DNA test ties Albert DeSalvo to Boston Strangler victim

DeSalvo confessed to the killings almost 50 years ago, but recanted before dying in prison.

This Feb. 25, 1967, file photo shows self-confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo minutes after his capture in Boston. (Photo: AP)

DNA tests definitively link Boston Strangler suspect Albert DeSalvo to the death of a 19-year-old woman who is believed to be the serial killer's last victim almost 50 years ago, official said Friday.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis announced test results on material found at the scene of the 1964 strangulation murder of Mary Sullivan.

DeSalvo initially admitted killing Sullivan and 10 other women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964 in a series of slayings, but recanted in 1973 before dying at the age of 42 in prison, where he was serving a life sentence for other crimes.

"I hope this brings some measure of finality to Mary Sullivan's family," Coakley said. "This leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan, and most likely that he was responsible for the horrific murders of the other women he confessed to killing."

DeSalvo, a blue-collar worker and Army veteran who was married with children, was never convicted of the Strangler slayings.

Authorities obtained a search warrant and dug up DeSalvo's remains last week after an initial test on seminal fluid found at the Sullivan murder site showed a "familial match" to DNA from a DeSalvo relative.

Police had secretly followed DeSalvo's nephew to collect DNA from a discarded water bottle to help make the connection.

That test excluded 99.9 percent of suspects, but authorities wanted a 100% perfect in order to close the case and declare DeSalvo the killer.

The breakthrough happened after of scientific advances that authorities said became possible only recently.