Police officials have identified one of serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr.’s remaining unidentified victims.
Gacy, who has been labeled the “clown killer” due to his hobby as an event clown, killed 33 young men between 1972 and 1978. Most of his victims were identified after being discovered buried in the crawlspace of Gacy’s home.
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The newly-identified victim, Jimmy Haakenson, was 16 at the time of his death. He had traveled from St. Paul, Minnesota to Chicago on Aug. 5, 1976. He called his mother upon his arrival, but authorities believe he was killed shortly after the call was made.
Many of Haakenson’s family members believed he was one of Gacy’s victims, but it couldn’t be proven due to a lack of dental records. The identification was made after one of Haakenson’s nephews (who never met Jimmy) sought out an advanced DNA test to help make an identification.
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“We know where my brother is,” Haakenson’s older sister, Lorie Sisterman, told the Pioneer Press. “We know what happened to him.”
The exact nature of Haakenson’s death is not known, but it’s likely it occurred after he had an encounter with Gacy on Aug. 5. Authorities said the call home could have possibly even have been made from Gacy’s home.
“This man was a horrible monster, and my brother somehow ran into him,” Sisterman said. “Somehow, on the bus or on a street corner, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Along with the other unidentified victims, Haakenson’s body was buried in Chicago, with a headstone that reads “We Remembered.” Haakenson’s family plans to update the stone with his name and birth and death dates.
