Owatonna man sentenced to life in prison for 1974 murder of a Minneapolis woman
(WQOW) — A murder case that went cold for more than 50 years in Dunn County is now closed.
On Thursday in Dunn County Court, 84-year-old Jon Keith Miller pled no contest to the charge of first degree murder for the death of Mary Schlais in 1974 and was found guilty.
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On Feb. 15, 1974, Miller picked up Schlais hitchhiking on her way from Minneapolis to Chicago.
According to court records, Miller said he asked Schlais for sex, when she refused he stabbed her and left her body off the road in the Town of Spring Brook in Dunn County.
Miller left his stocking hat at the scene, but his DNA didn’t return any matches, and the case went cold.
In 2022, detectives began working with the Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Center at Ramapo College in New Jersey, which used the DNA from the hat to find matches in the suspect’s family tree.
In November 2024, that DNA research led detectives to Miller, and an arrest was finally made.
In court Thursday, Miller was sentenced to life in prison.