DNA Brings Pain, Closure To Family Of John Wayne Gacy Victim

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CHICAGO (AP) -- Siblings of the man identified as a victim of the notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy say their family is shocked but grateful to police who used DNA to confirm his fate.

Francis Wayne Alexander has been identified as a previously unidentified victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. (Source: Cook County Sheriff)

The Cook County Sheriff's Office on Monday confirmed that Francis Wayne Alexander was among the victims found on Gacy's property near Chicago in the late 1970s.

The agency exhumed unidentified remains in 2011 and has used DNA technology to try and identify them.

Alexander's siblings say their family spent years hoping he was alive but unable to contact them for some reason. Gacy was convicted of killing 33 young men and boys in the 1970s and was executed in 1994.

John Wayne Gacy was known for many years around his neighborhood as a Democratic precinct captain and a birthday party clown. But in December 1978, police discovered 29 bodies buried in a crawl space of his house and the surrounding yard in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Another four bodies were found in the Des Plaines River. (Credit: CBS)