DNA test links Boston Strangler suspect to last victim

Albert DeSalvo, who recanted his confession to the 1960s slayings, was killed in prison in 1973.

Self-confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo is escorted by authorities minutes after his capture in Boston on Feb. 25, 1967. (Photo: AP)

The remains of long-time Boston Strangler suspect Albert DeSalvo were being exhumed Thursday after preliminary DNA tests found a link between him and the last slaying attributed to the infamous 1960s serial killer, according to a prosecutor in Boston.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters Thursday that DNA extracted from the body of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan shows a "familial match" with DeSalvo.

"There was no forensic evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan's murder until today," said Daniel F. Conley, the Suffolk County district attorney, at a news conference Thursday in which the findings were announced.

Sullivan, who is widely believed to be victim in a string of 11 -- possibly as many as 13 -- sensational murders, was found strangled in her Boston apartment in January, 1964.

Casey Sherman and his mother Diane Dodd display a photo of Casey's aunt, Mary Sullivan, at the family home in Rockland, Mass. in 2000. Sullivan was killed in 1964. A Boston prosecutor said DNA taken from Sullivan's body provided a "familial match" to DeSalvo.(Photo: Brian Snyder)

Conley told reporters Thursday that the "familial match" to DeSalvo excludes 99.99 per cent of suspects but is not enough to close the case.

The DNA, which had been preserved, had been taken from Sullivan's body and a blanket in her home. The "familial match" was taken from a water bottle used recently by DeSalvo's nephew, according to authorities, The New York Times reports.

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 slayings.

DeSalvo, who was arrested for a series of rapes, confessed to 11 of the Boston Strangler murders, and two other slayings, but was never convicted of them.

In 1967, at the age of 36, DeSalvo was sentenced to life in prison for armed roberies and sexual assaults. He was represented by famed attorney F. Lee Bailey.

Six years later, DeSalvo, who had recanted his confessions of the Boston Strangler murders, was stabbed to death in Walpole state prison. The remains were being exhumed from Puritan Lawn Cemetery in Peabody, Mass.

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.

Contributing: Associated Press