By CNN Staff
(CNN) — The confessed Boston Strangler’s DNA was on the body of a woman suspected to be one of his victims decades ago, authorities said.
A lab has matched DNA recovered from the body of Mary Sullivan in 1964 with that of her suspected killer — the confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo.
Sullivan, 19, was sexually assaulted and strangled to death in her Charles Street apartment in Boston. DeSalvo later confessed to that crime and about a dozen other murders. However, he recanted his admissions and was never convicted of any of them.
But Massachusetts officials said it’s the first time that law enforcement officials “could confirm” the suspect’s “culpability in any homicide.” DeSalvo was stabbed to death in 1973 while serving a life prison term for unrelated rapes.
