Boston Strangler Case Closed? DNA Evidence Links DeSalvo to Crime
The 50-year-old Boston Strangler case may finally be closed once the body of Albert DeSalvo is exhumed. Boston police are happy that the notorious case may finally be closed, bringing relief to the 11 victims' families.
"This is a story of relentlessness," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told Good Morning America.
The case remained unsolved for 50 years, until police recovered a water bottle covered with the fingerprints of Tim DeSalvo, Alberto's nephew. Police used the DNA evidence to provide a link to the murders and enough evidence to have Alberto's body exhumed and tested to be certain that Alberto was the Boston Strangler.
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"This is good evidence. This is strong evidence. This is reliable evidence, but there can be no doubt," Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said.
Alberto was suspected of being the Boston Strangler, a serial killer and rapist who was never charged for the 11 murders. He was, though, a convicted rapist who reportedly made a jailhouse confession and claimed that he was the Strangler. Later, Alberto's body was found dead in his jail cell.
"I am grateful this brings closure to me and to my mother most of all," Casey Sherman, the nephew of one of Alberto's victims, said. "For all these years it was just me and her chasing this case. It took 49 years for police to say they legitimately got him."
Sherman documented the case and information he had gained in "A Rose for Mary." He was persistent in his belief that someone else killed his aunt, and always wanted to see justice for his aunt, Mary Sullivan, and his mother. However, he now accepts that Alberto just may be her killer.
Sullivan was Alberto's last victim. She was found raped and strangled in her Boston apartment in 1964. DNA evidence from the scene of the crime led police to suspect Alberto, though they were never able to charge him with the crime.
