Francis Wayne Alexander.Photo: Cook County Sheriff’s Office
Another victim of serial killerJohn Wayne Gacyhas been identified.
On Monday, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department announced they identified the remains of Francis Wayne Alexander, a North Carolina native who was found in Gacy’s crawl space on Dec. 26, 1978.
He was identified through DNA evidence and genealogical databases.
Wayne’s family was notified on Oct. 22.
“It is hard, even 45 years later, to know the fate of our beloved Wayne,” Wayne’s family said in a statement. “He was killed at the hands of a vile and evil man. Our hearts are heavy and our sympathies go out to the other victims' families. Our only comfort is knowing this killer no longer breathes the same air as we do.”
Gacy — who had performed at children’s parties as “Pogo the Clown,” murdered 33 teenaged boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 and buried their bodies mostly in his Norwood Park, Illinois home.
John Wayne Gacy.AP
In 2011, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart reopened the investigation in the hopes of identifying his eight remaining unnamed victims.
The eight bodies were exhumed and DNA samples were taken from the families of missing men.
Three of the eight have since been identified.
The first body identified was William Bundy, a 19-year-old construction worker from Chicago. Bundy was reported missing in Oct. 1976 after he went to a party. His body was found in Gacy’s home crawl space. He was identified in 2011.
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The Sheriff’s Department worked with the DNA Doe Project, a California non-profit that locates relatives of unidentified remains using genetic profiles, to identify Alexander’s remains.
Using DNA from his molar, the DNA Doe Project compared the victim’s profile to others on a genealogy website and found potential relatives.
The sheriff’s department obtained samples from Alexander’s mother and a half-brother and confirmed his identity.
Five unidentified victims of Gacy’s remain.
Anyone who believes their male relative may have been a Gacy victim is asked call the Cook County Sheriff at 708-865-6244.
source: people.com
