DeSalvo Remains Exhumed In Boston Strangler Case

Updated July 12, 2013

The Associated Press

A medical examiner's van leaves the Puritan Lawn Memorial Park in Peabody Friday after exhuming Albert DeSalvo's body from a grave to confirm a forensic link to a Boston Strangler case. (Charles Krupa/AP) — A medical examiner's van leaves the Puritan Lawn Memorial Park in Peabody Friday after exhuming Albert DeSalvo's body from a grave to confirm a DNA link to a Boston Strangler case. (Charles Krupa/AP)

Boston police confirm that they've exhumed the remains of the man suspected of being the Boston Strangler.

Workers with shovels and a backhoe dug up the grave of Albert DeSalvo on Friday afternoon, and the medical examiner's van left the Peabody cemetery afterward.

A spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office says DeSalvo's casket will be taken to the medical examiner, where tissue or bone samples will be taken.

It's part of a process that District Attorney Dan Conley believes will tie DeSalvo to the death of Mary Sullivan, possibly the Strangler's last victim. On Thursday it was announced that DNA from Sullivan has been matched to a member of DeSalvo’s family.

Eleven women were killed in the Boston Strangler slayings in the 1960s. DeSalvo confessed, but later recanted and was never convicted in the slayings.

Thursday: DA: DNA Links DeSalvo To Boston Strangler Case

This article was originally published on July 12, 2013.

This program aired on July 12, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.