DNA investigative technology existed, the hat was a piece of the puzzle. But, investigators likely didn't realize how crucial it would be.
"Investigators at that time knew the hat would be important to the investigation, but probably not in the way we were able to utilize evidence from this hat nearly 50 years later," Dunn County Sergeant Jason Stalker previously explained. "Prior to DNA technology, the stocking hat was only able to be utilized for human hair comparisons."
But, years later, investigators were able to pull a partial DNA sample from the hat but were unable to identify a suspect. However, more recently, investigators were able to turn over the DNA sample to genealogists at Ramapo College, which cracked open the case.
"Using the partial male profile developed years earlier, through their work, a family lineage was identified, and new leads were developed," said Sgt. Stalker.
Using the family tree, investigators went through, one by one, working to identify a suspect. But, ultimately, they cleared each known family member in the lineage. That led investigators to conclude there had been an adoption in the family. With help from Miller's biological relatives, investigators were able to identify Miller as the suspect.