One of the six remaining unnamed John Wayne Gacy victims has been identified 44 years after he was murdered with the assistance of genetic genealogy.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Police and DNA Doe Project (DDP) have now identified Victim #5—who’s body was found among 25 others in Gacy’s crawl space on Dec. 26,1978—as Francis Wayne Alexander. The 21/22-year-old was murdered by the serial killer known as the Killer Clown sometime between early 1976 and early 1977.
In 2011, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart re-opened the Gacy investigation in an attempt to identify the eight remaining unnamed victims.
“These unidentified young men brutally murdered by this vicious serial killer deserve dignity and that includes knowing their names,” said Dart. “As science evolves, it is important for us to continually apply these new tools to both new and old cases to help victims and their families.”
As part of the investigation, Cook County Sheriff’s Police collaborated with DDP, providing the non-profit organization a DNA profile of then unidentified Victim #5. Searching genealogy websites, DDP was able to identify potential relatives of the victim. Additional genealogical research provided a lead to indicate Alexander may be Victim #5.
The Sheriff’s Police then collected DNA samples from Alexander’s mother and half-brother, which revealed a strong genetic association to the young victim.
According to the Sheriff’s Police, the department also combed through financial records, public records, post-mortem reports and other data in an attempt to link Victim #5 to Alexander. This information included the last record for Alexander, which was a traffic ticket on Jan. 5, 1976, as well as financial records that revealed he earned little income in 1976. The police found other proof of life for Alexander after this time. Additionally, Alexander lived in an area that was frequented by Gacy and where other identified victims had previously lived.
All of this has led the department to conclude Francis Wayne Alexander is indeed Victim #5. Alexander is the third victim to be positively identified since the investigation was reopened in 2011—James Haakenson and William Bundy are the two others. In the process, the Sheriff’s Office has solved four unrelated cold case deaths, located five missing persons alive, and two missing persons who had died without their families’ knowledge.
Gacy, who was executed in 1994 for his crimes, assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys between the years of 1972 and 1978. According to Gacy, he committed all the murders inside his home in Norwood Park, Illinois, about 15 miles west of Chicago proper. Twenty-six victims were found in the crawl space of his home, three were buried elsewhere on the property, and four were thrown into the Des Plaines River.
The Sheriff’s Police will continue the investigation into the remaining five unidentified Gacy victims, and investigators said they will use genetic genealogy “where practical.”
Photo: Francis Wayne Alexander, formally known as Victim #5. Credit: Cooks County Sheriff’s Police.