The remains of Albert DeSalvo, long suspected of being the Boston Strangler, were exhumed on Thursday after preliminary DNA testing revealed a link between him and the last murder that was attributed to the serial killer that was known to rape and strangle women in the 1960s, according to a prosecutor in Boston, and reported by ABC News.
The DNA extracted from the body of 19-year-old victim Mary Sullivan showed a "familial match" to DeSalvo, according to Daniel Conley, a Suffolk District Attorney who spoke with reporters.
"There was no forensic evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan's murder until today," Conley said at a news conference.
"This is good evidence," Conley continued. "This is strong evidence.
"This is reliable evidence, but there can be no doubt," he added.
Sullivan is believed to be one of the victims in a string of between 11 and 13 murders attributed to the Boston Strangler. She was found strangled in her Boston apartment in January 1964.
The "familial match" excludes 99.99 percent of suspects, but isn't sufficient to close the case. The DNA, which had been preserved from the original crime scene, had been taken from Sullivan's body and a blanket in her home. The DNA from DeSalvo was taken from a water bottle that was used recently by DeSalvo's nephew, Tim DeSalvo, according to authorities.
The DNA evidence only links DeSalvo to Sullivan's murder, and there isn't any DNA evidence believed to exist from the cases of the other victims.
DeSalvo was eventually arrested for a series of rapes, and then confessed to 11 of the Boston Strangler murders, as well as two other murders, though he was never convicted of any of the murders. He was arrested in 1967, at age 36, when he was sentenced to life in prison.
He later recanted his confession and was stabbed to death in Walpole state prison. His remains were exhumed from Puritan Lawn Cemetery in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Casey Sherman, the nephew of Mary Sullivan, didn't believe that DeSalvo had killed his aunt. He accepts the new findings and concluded that the case against DeSalvo was overwhelming.
"I only go where the evidence leads," he said. "I am grateful this brings closure to me and my mother most of all.
"For all these years it was just me and her chasing this case," he continued. "It took 49 years for police to say they legitimately got him."
"This is really a story of relentlessness," Ed Davis, the Boston Police Commissioner, said.
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