Between 1972 and 1978, contractor and Democratic precinct captain John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 young men and teenagers in the Chicago area, burying 29 of them beneath the crawl space of his home at 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Norwood Park Township. The case broke open in December 1978 when 15-year-old Robert Piest vanished from a Des Plaines pharmacy after going to speak with Gacy about a summer job. Gacy was convicted in March 1980 and executed in May 1994, but at least 8 of his 33 victims remain unidentified as of 2023, and investigators are actively seeking DNA reference samples from families of young men who went missing in Illinois and surrounding states between 1970 and 1978.

Anyone with information about a male relative who went missing in the Chicago area between 1970 and 1978 is encouraged to contact the Illinois State Police Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 1-800-843-5763.
For cold case identification inquiries, contact the Cook County Medical Examiner Cold Case Unit at 312-666-0500.

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