Fifty years after final murder linked to the Boston Strangler took place, officials say that have definitive evidence that links Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to the crimes, to the murder.
Last week, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley confirmed that investigators discovered DNA that had a “familial match” to DeSalvo.
DeSalvo died in prison in 1973 while serving a life sentence for other crimes and confessed to the Boston Strangler murders while in prison. He was never convicted, though.
On Friday, results from the DNA test came back, following the exhumation of DeSalvo’s body over the weekend. The DNA linked him to the 1964 murder of Mary Sullivan, the last of the 11 slayings linked to the Strangler, notes Boston.com.
“This leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan, and most likely that he was responsible for the horrific murders of the other women he confessed to killing,” Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley stated Friday, notes Reuters.
“We now have an unprecedented level of certainty that Albert DeSalvo raped and murdered Mary Sullivan,” Conley added. “We now have to look very closely at the possibility that he also committed at least some of the other sexual homicides to which he confessed. Questions that Mary’s family asked for almost 50 years have finally been answered. They, and the families of all homicide victims, should know that we will never stop working to find justice, accountability, and closure on their behalf.”
Officials confirmed that the test was done by Orchid Cellmark in Dallas. The DNA matched fluid that was recovered at the scene of the crime. Unfortunately, no DNA from the crime scenes of the other 10 murders survive, so it will never be known if DeSalvo was responsible for those murders as well.
image: Wikimedia Commons
