DNA may crack Boston Strangler case
Albert DeSalvo(Courtesy: thinkquest.org)
Investigators are on the verge of solving the last of the Boston Strangler killings of the 1960s, thanks to new DNA tests and a sample secretly collected from a relative of longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo.
DNA taken from a water bottle thrown away by one of DeSalvo's nephews is a "familial match" with genetic material preserved in the January 1964 killing of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said.
"This is good evidence, strong evidence and reliable evidence, but it's not sufficient to close the case with absolute certainty," Conley told reporters. DNA from DeSalvo's remains is needed to prove "once and for all" that the onetime handyman was Sullivan's killer -- and perhaps to close other cases to which DeSalvo confessed.
The Strangler killings terrorized Boston from mid-1962 to early 1964. DeSalvo confessed to 13 killings, including Sullivan's, but he was never charged. He was stabbed to death in 1973 while serving a life prison term for unrelated rapes.
"There was no forensic evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan's murder until today," Conley said. The new DNA match now excludes "99.9%" of the population as suspects, he said -- and now that a judge has approved DeSalvo's exhumation, the DNA match could be confirmed in "a matter of days."
As for the rest of the victims, the developments "give us a glimmer of hope that there can one day be finality, if not accountability," for their families, Conley said.
Read more on this CNN story here.