John Wayne Gacy's first victim has been identified 14 years later as a teenaged boy who stopped in Chicago on the way home from a Christmas vacation, forensics experts said.
The first victim of the man convicted of killing 33 young men and boys was Timothy Jack McCoy, 15, who stopped in the Loop on a layover in his bus trip.
Dr. John Pavlik, an Olympia Fields orthodontist and chief of forensic science for the Cook County sheriff`s police, made the identification based on dental records he received last week from Dr. Norman Bluth, McCoy`s dentist in Davie, Fla.
"The fillings he (McCoy) had were very, very unique," said Pavlik.
"That would take him to 2 or 3 percent of the population." Other dental characteristics, including "certain unique teeth," reduced the percentage of error to the point that he could conclude that McCoy was the first victim, Pavlik said.
The records were brought to the attention of local authorities by Russ Ewing, a reporter for WLS-TV (Channel 7).
Authorities began discovering Gacy's victims in December, 1978. Twenty-nine were buried in Gacy's northwest-suburban Norwood Park Township house; four were in rivers. Gacy was convicted of the 33 murders on March 12, 1980, with 11 of the bodies still unidentified. He is now on death row at the Menard Correctional Center.
Two of the 11 were identified shortly after the trial. Establishing McCoy's identity leaves eight bodies unidentified, said Cook County Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Stein.
William Kunkle, an attorney in private practice who was chief prosecutor at Gacy`s trial, said that Gacy told officers, he said he met his first victim outside the Greyhound Bus Station on Jan. 3, 1972. "He stated his first victim was not strangled (as were the others) but rather was stabbed in the chest twice," Kunkle said.
"He also said that the first victim was the first one buried in the crawl space (beneath the house). But later on when his second wife moved into the house and complained of odors in the basement, he took the opportunity when she was out of town to cover that first body with concrete."
The body identified as McCoy's was discovered with stab wounds and under the concrete slab described by Gacy.
Originally published in the Chicago Tribune
Taken from: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-05-10/news/8602020800_1_john-wayne-gacy-menard-correctional-center-victim