Dozens seek Gacy-related DNA tests

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, whose office exhumed the skeletal remains of eight of serial killer John Wayne Gacy’s victims, said Monday that dozens of families of men who disappeared during the 1970s have come forward for DNA testing.

Dart said about 70 families contacted the department through its website or by calling detectives since last week’s announcement that the remains had been exhumed. He said the descriptions of their loved ones – young white males who lived or worked in the Chicago area – could have put them in the path of Gacy, who killed at least 33 young men between 1972 and his arrest in late 1978.

Sheriff’s investigators also have recently taken a new look at decades-old travel documents belonging to Gacy, and are exploring the possibility that he may have victims in other states and Canada, NBC News reported Monday night.

Airline tickets, uncovered in dusty boxes, show Gacy made trips to 13 states and Canada in the years before his arrest, said Dart on WMAQ-TV.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the serial killer may be connected to 27 unsolved murders in Canada and the states to which Gacy traveled.

Stefano Esposito and AP