An 84-year-old Owatonna, Minn., man has been charged with a 50-year-old unsolved homicide that occurred in western Wisconsin’s Dunn County.

Jon K. Miller was charged Thursday in Dunn County Circuit Court with first-degree murder.

“On February 15, 1974, Mary K. Schlais was found deceased near the intersection of 408th Ave. and 990th St. in the Township of Spring Brook,” wrote Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd in a press release. “Mary’s death at that time was ruled a homicide. The initial investigation revealed that Mary was from Minneapolis, MN, and was believed to be hitch-hiking from Minneapolis to an art show in Chicago. There was an eye-witness that observed a suspect and suspect vehicle that were believed to be connected to the homicide of Mary Schlais.

“Over the course of the next several decades there were many tips, leads, and interviews conducted related to this homicide by multiple law enforcement agencies. There were also several items of evidence examined and re-examined over the years as technological advances in DNA were developed. Still, no viable suspects were identified,” Bygd wrote.

In recent years, Dunn County Sheriff’s Office investigators began working with Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J., and their team of genetic genealogists. Through investigative genetic genealogy, a viable suspect was identified.

Bygd announced that deputies arrested Miller on Thursday.

Miller is in custody and awaiting extradition back to Wisconsin, he wrote. A $1 million cash bond was set in Dunn County Circuit Court.

— Leader-Telegram of Eau Claire, Wis.

Unloaded gun found in student’s locker

Kennedy Community School’s administrators found an unloaded firearm in a student’s locker last Friday morning, according to an email St. Cloud Public Schools superintendent Laurie Putnam sent to ISD 742 families.

“We are trying to be as transparent about the situation as possible,” Putnam said Monday afternoon. “We are glad the situation was handled quickly and safely.”

The firearm was an unloaded handgun, Putnam said. No ammunition was found on the student or in the St. Joseph school, which serves students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, the email said.

School administrators secured the student and the firearm, then notified the resource officers on patrol, Putnam said in the email. ISD 742 works with area police departments, including St. Joseph’s, to have resource officers in and patrol schools.

The district and law enforcement have determined that there was no threat of danger and the student did not intend to cause harm, Putnam said Monday.

Administrators searched the student’s locker on Nov. 8 because of an unrelated tip.

— Forum News Service

Minnesota teen drowns in kayaking accident

A Minnesota youth died last weekend when his kayak overturned on a western Wisconsin lake.

According to the Barron County Sheriff’s Office, dispatchers received multiple 911 calls at approximately 12:35 p.m. Saturday. The callers were screaming for help on Kirby Lake in Maple Plain Township.

Rescuers determined that two victims had been in the water from overturned kayaks and a 17-year-old boy had not resurfaced.

After searching the lake with sonar, rescuers identified the possible victim. A dive team recovered the boy, who was flown to a Twin Cities hospital by helicopter. He was later pronounced dead.

The victim wasn’t immediately identified by the sheriff’s office.

The incident remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

— Staff report