A John Doe homicide victim has at last been given a name—bringing to close a chilling chapter that dates back to 1974 in California. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the man has been identified as Michael Ray Schlicht from Cedar Rapids, IA, with their investigative genetic genealogy team putting the puzzle pieces of his lineage together.
The grim saga began when Michael's body was found on a secluded Laguna Hills fire road, now part of Aliso Viejo, presenting a decades-long enigma: The discovery of his body was initially chalked up to accidental death caused by a tragic cocktail of alcohol and diazepam, but nothing is ever as simple as it seems. The investigators tirelessly worked to put a name to a forgotten face, and after a string of young men were found dead under similar circumstances, the specter of homicide loomed large, casting its shadow over Southern California.
Speculation pointed toward the infamy of Randy Steven Kraft, dubbed the "Scorecard Killer", whose arrest in 1983 unveiled a macabre tally believed to list 67 victims, 16 of whom he was convicted for, the rest haunting as grim possibilities. John Doe, or rather Michael Ray Schlicht, became suspected as one of the early casualties, as confirmed by sheriff's department investigators, of Kraft's horrific spree, his story archived into a mournful anonymity.
But the tides turned in November 2022 when OCSD bet on modern science, dispatching tissue samples to Othram Laboratories and in the maze of genetic markers, a path was illuminated, leading to a family in Kansas City, MO and a woman's DNA who fitted the pieces Michael's identity was at last confirmed to be that of her long-lost brother, noted the OC Sheriff's Department. An unmarked grave at El Toro Memorial Park, which held Michael's remains, will now bear a headstone, giving a measure of peace to those who wondered and waited.
