Dunn County Sheriff’s Dept. arrests suspect in Town of Spring Brook cold case murder

DUNN COUNTY Sheriff Kevin Bygd spoke with media Friday afternoon, November 8 about the arrest of Jon K. Miller in connection with the 1974 cold-case murder of Mary K. Schlais. A photo of Schlais can be seen in next to the podium at which Sheriff Bygd spoke. —photo by Shawn DeWitt

VICTIM MARY K. SCHLAIS

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE — More than 50 years after Mary K. Schlais was murdered, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a suspect.
Schlais, who was 25 years old at the time of her death, was found near the intersection of 40th Avenue and 990th Street in the Town of Spring Brook on February 15, 1974.
Mary was from Minneapolis and was believed to be hitchhiking from Minneapolis to an art show in Chicago. An eye-witness observed a suspect and a vehicle that were believed to be connected to Mary Schlais’s murder.
On Thursday, November 7, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department arrested Jon K. Miller, age 84, of Owatonna, Minnesota, for the homicide of Mary K. Schlais, according to a news release from the sheriff’s department.
As of Friday, November 8, Miller was in custody and awaiting extradition back to Wisconsin.
Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd held a news conference about the case Friday afternoon.
Over the years, investigators followed many tips and leads, and multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in investigating the case. Several items of evidence were examined and re-examined, Sheriff Bygd said.
A viable suspect was finally identified, and Investigator Sergeant Jason Stalker and Investigator Dan Westlund traced the suspect to Owatonna, Minnesota, he said.
When Dunn County law enforcement spoke with Jon Miller, age 84, and asked him about the homicide, Miller confirmed his involvement, the sheriff said.
Sergeant Stalker and Deputy Westlund arrested Miller, who is now in custody in Minnesota and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, he said.

Ramapo College
Sheriff’s department investigators have been working with Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, and their team of genetic genealogists. Miller was identified through the use of investigative genetic genealogy, according to the news release.
Representatives from Ramapo College will be speaking about the process of using genetic DNA in identifying a suspect at a news conference on Monday, November 11, at 1 p.m., Sheriff Bygd said, noting the members of Mary’s family are expected to be at the news conference as well.
One reporter at the news conference asked about the process for using genetic genealogy.
The Ramapo College team provided leads and family lineages that investigators could follow up on, Deputy Westlund said.
Another reporter asked why Miller had been in the Dunn County area and if he had been on law enforcement’s radar before this.
Those aspects of the case are still being investigated, Investigator Westlund said.
Regarding a question about speaking to Mary’s family, Investigator Westlund said he had spoken with the victim’s family the previous night, and they had been relieved to know a suspect had been identified and were thankful for all of the work from all of the law enforcement agencies involved.
When asked if Miller had a past criminal record, Westlund said there would be more information available about Miller later on.

Green Bay Packers
One reporter asked about the serial killer who had played for the Green Bay Packers.
The DNA analysis eliminated that particular suspect, Sheriff Bygd said.
According to various on-line sources, Randall Woodfield has be en linked to 18 murders and is suspected to be involved in the murders of up to 44 people.
Woodfield was drafted by the National Football League to play for the Green Bay Packers in 1974 but was taken off the team during training after he had been arrested for indecent exposure.
Woodfield committed his crimes along the Interstate 5 corridor through Washington, Oregon and California. He was convicted in June of 1981 of the murder of Shari Hull and the attempted murder of Hull’s co-worker. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years.

Vehicle
In response to a question about whether the vehicle had ever been recovered that an eye witness had linked to Mary Schlais’s murder, Bygd said the vehicle had never been found.
The eye witness was interviewed again within the last five years and presumably is still alive, Sheriff Bygd said.
Schlais was stabbed to death, and the murder weapon has never been found, he said.
Physical evidence at the site where Mary’s body was found indicated that the homicide had occurred near that intersection in the Town of Spring Brook, the sheriff said.
When asked if Miller had expressed any relief at finally being able to talk about the murder, Bygd said the murder “had to have been on his mind every day.”

