Mary Schlais

Last Updated on February 27, 2026

Mary Schlais was killed on 15th February 1974.

She was killed just two hours after attempting to hitch a lift from Minneapolis to Chicago.

Mary was discovered 90 miles away from her home.

She had been found in a ditch at the side of a dead-end road, near Elk Creek in Wisconsin.

She was killed just three hours after she was last seen by her roommate.

Mary had been stabbed to death and beaten violently.

Her murder remained unsolved until 2024.

Mary Schlais Murder

Mary Schlais was killed on 15th February 1974.

She was killed after leaving her home and hitchhiking.

Mary had been beaten and stabbed multiple times.

She was left at the side of a dead-end road, in a ditch.

A witness told the police that he saw a man and a woman fighting at around 12 pm.

They were fighting in an orange/gold compact car.

It was parked at the side of the road and close to the snow drifts that covered the ditch.

The witness saw the man throw the woman into the snow, reverse and drive off.

Another account (likely to be inaccurate) says a witness told someone he thought he saw a body.

He thought he saw a body in the boot of the car.

The witness claims that as he drove past, he saw the man throw something into the ditch.

He returned home before returning to the site with a friend.

The authorities discovered her body in the ditch.

The killer had attempted to hide her body in the snow.

They had moved snow to try to cover her.

Her murder features in more depth, amongst others, in Cold Cases of West Central Wisconsin (AD*)

Investigation

Police were able to take photographs of the tyre tracks, but the snow at the scene made it more difficult.

Both Mary’s coat and purse were missing from the scene.

The witness identified that her body was dumped from an orange or gold compact car.

The witness was able to give a description of the man as a white male between the ages of 25 and 35.

He was 6 feet tall, 180 lbs, medium-length auburn hair with a thick moustache.

He also sat with a police sketch artist to create a sketch of the man.

The autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed more than 15 times and had been beaten violently.

She had been stabbed in the back, neck and abdomen with a thin-bladed knife.

She also had a broken nose, and her face was heavily bruised from being hit in the face with a heavy object.

Mary had many defensive wounds from fighting her killer.

There was skin and blood from her attackers under her fingernails.

It is believed that she was stabbed when she was standing up.

DNA evidence was also collected from a stocking cap that was discarded nearby.

They compared them to a number of suspects as they came up in the investigation, but did not find a match.

A car that may have been involved was held by authorities.

They never revealed whether it was connected to her murder.

In 2009, Mary’s body was exhumed, and more DNA was recovered.

The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office revealed that they now had two DNA profiles.

Suspects

As part of the investigation, they searched her home and found a photograph of an unknown male.

He is considered a suspect due to his resemblance to the police sketch that the witness gave to the police.

The I-5 killer, Randal Woodfield, has long been considered a suspect in her killing.

He was said to be travelling through the area that she would have been hitchhiking in at the time of her murder.

Randal fits with the description of the witnesses, and Mary fits in with his profile of victims.

As of 2018, they had been unable to interview him about her killing, and it is unlikely he would confess to the killing.

Mary Schlais Case Solved

In 2024, Jon Miller was arrested in connection with her murder.

They were able to arrest him due to advances in genetic testing.

The stocking cap from the crime scene was retested in an attempt to solve the case.

Miller confessed to the crime.

He claimed that he killed her after picking her up while she was hitchhiking.

Miller made sexual advances, and he was rejected. He killed her.

He left her body in the snow after being spooked by being seen by witnesses.

Jon Miller was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2025.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

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