In this March 10, 2000 file photo, Diane Dodd, left, and son Casey Sherman hold a photo in Rockland, Mass., of Dodd’s sister Mary Sullivan, who was found strangled in January 1964 and is believed to have been the last victim of the self-confessed Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo. Authorities say DNA tests on the remains of DeSalvo confirm he killed Mary Sullivan. DeSalvo admitted to killing Sullivan and 10 other women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964 but later recanted. He was later killed in prison.BOSTON – DNA tests confirm that the man who once claimed to be the Boston Strangler did kill the woman believed to be the serial killer’s last victim and was likely responsible for the deaths of the other victims, authorities said Friday.
Albert DeSalvo admitted to killing Mary Sullivan and 10 other women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964 but later recanted. He was later killed in prison.
The DNA finding “leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan” and it was “most likely” that he also was the Boston Strangler, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.
Authorities said recently that new technology allowed them to test semen left at the crime scene of Sullivan’s death using DNA from a living relative of DeSalvo’s. That produced a match with DeSalvo that excluded 99.9 percent of suspects.
To confirm the match, investigators unearthed his remains a week ago and said Friday that the odds that the semen belonged to a male other than DeSalvo were 1 in 220 billion.