Deer Stand
What was it like for the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department to finally solve the cold case? asked one reporter.
Sheriff’s Bygd said he had been sitting in a deer stand on Thursday when he received a text message.
“I had a difficult time controlling my excitement,” he said.
The sheriff said he has worked at the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department for 35 years, and that for all of those 35 years, he has been involved in working on the case.
Arresting a suspect has brought some closure, he said..
Sheriff Bygd said he texted a former sheriff and two former chief deputies to let them know a suspect had been arrested for the murder of Mary Schlais.

Art show
Mary Schlais is described in old news articles written at the time of her murder as an honor student who was on her way to an art show, said one reporter.
Mary was hitchhiking, and in 1974, hitchhiking was common. She was on her way from Minneapolis to Chicago for an art show, Sheriff Bygd said.
“This is why we don’t let our kids hitchhike now,” he said.
From all appearances, Mary was a bright young lady with a bright future ahead of her, Sheriff Bygd said.

Prison
Since the suspect is 84 years old now, he likely will not spend much time in prison. Is justice still being served? asked one reporter.
“My preference is that he would have been in prison for the last 50 years. He should spend the rest of his life in prison,” Sheriff Bygd said.
Investigators put in quite a lot of work in the last week tracking down the suspect, but quite a lot of work also has been done over the past 50 years, he said.
Law enforcement agencies can end up spending thousands of dollars on DNA evidence, but this particular case is not costing the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department very much because of the work being done through Ramapo College, Sheriff Bygd said.
When asked if there were any other cold cases that DNA evidence could be used to solve, the sheriff said there were no additional cold cases at this point using DNA evidence to identify a suspect, although a case from 1971 might be a possibility.

1971
According to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department website, the sheriff’s department received a call on April 22, 1977, regarding a vehicle that was submerged in the water in the Red Cedar River at the Lamb’s Creek Boat landing on county Highway G (this location is across the water from what is now Jake’s Supper Club).
Water in Tainter Lake was being drawn down, which made the vehicle visible. When the vehicle was pulled out of the water, the body of a woman, later identified as Joan Butterbach, was discovered inside the trunk of the car.
When investigators checked the vehicle registration, they discovered that the car, and Joan, had been listed by family members as missing from Waukesha on October 8, 1971.
Joan had been traveling to Minnesota, alone, on October 5, 1971, and never arrived at her destination.
The Waukesha Police Department, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department and the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigations conducted an investigation into Joan’s disappearance but no arrests were made.
At the time of her disappearance, Joan Butterbach was 45 years old.

First case
In response to a question about whether this was Dunn County’s first genetic genealogy cold case to be solved, Sheriff Bygd confirmed that it was the first case.
Miller was adopted, and that must have presented a curveball in solving the case, said another reporter.
Since Miller was adopted, that did throw a curveball at investigators and required more work to identify and locate him, the sheriff said.
When asked how many people had worked on the case over the years, Sheriff Bygd said the investigation had started when Corky Spagnoletti was the sheriff and the sheriff’s department consisted of the sheriff and an undersheriff.
Many of the people who have worked on the case have retired, and some of the people who worked on the case have died, he said.
“Numerous people” have worked on the case in Dunn County as well as from other law enforcement agencies, such as the Minnesota Department of Criminal Investigation, Sheriff Bygd said.
Regarding the “nuts and bolts” of the investigation pertaining to DNA evidence, Sheriff Bygd said the representatives from Ramapo College would talk about that during the news conference on Monday.
After 35 years, did you give up hope on solving the case? asked one reporter.
“I have always kept hope,” the sheriff said.
On Friday morning, Sheriff Bygd said that his wife had noted, “this is a big deal.”
Finding the suspect in Mary Schlais’s murder is “unbelievably satisfying,” Sheriff Bygd said.