Alleged sufferer of serial killer Randy Kraft recognized 49 years later

After almost half a century, authorities have recognized the stays of a person who’s believed to have been killed by Randy Kraft, California’s infamous “Scorecard Killer” who focused younger males within the Nineteen Seventies and ‘80s.

Michael Ray Schlicht, who died when he was 17 in 1974, was recognized Tuesday by investigators with the Orange County Sheriff’s Division utilizing investigative genetic family tree.

The Iowa native was discovered lifeless on Sept. 14, 1974, on the aspect of a path in what’s now Aliso Viejo. He had been lifeless for 3 to 5 days, in accordance with authorities, and died of alcohol and diazepam intoxication. His demise was initially decided to be unintended.

Michael Ray Schlicht, a John Doe murder sufferer in 1974, was recognized by investigative genetic family tree.

(Orange County Sheriff’s Division)

Murder investigators with the Sheriff’s Division realized in 1980 that there have been different younger males who had died of the identical intoxication, and people deaths had been categorised as homicides, the division mentioned.

“Over time, a number of younger males had been discovered deceased all through Orange County and Southern California, together with a number of inside a couple of miles of the place [Schlicht’s] stays had been found,” the division mentioned in a information launch.

It was not till 1983 when two California Freeway Patrol officers pulled over Kraft, a 38-year-old laptop technician from Lengthy Seashore, and found a lifeless Marine within the entrance seat that authorities started to piece collectively the homicides. Kraft’s lethal path took investigators to Oregon and Michigan, and quite a few our bodies had been additionally present in Orange County.

The officers found images of different younger male victims, apparently lifeless, underneath the ground mat of the automobile. Kraft was convicted of 16 murders in 1989, although he’s suspected in dozens extra. Eight of the lads he killed had diazepam — generally often known as Valium — of their system, like Schlicht, prosecutors mentioned.

Kraft’s nickname got here from the record police discovered behind his automobile. It was an inventory of “notations” that prosecutors at Kraft’s trial mentioned was a “demise record,” displaying every particular person he had killed. Prosecutors dubbed him the “Scorecard Killer.”

Kraft, 78, remains to be being held on demise row at San Quentin State Jail.

After 49 years of not realizing Schlicht’s id, Sheriff’s Division investigators mentioned they had been in a position to generate a DNA profile for his or her John Doe sufferer by submitting tissue samples to a forensic biotechnology firm.

As soon as that they had the profile, sheriff’s investigators uploaded the DNA to a “regulation enforcement-approved family tree database” and commenced constructing a household tree of the sufferer.

After months of researching, investigators related the person’s DNA to folks believed to be his grandparents. Once they contacted a granddaughter of the potential grandparents, the lady advised investigators she had not seen her brother since 1974 — the yr the person was killed.

Near their reply, investigators then obtained a DNA pattern from a lady they believed to be their sufferer’s mom. It was a match and so they had been in a position to establish the lifeless 17-year-old as Schlicht.

A relative of Schlicht declined to remark to The Occasions on his identification.