California investigators used genetic genealogy to identify him.
Investigators using genetic genealogy have identified a teen believed murdered 49 years ago by a notorious California serial killer as being from Cedar Rapids, authorities said Tuesday.
Michael Ray Schlicht, 17, of Cedar Rapids, previously known as a “John Doe” homicide victim, was found Sept. 14, 1974, in what is now the city of Aliso Viejo, Calif., northeast of Laguna Beach, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in California. He was estimated to have died three to five days before his body was found by two people who were off-roading and spotted a body over the side of the trail.
John Doe’s death initially was determined to be accidental due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication, a sheriff’s news release stated. At the time, California authorities released information to the media in hopes that someone would come forward with enough information to help them identify the man.
His fingerprints were submitted to the California Criminal Identification and Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Identification and Canadian authorities with negative results, according to officials. After those and other efforts were made to identify him, he was buried in an unmarked grave at El Toro Memorial Park in Lake Forest, Calif.
In 1980, Orange County homicide investigators noted there were other deaths in 1978 also due to alcohol and diazepam — sometimes known by brand name Valium — intoxication in Southern California. These deaths were classified as homicides.
Over the years, multiple young men were found dead throughout Southern California, including several within a few miles of where John Doe’s remains were discovered.
In May 1983, Randy Steven Kraft was arrested on murder charges after a California Highway Patrol officer conducted a traffic stop, according to the news release. In the front passenger seat was a dead man, identified as Terry Lee Gambrel. Around his feet were empty beer bottles and an open prescription bottle of lorazepam tablets. In the trunk, authorities found a coded list believed to be of over 67 victims of Kraft’s.
He earned the moniker the “Scorecard Killer” for the morbid catalog of his victims’ names he “scrawled on a white sheet of paper,” according to the Station 18 Blog of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Others called him the “Freeway Killer” because Kraft was known for targeting young male hitchhikers, many times along the freeway.
You can read more in an article by Trish Mehaffey published in the thegazette.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/2by3uanr.