The Story of the Body of the Victim of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy, Found After 45 Years
A North Carolina man who disappeared in the 1970s has been found and identified as one of dozens of victims murdered by serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Francis Wayne Alexander's body was among the bodies found in the plumbing access room at Gacy's Chicago-area home in 1978.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart ordered efforts to identify the bodies of eight unidentified victims through DNA testing. Alexander is the third victim of a serial killer identified in the last decade.
When Alexander was killed by Gacy between 1976 and 1977, he was only 21 or 22 years old. Whereas Gacy, had been convicted of killing 33 youths between 1972 and 1978 and burying them on his property, he was also executed in 1994.
Gacy performs his stunts by luring young men into his house for sex by pretending to be police officers or promising them construction jobs. When the investigation reopened, Sheriff Dart asked the victim's family to submit a saliva sample to compare DNA with the eight buried but unidentifiable victims.
Identifying Victims
William George Bundy, a 19-year-old construction worker, was identified as Gacy's victim. Furthermore, in 2017, James Byron Haakenson, a teenager who went missing from Minnesota, was named as another victim. Investigators matched DNA samples from Alexander's mother and half-brother with his remains.
Alexander's sister, Carolyn Sanders, thanked the sheriff's office for giving her family a "cover". "Even 45 years later, we know the fate of our beloved Alexander was murdered at the hands of a cruel and evil man," Sanders said. "But now all we can do is rest and respect it", he added.
Authorities say they are not sure how Alexander met Gacy, who became one of America's most notorious serial killers. Gacy had moved to Chicago, where he was married for about three months before divorcing in 1975.
After he moved, officers found no record that he was still alive. According to the sheriff's office, Alexander lived in an area frequented by Gacy where other victims also lived in the area. Now, police say their efforts to identify the other remains are ongoing.