Update: Another John Wayne Gacy Victim is Identified

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by JamesG

LOL, it's from Killjoy 3

Nooooo!!!! Shouldn't have watched it! lol

Loved the pop up disclaimer tho: clown sex censored by (youknowwhotube).

[wiseguy182]

Another victim has been identified: Steven Soden

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...rson-case?lite

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Another victim has been identified: Steven Soden

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...rson-case?lite

I read a similar article today. The way I understood it was that Steven Soden was NOT a Gacy victim, but the family had worried he might have been simply because his father lived in Chicago.

Because of this concern, Steven Soden's sister submitted DNA to be checked against the Gacy victims. None of them matched her. When this boy's remains were found, his DNA was entered into the system and unexpectedly matched the sister.

Steven Soden went missing in New Jersey with another boy, Donald Caldwell, (who has not yet been located) while they were on a camping trip with their orphanage.

They were last seen running away from the campground, together. Steven Soden's body was found near where they were last seen. If this is reported correctly, it makes me wonder why was he living in an orphanage if he had a father, and why were these boys "running" away from the campground? Were they abused at the orphanage and tried to escape? Why was his body found so close to where he went missing? It seems that he wasn't far enough away to suffer from exposure and die. Was he murdered? Where's the other boy's body? Did he run away or die in the woods too?

[JamesG]

I was wondering if there has been any more progress in the ID'ing of these 8 unknown Gacy victims?

I believe they confirmed the identity of one shortly after the remains were exhumed. What has happened since then?

[Corkys-Place]

Whilst no further victims have been identified (yet). Here's an interesting new article about it and other "John Doe" type cold cases which have been solved after decades.

http://nypost.com/2015/12/28/hunt-fo...ks-cold-cases/

[LittleBeast69]

I read a few articles awhile back that this case was being reopened because some compelling evidence came to light that Gacy might not have acted alone. I'm not completely sure but the one intended victim of his that ended up being alive in Florida actually stayed in hiding due to fear of Gacy's accomplices still being out there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ccomplice.html

[JamesG]

Victim of 1970s Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy Identified as Minnesota Teen
by TIMOTHY MCLAUGHLIN
July 20, 2017


A 16-year-old boy who went missing more than 40 years ago from his home in Minnesota was identified by Chicago authorities on Wednesday as a victim of the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

James "Jimmie" Byron Haakenson of St. Paul, Minnesota, told his family in the summer of 1976 that he wanted to visit Chicago and then traveled there. He is the second of Gacy's eight unknown victims to be identified through DNA testing by the Cook County Sheriff's Department since 2011, the department said in a statement.





Gacy worked as a building contractor and sometimes performed as a clown at fundraising events. According to prosecutors, he lured many of his victims to his suburban Chicago home with the promise of construction work.

Haakenson, previously known only as Victim No. 24, was last heard from on Aug. 5, 1976, when he spoke to his mother by telephone and told her he was in Chicago, the sheriff's department said on Wednesday.

Haakenson's mother – who has since died - attempted in 1979 to learn if her son was killed by Gacy, but was unable to do so because of a lack of dental records, the sheriff's department said.





DNA samples from Haakenson's two siblings were collected by their local police departments and submitted to the University of Northern Texas Center for Human Identification to test against the unidentified victims' remains, the sheriff's department said.

The results found a "strong genetic association" between Haakenson's siblings and that of the remains of Victim No. 24.



In addition to this information, detectives also used the original missing person report on Haakenson, Social Security Administration data as well as post-mortem reports to identify him.

Haakenson's family was notified of the development on Monday, the department said.





The first success of the push to identify Gacy's still-unknown victims came in November 2011 when investigators were able to name William "Bill" George Bundy as one of Gacy's victims.

Through the process, the sheriff's department has also solved four cold cases, unrelated to Gacy, the department said on Wednesday.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...teen/23040201/

[DazzlerSparkler]

Well that's reassuring for the family. Its sad the mom did not live to see it

[Lieutenant Bookman]

One thing that always puzzled me about the Gacy murders is why did it take so long to suspect something was up with him? I admit I haven't read a ton on the subject, but I did read that many, not all, of his victims were kids he had work for him. I would assume that having multiple kids he was employing disappear during their period of employment would be a huge red flag no? These were a whole 2 or 3 years before he was investigated/arrested.

