Sheriff: DNA identifies John Wayne Gacy victim

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 30 years after finding bones beneath John Wayne Gacy's house, authorities have identified a 19-year-old Chicago construction worker who disappeared in 1976 as one of Gacy's eight unnamed victims.

The announcement by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Tuesday came nearly seven weeks after the sheriff's office issued a public plea for families of young men who disappeared in the 1970s to submit DNA samples for comparison with the victims' remains.

William George Bundy's sister always suspected that Gacy killed her brother, and detectives used genetic tests to confirm those suspicions.

"Today's terribly sad, but it is also a day that provides closure," Laura O'Leary said. "We have been waiting for a long time for closure."

She said the family had filed a missing person's report and followed up with authorities, but they couldn't locate dental records back then because their dentist had retired and destroyed all records.

Gacy, who is remembered as one of history's most bizarre killers largely because of his work as an amateur clown, was convicted of murdering 33 young men, sometimes luring them to his Chicago-area home for sex by impersonating a police officer or promising them construction work.

He stabbed one and strangled the others between 1972 and 1978. Most were buried in a crawl space under his home. Four others were dumped in a river.

Gacy was executed in 1994.