"We can now lay to rest what happened and move forward by honoring Wayne," his family added. Our only comfort is knowing this killer no longer breathes the same air as we do." Our hearts are heavy, and our sympathies go out to the other victims’ families. "He was killed at the hands of a vile and evil man. "It is hard, even 45 years later, to know the fate of our beloved Wayne," the family's statement reads. DNA samples from Alexander's mother and half brother then confirmed his identity.Īlexander is survived by his mother, two half sisters and two half brothers, who issued a statement thanking investigators for the closure they have more than four decades after his death. Through that effort, the DNA Doe Project discovered a lead indicating the remains could be Alexander, at which point the Sheriff's Office contacted his family.
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his 1978 file photo shows serial killer John Wayne Gacy.Ĭook County Sheriff's Detective Jason Moran has devoted much of his time over the past years to closing the remaining cold cases connected to Gacy.‘It's Destroyed Me:' Kyle Beach Speaks Out for First Time Amid Lawsuit Against Blackhawks It has also helped families find loved ones who, while missing, were alive - including a man in Oregon who had no idea his family was looking for him. The submission of DNA from people who suspected Gacy might have killed their loved ones has helped police solve at least 11 cold cases of homicides that had nothing to do with Gacy, who was executed in 1994. That led it to Alexander's family, and Alexander's mother and half-brother provided their DNA for comparison.īetween the genetic testing, financial records, post-mortem reports and other information, investigators were able to confirm that the remains were Alexander's. The organization compared the DNA profile from the unidentified victim's remains to profiles on a genealogy website to find potential relatives. The identification of Alexander came together when the sheriff's department teamed up with a nonprofit called the DNA Doe Project, which uses genetic information to locate relatives of dead people who have not been identified. How he crossed paths with one of the most notorious serial killers in American history is a mystery, as authorities say all they know is that "Alexander lived in an area that was frequented by Gacy and where other identified victims had previously lived." Born in North Carolina, he moved to New York and then on to Chicago, where he was married for approximately three months before he was divorced in 1975.Īccording to the sheriff's office's news release, the last known record of Alexander's life was a traffic ticket he received in Chicago in January of 1976 - a year in which he earned little money. The details of Alexander's life in Chicago are thin. In 2017, the office identified a second set as those of 16-year-old Jimmy Haakenson, who disappeared after he phoned his mother in Minnesota and told her that he was in Chicago. Within weeks, the sheriff's office announced that it had identified one set of remains as those of William Bundy, a 19-year-old construction worker.
In this undated file photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff's Office, authorities exhume a box with the remains of unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of killing 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area in the 1970s.
That was the time when Gacy was luring young men and boys to his home to eventually kill them. Dart called on anyone who had a male relative disappear in the Chicago area in the 1970s to submit DNA. In 2011, Dart's office exhumed the remains of eight victims, including Alexander, who had been buried without police knowing who they were. Three victims, meanwhile, were found buried on Gacy's property and four others whom Gacy admitted killing were found in waterways south of Chicago. We can now lay to rest what happened and move forward by honoring Wayne."Īlexander's remains were among 26 sets that police found in the crawl space under Gacy's home just outside the city. Our hearts are heavy, and our sympathies go out to the other victims' families.
"It is hard, even 45 years later, to know the fate of our beloved Wayne," Sanders wrote.