[soilentgreen]

Originally Posted by Lieutenant Bookman

One thing that always puzzled me about the Gacy murders is why did it take so long to suspect something was up with him? I admit I haven't read a ton on the subject, but I did read that many, not all, of his victims were kids he had work for him. I would assume that having multiple kids he was employing disappear during their period of employment would be a huge red flag no? These were a whole 2 or 3 years before he was investigated/arrested.

The missing persons cases weren't connected in part due the most of them not being investigated seriously, lack of communication between investigative agencies, and failure to check Gacy's criminal record. They were simply missing and some were labeled as runaways. Des Plaines P.D., who were investigating Robert Piest's disappearance, discovered Gacy's sodomy conviction. The other police departments involved in missing persons cases where there were ties to Gacy and the two sexual assault accusations (Donnelly and Rignall) failed to do so. Rignall, due to his own determination, managed to get Gacy arrested for battery but both surviving victims allegations were treated with skepticism.

[dynoguy88]

The go to response in the 70's by police if your child went missing was to immediately write them off as a runaway. It didn't matter what your situation was at home. Even children who were happy, got good grades, had tons of friends and had absolutely no reason to run away were given the same response; they ran away. We're not investigating.

When all those bodies were finally retrieved from Gacy's house, the families of many of those boys angrily went on national television and blasted the police. They were correct in saying that if their reports were taken seriously and not written off as runaways, many of those boys might have been spared. But sadly, that all fell on deaf ears. It would still take years for this mentality by investigators and police to finally change.

[Steve W.]

I had forgotten about this thread!

As referred to a few times in this thread, it is false that most of Gacy's victims were gay (at least openly). Most of them were simply victims of what appeared to be an unassuming man that, publicly, showed no signs of the evil desires and deeds that he carried out.

[Corkys-Place]

This guy was such trash.

I was watching a documentary about him on YouTube a few days back. I don't know how he have gotten away with murder after murder for so long.

[JamesG]

Another Victim of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy is Identified
by Don Babwin - Associated Press
Oct. 25, 2021


Authorities have identified the remains of one of the victims of John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of killing 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area in the 1970s.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart was expected to release the victim's name at a news conference later Monday. The victim's remains were one of six unidentified sets that authorities hadn't yet identified.




In 2011, Dart's office exhumed the unknown victims' remains in the hopes of identifying them through advances in DNA testing. He asked anyone who had a male relative disappear in the Chicago area in the 1970s, when Gacy was luring victims to his house to kill them, to submit DNA for comparison.

Dozens of people heeded Dart's request in the immediate aftermath, and samples have continued to be trickle in since then.




Within weeks of the 2011 announcement, the office announced that it had identified one set of remains as those of William Bundy, a 19-year-old construction worker.

In 2017, the office identified a second set as those of 16-year-old Jimmy Haakenson, who disappeared after he phoned his mother in Minnesota and told her that he was in Chicago.

https://www.aol.com/news/another-vic...163922563.html







Chicago Man Identified as One of John Wayne Gacy's Victims
by Jake Griffin
Oct. 25, 2021


Investigators at Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office have identified another of serial killer John Wayne Gacy's previously unknown victims.

Dart said the latest identified victim is Francis Wayne Alexander, a Chicago man and North Carolina native who would have been 21 or 22 when killed by Gacy sometime between early 1976 and early 1977.




Alexander is survived by a mother, two half-sisters and two half-brothers. The family was notified of the findings Oct. 22.

"It is hard, even 45 years later, to know the fate of our beloved Wayne," the family wrote in a statement issued by Dart's office. "He was killed at the hands of a vile and evil man. Our hearts are heavy, and our sympathies go out to the other victims' families. Our only comfort is knowing this killer no longer breathes the same air as we do."




While most of Gacy's 33 known victims were identified following his Dec. 21, 1978 arrest, six of the bodies discovered mostly under the killer's home near Des Plaines have still not been identified.

Investigators say at least another 11 cold cases unrelated to Gacy have also been solved through this renewed investigation, including the death of a Washington, Illinois man who was a student at Northwestern University.

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/202...-gacys-victims

[mphs95]

Originally Posted by Lieutenant Bookman

One thing that always puzzled me about the Gacy murders is why did it take so long to suspect something was up with him? I admit I haven't read a ton on the subject, but I did read that many, not all, of his victims were kids he had work for him. I would assume that having multiple kids he was employing disappear during their period of employment would be a huge red flag no? These were a whole 2 or 3 years before he was investigated/arrested.

If you have access to Peacock, watch "Devil In Disguise". It's a 6 part doc on John Wayne Gacy and it goes into depth not just the vics, but the crimes and the environment itself of the 1970s. Very good.