Alleged Victim of Serial Killer Identified 49 Years Later

Teenager Michael Ray Schlicht's 1974 death was first thought to be accidental
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 30, 2023 2:42 PM CST
Alleged Victim of Serial Killer Identified 49 Years Later
Guard towers on the walls of the recreation yard are seen with Mt. Tamalpais in the background at San Quentin State Prison, where Randy Kraft is incarcerated, in July.   (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

An Iowa teenager believed to be one of the earliest victims of a notorious California serial killer has been identified 49 years after his death. Long known only as a John Doe, the teen was identified this week as Michael Ray Schlicht of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Orange County Sheriff's Department said in a news release that the teen has long been thought to be an early victim of Randy Kraft, dubbed the "Scorecard Killer." Kraft, who remains incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, was convicted of brutalizing and killing 16 men during a decadelong series of slayings in Orange County that ended with his 1983 arrest, the AP reports.

Besides the Orange County slayings for which Kraft was convicted in 1989, authorities have said the 78-year-old is suspected of killing others in California, Oregon, and Michigan. The body of the teen now identified as Schlicht was found on Sept. 14, 1974, as two people were off-roading on a fire road northeast of Laguna Beach, the release said. The death of the 17-year-old was initially determined to be accidental due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication. But similar deaths in the years that followed caught the attention of investigators who classified them as homicides. Some of the deaths happened within a few miles of where Schlicht's remains were discovered, the release said.

It all ended when a California Highway Patrol trooper pulled over Kraft after spotting his vehicle weaving along the shoulder of the freeway. In the passenger seat was a strangled Marine. John Doe's death got another look in November 2022, when sheriff's investigators submitted tissue samples to a private forensic biotechnology company to develop a DNA profile. Investigators then loaded the profile into a genealogy database to begin building a family tree. That led them to Kansas City, Missouri, to obtain a DNA sample from a woman believed to be the victim's mother.

(More serial killer stories.)

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