Police identify unknown victim of John Wayne Gacy

More than 30 years after finding bones beneath John Wayne Gacy's house, authorities have identified William Bundy, a 19-year-old Chicago construction worker who disappeared in 1976, as one of Gacy's eight unnamed victims.

Paul Beaty/AP

Sophia Tareen Associated Press

 

CHICAGO—After her brother disappeared in 1976, Laura O’Leary suspected the 19-year-old construction worker had probably died at the hands of John Wayne Gacy. But the family was never able to prove it.
They got little help from authorities. And they couldn’t locate any dental records to compare with the skeletal remains found beneath the serial killer’s house.
After more than 30 years, her worst suspicions were confirmed Tuesday, when authorities announced William George Bundy was one of eight unidentified young men found under Gacy’s home.
“Today’s terribly sad, but it is also a day that provides closure,” she said. “We have been waiting for a long time for closure.”
The identification of Bundy came weeks after the sheriff’s office issued a public plea for families of young men who disappeared in the 1970s to submit DNA samples for comparison with the victims’ remains. Investigators exhumed the remains earlier this year, hoping technological advances would work in their favour. They established a hotline and a website for people to file reports.
O’Leary and her brother Robert provided DNA samples soon after that. A friend of Bundy’s also told the sheriff’s office he believed Bundy may have worked for Gacy.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said the office received calls from 29 states and developed a total of 125 leads, 80 of which required follow-up.
Eleven DNA samples were submitted in connection with some of the seven other victims. Four samples did not match, and investigators are waiting on the others.
Gacy was convicted of murdering 33 young men, sometimes luring them to his Chicago-area home for sex by impersonating a police officer or promising them construction work. Most were buried in a crawl space under his home. Four others were dumped in a river.
Gacy was executed in 1994.
Bundy, who grew up in Chicago, was last seen in October 1976 heading to a party, authorities said. He’d forgotten his wallet at home.
A day after he vanished, his family filed a missing-persons report. But, O’Leary said, “it wasn’t pursued aggressively.”
Bundy’s family contacted authorities again when news of Gacy and his victims became public, but they had no way to identify any remains. Their dentist had retired and destroyed all dental records.
Two years later, his remains were found under Gacy’s house, identified only as “Victim No. 19” because his was the 19th body removed from a crawl space beneath Gacy’s home.
O’Leary said the family plans to put up a grave marker for Bundy in the spring and have a ceremony at the cemetery where other relatives are buried.
“The sorrow will eventually go away,” she said. “And I’ll have a place to visit him.”
Associated Press