Gacy Victim No. 5 Identified as Francis Wayne Alexander: WGN News Report, October 25, 2021

Name: Gacy Victim No. 5 Identified as Francis Wayne Alexander: WGN News Report, October 25, 2021
Uploaded: 2021-10-25T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 min 48 s
Description: WGN reports the day the Cook County Sheriff's Office named "Victim No. 5" as Francis Wayne Alexander, with investigators explaining how tax records, parking tickets and genetic genealogy gave him back his name.

WGN reports the day the Cook County Sheriff's Office named "Victim No. 5" as Francis Wayne Alexander, with investigators explaining how tax records, parking tickets and genetic genealogy gave him back his name.

Subject: John Wayne Gacy
Recorded: about October 25, 2021
Runtime: 2:48

Content warning: Concerns the murder of a young man by Gacy and the burial of victims in Gacy's crawl space; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with John Wayne Gacy, who is not heard. It is a WGN News report from Chicago, broadcast on October 25, 2021, the day the Cook County Sheriff's Office announced that one of Gacy's unidentified victims, known for decades as "Victim No. 5", was Francis Wayne Alexander. Reporter Lourdes Duarte's package includes Sheriff's Office investigators explaining how he was identified, a reading from his family's statement, and a speaker on the genetic genealogy lead.

Historical Context

John Wayne Gacy was arrested on December 21, 1978, and most of his victims' remains were found in the crawl space of his house in Norwood Park Township. He was convicted of 33 murders on March 12, 1980, sentenced to death the next day, and executed on May 10, 1994. Several victims remained unidentified. In 2011 the Sheriff's Office reopened the effort to identify them, and remains were exhumed for DNA testing; William Bundy was identified that year and James Haakenson in 2017. From 2019 the Sheriff's Office worked with the nonprofit DNA Doe Project, and Alexander became the first Gacy victim identified through investigative genetic genealogy.

Circumstances

Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced the identification at a news conference in Maywood, Illinois, on October 25, 2021; the family had been told on October 22. WGN's report was broadcast and posted the same day. Alexander's remains had been recovered from the crawl space on December 26, 1978.

What the Recording Covers

The reporter says Alexander, from North Carolina, moved to Chicago a year before he went missing, had been married about three months, and lived near the area Gacy often targeted; investigators believe he was no more than 22. An investigator describes the "painstaking work" of tracing him through tax records and parking tickets, with no proof of life after early 1976, and explains that the latest possible date of death, March 15, 1977, came from the victim buried on top of him in the crawl space. The reporter says he was never reported missing, his family believing he wanted to be left alone, and reads from their statement: "He was killed at the hands of a vile and evil man." A Sheriff's Office speaker says no family or friends came forward when the case was reopened, which made genetic genealogy essential. The report explains how the DNA Doe Project used GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, and closes by noting that five of Gacy's 33 victims remained unidentified.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It records investigators explaining, on the day of the announcement, how a Gacy victim was identified nearly 43 years after his remains were found, through the newer method of genetic genealogy.

Important Caveats

Gacy is not heard. The investigators are not named in the recording; the speaker on tracing the records is probably Lt. Jason Moran, who led the investigation, but this is an inference, and the genetic genealogy speaker has not been identified. "One of six remaining unidentified victims" was correct before this identification; five remained afterward, as the report says at its end. His relatives are not named in the report and should not be named on the page from this video.

Wgn Anchor: Investigators have spent decades trying to identify victims in the John Wayne Gacy murders, and we finally have the name of yet another victim. Take a look.

Lourdes Duarte: It's been more than four decades since the case of serial killer John Wayne Gacy captivated Americans and haunted Chicagoans. The notorious case comes up again as another victim is identified.

Investigator: It was like the typical painstaking work of finding out when Wayne was last seen, um, tax records, um, parking tickets, that we were able to put this all together, combining with the DNA.

Lourdes Duarte: Today, the Cook County Sheriff's Department announced the identity of one of six remaining unidentified victims. His name? Francis Wayne Alexander. Investigators believe he was no more than 22 years old when he was killed by Gacy. The North Carolina man moved to Chicago a year before he went missing. He was married for about three months and lived near the area Gacy often targeted.

Investigator: There's no proof of life or no proof of death after early 1976. And that was sort of the key. And then we knew, as the sheriff had said, the end date would be March 15th, 1977, because the victim that was buried on top of him in Gacy's crawl space, uh, that was when he was last seen alive.

Lourdes Duarte: Alexander was never reported missing, the family thinking he just wanted to be left alone. It's only now, 45 years later, that his mother, who is still alive today, finds out what truly happened to her son. She released a statement reading in part, "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."

Sheriff'S Office Speaker: When we reopened the case, uh, we were not contacted by anybody, any family or friends. So, uh, that's why the, the, the genetic genealogy was very important here, because we would not have known of him.

Lourdes Duarte: And that's the key piece in all of this. A nonprofit organization called the DNA Doe Project was able to link up a DNA profile and create a family lineage using websites like FamilyTreeDNA, allowed to be used by law enforcement, to make a match.

Speaker On The Genetic Genealogy Lead: We were very fortunate in this case to be able to provide a lead so quickly, because there, it is a smaller pool of testers in the database at GEDmatch and in FamilyTreeDNA.

Lourdes Duarte: Okay, so that being just one of the websites that they use. Investigators say this is a great tool for them in solving cases of unidentified people. They're going to continue to use it when possible. It does require more people using these genetic family tree websites to allow their DNA to be used for this purpose by law enforcement. By the way, of the 33 Gacy victims, there are now five that remain unidentified. [02:46 to 02:48: no further speech in either machine source; clip ends.] ---