Man arrested in Dunn County, Wisconsin, 50 years after the murder of a Minneapolis woman

SPRING BROOK TOWNSHIP, Wis. (FOX 9) – Fifty years after a Minneapolis woman’s death, an 84-year-old man has been arrested thanks to genetic genealogy testing.

What we know

Mary K. Schlais, 25, was found dead on February 15, 1974, near the intersection of 408th Avenue and 990th Street in Spring Brook Township, Dunn County, Wisconsin.

She hitchhiked from Minneapolis to an art exhibition in Chicago. Three witnesses saw a suspect and a suspicious vehicle believed to be related to Schlais’ killing, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office said.

The investigation

Officials said there were many “tips, leads and interviews” surrounding Schlais’ killing over the next several decades.

As DNA tenology developed, the evidence was examined again and again, but no viable suspects were identified. But in recent years, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office began working with Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, and a team of genetic genealogists. Through their investigative genetic genealogy, they identified a suspect.

The suspect

Investigators arrested an 84-year-old man from Owatonna, Minnesota, in connection with Schlais’ murder. He is in custody awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.