Arrest made in a 50-year-old Dunn County cold case

MENOMONIE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – A dramatic turn of events in a 50-year-old Dunn County cold case. The Dunn County Sheriff's Office has arrested 84-year-old Jon Keith Miller and charged him with first-degree murder for the death of 25-year-old Mary Schlais. Her body was found in the town of Spring Brook in Dunn County in 1974.

Cairenn Binder, Assistant Director of the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGGC) at Ramapo College, explains, "Everything that we do has to do with public records, and our findings on the internet. And so, we were able to find, with the cooperation with some of the cousins of Jon Miller, the DNA cousins of Jon Miller, we were able to figure out who the unknown relative was."

Binder, and her colleague David Gurney, say through investigations of a DNA sample submitted, IGG at Ramap College narrowed down their search and identified Miller as a suspect.