Post date: Jul 11, 2013 7:31:17 PM
DNA ties dead suspect to final homicide in the unsolved "Boston Strangler" case almost 50 years after murders, officials say.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JULY 11, 2013) (NBC) - Almost 50 years after the "Boston Strangler" murders of 11 women terrified the city, prosecutors on Thursday (July 11) said new DNA evidence linked a man, who confessed to the killings but was never convicted, to the last of the homicides.
"There was no forensic evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan's murder until today," said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley at a news conference.But even as they said the new evidence suggests that Albert DeSalvo - who confessed to the crimes while serving an unrelated prison sentence - killed 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, they warned that the full string of murders might never be solved.
"These developments bear only on Mary Sullivan's murder. They don't apply to the other 10 homicides popularly attributed to the Boston Strangler," said Conley. "Even among experts and law enforcement officials there is disagreement to this day about whether they were in fact committed by the same person."
The evidence came from DNA extracted from a water bottle that one of DeSalvo's nephews had drunk from. It showed a strong family link to DNA recovered from the scene where Sullivan was raped and killed in January 1964.
Based on that link, a judge authorized investigators to exhume DeSalvo's remains for final DNA testing, Conley said. He added that the body would be exhumed "sometime this week" and that the testing would be a "quick process."
DeSalvo was serving a prison sentence for armed robbery and sexual assault when he was stabbed to death by another inmate in 1973.
Eleven women were murdered in the greater Boston area from 1962 through 1964 in the "Boston Strangler" killings, after sexual assaults that took place in their homes. The assaults, which targeted unmarried women, terrified the city.