The remains of a young man believed to be among the first victims of Randy Kraft — a notorious 1970s-era serial killer dubbed the “Scorecard Killer” — have been identified through investigative geneaology nearly 50 years after they were discovered in what is now Aliso Viejo, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday.
The John Doe victim, who now has been identified as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, resident Michael Ray Schlicht, was found dead on the side of a freeway in 1974. His death was at first thought to be from accidental alcohol and diazepam intoxication.
Many details surrounding John Doe’s death were released to the public at the time in hopes that someone could help to establish his identity. His fingerprint classification was submitted to the Criminal Identification and Investigation Division in Sacramento, the FBI and Canadian authorities with negative results, according to the sheriff’s department.
After weeks of unsuccessful efforts to establish his identity, John Doe was interred at El Toro Memorial Park in an unmarked grave. Investigators for years have tried to establish his identity, the sheriff’s department said in a news release Tuesday.
In 1980, OCSD investigators noted there were other deaths in 1978 due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication in Southern California, including Orange County. These deaths were classified as homicides. Over the years, several other young men were found within a few miles of where John Doe’s remains were discovered, according to the sheriff’s department
Investigators ultimately said they had tied the deaths of more than 60 young men throughout Southern California to Kraft, who was arrested in 1983 after California Highway Patrol officers stopped him in Mission Viejo and found a dead body, several beer bottles, and Lorazepam bottles in Kraft’s car.
In Kraft’s trunk, officers found a coded list of young men believed to be his victims. In 1989, Kraft was convicted of 16 murders; he has been held at San Quentin State Prison ever since.
The John Doe body found in 1974 has long been thought to have been among Kraft’s victims, authorities have said.
Some have called Kraft California’s most prolific serial killer. A Long Beach native, Kraft enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and later joined the Air Force. Kraft was later discharged after coming out as gay to his superiors.
Kraft’s murder trial lasted 11 months and produced more than 27,000 pages of transcripts.
In November 2022, Orange County sheriff’s investigators sent DNA samples to Othram Laboratories, a private forensic biotechnology company., in order to create a DNA profile Months later, that DNA profile was sent to OCSD cold-case investigators.
In October, those investigators identified Schlicht’s potential grandparents and sister, sheriff’s officials said. Their DNA was used to positively identify his remains.
Schlicht’s family are in the process of putting a headstone on their relative’s grave, authorities said.
An investigation into his death remains ongoing.