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84-year-old sentenced to life in prison for killing Minneapolis woman more than 50 years ago

On Thursday, Jon Keith Miller, an 84-year-old man, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1974 murder of 25-year-old Mary K. Schlais of Minneapolis in Dunn County, Wisconsin.
Mary Schlais was last seen in uptown Minneapolis hitchhiking to an art show in Chicago when Miller picked her up, later stabbing her to death after she refused his sexual advances and dumping her body in a ditch covered with snow.
The case remained unsolved for nearly 50 years until advancements in DNA technology and genetic genealogy, along with the help of Miller's biological relatives, led investigators to identify him as the suspect through a winter stocking hat left near the victim's body.
Miller confessed to stabbing Schlais, telling KARE 11 reporter Lou Raguse that he wanted to have sex with her, and admitted the stocking cap found at the scene was his, though he initially believed he had "gotten away with it" because a witness misremembered the color of his car.
Miller's sentencing, which he did not address the family during, brings closure to the decades-long investigation and allows Mary Schlais' family to focus on remembering her as a person, as expressed by Nina Schlais who thanked the Dunn County Sheriff's Office and the team at Ramapo College for their dedication.

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FOX2548 & WIProud

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Man who admitted to killing Mary Schlais 50 years ago, sentenced to life in prison

MENOMONIE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) - A decades-long mystery has ended. 84-year-old Jon Miller is now sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing death of 25-year-old University of Minnesota student, Mary Schlais. Miller appeared in Dunn County Court to change his plea from not guilty to no contest for 1st-degree intentional homicide. DNA from a stocking cap found at the scene in Dunn County in 1974 led investigators to Miller late last year. The prose…

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Minnesota man sentenced for killing hitchhiker headed to Chicago 51 years ago

An 84-year old Minnesota man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a 25-year-old woman 51 years ago as she was hitchhiking to Chicago for an art show.

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Duluth News Tribune

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Jon Keith Miller sentenced to life in prison for the 1974 murder of Mary Schlais

Miller pleaded no contest, despite admitting to Dunn County Sheriff's investigators that he killed her and left her body in a snow bank.

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KARE

Center

84-year-old sentenced to life in prison for killing Minneapolis woman more than 50 years ago

An 84-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a Minneapolis woman he picked up as a hitchhiker now more than 50 years ago.

4 days ago·Minneapolis, United States

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Fox 9

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Man sentenced for 1974 murder of Minneapolis woman after DNA breakthrough

Jon Miller, the 84-year-old man who was caught 50 years after a Minneapolis woman was killed in Wisconsin, as she tried to hitchhike to a Chicago art show, learned his fate on Thursday.

4 days ago·Minneapolis, United States

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