Gacy Victim to be Exhumed

Family asks for DNA testing to prove identity of son

A Cook County judge on Thursday ruled to let Sherry Marino exhume the body of her son, one of John Wayne Gacy’s 33 victims.

Marino's son, Michael, went missing in 1976 at the age of 14. Police concluded he was murdered by infamous serial killer Gacy, but after 35 years, Marino is having her doubts.

Marino has long thought the body, buried in Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, was not her son. She filed a petition in Cook County Circuit Court last month to allow the family to exhume and DNA test the body.

Her lawyers contend that autopsy results show disparities between 1979 Cook County medical examiner reports and the dental and medical records at the time.

One accusation: County records indicate the presence of molars, but the child's dental x-rays show the molars had not come in yet. The dental records were taken several months before his disappearance.

Cook County Judge Rita Novak awarded the Marino family their request. The family will need to pay an estimated $9,000 for the exhumation and DNA testing.

"There's a good chance that there will be testable DNA on the body," attorney Robert Stephenson told the Chicago Tribune last month. "She just wants a definitive answer, and we can't get it any other way at this point."

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