Authorities using new DNA technology identified one of the unknown victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy as a North Carolina man who had recently moved to Chicago prior to disappearing, WBBM CBS-2 in Chicago reports.

One of the most prolific serial killers in US history, Gacy hid the remains of more than two dozen of his 33 known victims in and around his house, putting some in the crawlspace under his house or burying them in his backyard.  He disposed of at least four bodies in a local river.

A North Carolina native, Francis Wayne Alexander moved with his wife to Chicago in 1975, but got divorced soon after and cut connection to his family.  He was last known to be alive in early 1976 and early 1977, when he would have been 21 or 22 years old.  Dart’s family assumed that the man wanted to be left alone and didn’t file a missing person report for months. 

“He had both the misfortune of living in the area where John Wayne Gacy did most of his killing, where he targeted most of his victims. He also had the misfortune of also operating in an area where John Gacy targeted specific people and specific groups as well,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said.

DNA Doe Project, a non-profit organization that works to identify unknown victims of crime through DNA analysis, used DNA scraped from the molar of one of the skeleton’s found at Gacy’s house and was able to match the profile to people on a genealogical website.  The website gave hits on second cousins and other distant relatives, from which investigators were able to identify the family to whom the victim, formerly known as Skeleton No. 5, was related.  A comparison to DNA from Alexander’s mother and half-brother confirmed the identify.