Boston Strangler: DNA testing of suspect's corpse may lay identity to rest

Investigators helped by advances in DNA technology finally have forensic evidence linking longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo to the last of the 1960s killings attributed to the Boston Strangler, leading many involved in the case to hope it can finally be put to rest.

DeSalvo's remains will be exhumed after authorities concluded that DNA from the scene of Mary Sullivan's rape and murder produced a "familial match" with him, Suffolk district attorney Daniel Conley said. Conley said he expected investigators to find an exact match when the evidence is compared with DeSalvo's DNA.

Sullivan, 19, was found strangled in her Boston apartment in January 1964. She had long been considered the strangler's last victim.

The announcement represented the most definitive evidence yet linking DeSalvo to the case. Eleven Boston-area women between the ages of 19 and 85 were sexually assaulted and killed between 1962 and 1964, crimes that terrorised the region and made national headlines.

DeSalvo, an Army veteran, confessed to the 11 Boston Strangler murders, as well as two others. But he was never convicted of them. He had been sentenced to life in prison for a series of armed robberies and sexual assaults and was stabbed to death in prison in 1973. but not before he recanted his confession.

Sullivan's nephew Casey Sherman has for years maintained that DeSalvo did not kill his aunt and even wrote a book on the case pointing to other possible suspects.

He said he accepted the new findings after concluding that the DNA evidence against DeSalvo appeared to be overwhelming.

"I only go where the evidence leads," he said. He thanked police and praised them "for their incredible persistence".

DeSalvo's family was outraged police secretly followed his nephew to collect DNA for new tests. Attorney Elaine Sharp said the family also believes there is still reasonable doubt he killed the Strangler's last supposed victim.

Officials stressed that the DNA evidence links DeSalvo only to Sullivan's killing and that no DNA evidence is believed to exist for the other Boston Strangler murders.

But the state attorney-general, Martha Coakley, said investigators hoped solving Sullivan's case might put to rest doubts about DeSalvo's guilt.

Conley said the "familial match" excluded 99.99% of suspects but was not enough to close the case.

Attorney Lee Bailey, who helped to obtain the confession from DeSalvo, said the announcement woul probably help put to rest speculation over the Boston Strangler's identity.

Bailey had been representing another inmate who informed him that DeSalvo knew details of the crimes. Bailey would later represent DeSalvo.

A woman who answered the phone at the home of DeSalvo's brother Richard said the family had no comment. She did not identify herself.