Michael Ray Schlicht

Michael’s story

On Sept. 14, 1974, two people off-roading on a fire road in the hills of what is now Aliso Viejo found a young man’s body beside the trail. He carried no identification. The coroner ruled his death an accident caused by alcohol and diazepam (Valium). Fingerprint searches found no match, and within weeks he was buried as John Doe in an unmarked grave at El Toro Memorial Park. [1]

Nearly half a century later, DNA and family-tree research identified him as Michael Ray Schlicht, 17, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Sheriff’s Department says he “has long been thought to be an early victim” of Randy Kraft, the “Scorecard Killer.” Kraft has never been charged with Michael’s death. [1][2]

Who Michael was

Michael grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His sister told investigators she had not seen her 17-year-old brother since April 1974, about five months before he was found 1,700 miles away in Orange County. How and why he came to Southern California hasn’t been made public. After his identification, his family began arranging a headstone for his grave. [1][3]

What happened

Authorities estimated Michael had died three to five days before he was found, around Sept. 9–11, 1974. [2]

At first his death looked accidental. That changed in hindsight. In 1978, young men were found dead along South County roads after being plied with alcohol and diazepam and then killed, and those deaths were ruled homicides. Two were found within a few miles of the fire road: one beside Moulton Parkway half a mile north of La Paz Road, and one on Interstate 5 between La Paz Road and Oso Parkway. By 1980, investigators had noted the pattern. [1][5]

In May 1983, a California Highway Patrol officer stopped Randy Kraft on the San Diego Freeway and found a dead Marine in his passenger seat. In Kraft’s trunk was a coded list of apparent victims. Kraft was convicted in 1989 of 16 murders and sentenced to death; he is suspected in many more. [1][5]

Where it happened

In 1974 the fire road was in unincorporated hill country near Laguna Hills. A news report described it as “northeast of Laguna Beach.” The area has since become the city of Aliso Viejo. Several of Kraft’s known victims were left along roads in the same part of South County. [1][4][5]

What investigators have said

The Sheriff’s Department’s cold case team, two investigators trained in genetic genealogy, sent tissue samples to the private lab Othram in November 2022. By October 2023 they had traced Michael’s likely grandparents, then his sister. A DNA sample from a woman in Kansas City, Missouri, believed to be his mother, confirmed his identity. [1][4]

While searching Kraft case evidence for anything related to Michael, investigators found material that helped Oregon police identify a separate 1980 victim in 2025. That announcement did not name a list entry for Michael or add evidence that Kraft killed him. [7]

Any charging decision would rest with the Orange County District Attorney. [4]

Where accounts differ

• The list. When Kraft’s list was made public in 1988, prosecutors matched named 1974 entries to other victims, and about 20 entries remained unmatched. No public record matches any entry to Michael. Online claims that a particular entry refers to him are guesses. [6]
• Accident or homicide. The 1974 ruling was accidental intoxication. The public record doesn’t say when, or whether, it was formally changed. [1]
• At least one online article wrongly describes Michael as a 20-year-old Marine killed in 1978. Every official source says he was 17 and died in 1974.

Open questions

• How did a 17-year-old from Iowa reach Orange County between April and September 1974, and who did he meet there?
• Was Michael reported missing in Iowa in 1974?
• Does any surviving evidence connect his death to Kraft, or to someone else?

What you can do

• If you knew a teenager from Iowa named Michael in Orange County in 1974, perhaps hitchhiking, staying with friends or working odd jobs, contact the cold case team.
• Research: the Cedar Rapids Gazette (April–September 1974) may hold a missing-juvenile notice. It’s digitized on Newspapers.com and indexed by the Cedar Rapids Public Library.
• Read the record: the California Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in People v. Kraft is free online and describes the charged cases, locations and evidence in detail. [5]