On the bitterly cold afternoon of Wednesday, February 15, 1984, a motorist driving along a rural snow-covered road in the Town of Spring Lake, near the Pierce and Dunn county line in Western Wisconsin, spotted a body abandoned in a deep snowbank. A young woman had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest. For forty years, the homicide of 25-year-old Mary K. Schlais stood as a high-priority unsolved case of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Discovery, Vehicle Sightings & Wisconsin DOJ Clearinghouse
The victim had died of massive internal hemorrhage caused by multiple stab wounds. A witness reported seeing an orange compact vehicle with a hatchback idling near the snowbank shortly before the body was spotted; when the witness approached, the driver accelerated rapidly into the winter blizzard.
Investigators identified the victim through personal effects as 25-year-old Mary Katherine Schlais of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mary was an artist who had been hitchhiking from Minneapolis to Chicago to attend an art show. Because the killer vanished across state lines, the case was indexed by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Clearinghouse (missingpersons.doj.wi.gov) and Dunn County Sheriff's Office as one of the state's most wanted cold case homicides.
Chronological Case Timeline
| Date / Year | Location | Event / Investigative Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 15, 1984 | Spring Lake, Pierce Co., WI | Body discovered in snowbank; orange compact hatchback observed fleeing scene. |
| 1984–2000 | WI DOJ DCI & Dunn Co. | Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory preserves male DNA from victim's clothing. |
| 2008 | CODIS Entry | Male STR DNA profile uploaded to national CODIS database; returns zero felon hits. |
| 2022 | Ramapo College IGG | Dunn County SO partners with Ramapo College of New Jersey Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center. |
| Nov 8, 2024 | Menomonie, WI | Sheriff Kevin Bygd announces arrest of 84-year-old Jon Keith Miller in Minneapolis for murder. |