Gacy Search Solves New Jersey Missing Person Case

DNA testing of people who wondered if John Wayne Gacy killed their loved ones has led to the identification of skeletal remains belonging to a New Jersey teenager who vanished 41 years ago.

The Cook County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that 16-year-old Steven Soden wasn't a Gacy victim. But his sister responded to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's 2011 request to identify the remains of eight unknown victims of the serial killer. Her DNA was tested and uploaded to a database that matched her with unidentified remains found in New Jersey 13 years ago.

Soden was last seen alive in 1972 and his family thought he may have been coming to Chicago.

“It’s truly amazing what can be accomplished if people communicate and work well together,” said Arthur J. Eisenberg, Ph.D, co-director of University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.

Gacy was convicted in the slayings of 33 boys and young men and executed in 1994.